New State Survey Finds Majority of Dairy Producers Still Plan to be Milking in Five Years

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024 -- 10:01 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Wisconsin has seen a significant decline in the number of dairy farms in the state, losing nearly half of the state’s dairy farms in the last 10 years.

But, according to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, a new state survey found the majority of dairy producers said they still plan to be milking in five years. The state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection had just over 1,600 farmers respond to the 2024 Dairy Producers Survey, representing about 30 percent of registered dairy herds in the state.

Eighty-one percent of survey respondents said their operation will still be dairy farming in five years. While the largest farms had the highest confidence, the majority of farms in every size category said they planned to keep milking.

Chuck Nicholson, ag economist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the strong survey response could signal a change for the industry, even if the state is likely to continue seeing farms exit the dairy industry.

“It’s sort of a positive development that the rate of farms leaving the industry would slow down a bit,” he said. The same survey in 2020, completed right before the COVID-19 pandemic, had a similar response, with 83 percent of farms saying they planned to still be milking.

State data shows around 78 percent of farms operating in 2020 are still around today, which Nicholson said makes the survey a fairly good estimate.

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