Wisconsin lost 10% of farms, 30% of dairies in 5 years, U.S. agriculture census shows
Madeline Heim
Wisconsin remains a major national player in the agricultural marketplace, but its loss in farms has been dramatic, particularly the state's signature dairies, according to 2022 data released Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture.
The census, taken once every five years, is a count of farms and ranches across the country. Any farm that sold $1,000 or more of its goods in a year counts. The census also includes demographics about the nation's farmers, types of crops grown, on-farm expenses, and income and conservation efforts.
Announcing the data Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said it should serve as a "wake-up call" about whether the country is comfortable continuing down a path of declining farms and farmland.
Here are five takeaways from the data pertaining to Wisconsin.
Wisconsin lost nearly 10% of farms, 30% of dairies since 2017
Wisconsin had 58,521 farms in 2022, census data show, representing a nearly 10% loss since 2017.
Dairy farms, long the state's calling card, continued to plummet. There were 6,216 dairy farms in Wisconsin in 2022, down from just above 9,000 in 2017. Further, state data show the number has dropped more since the census data was recorded. As of Feb. 1, Wisconsin had 5,644 milk cow herds.
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As the number of farms decrease, existing ones are getting bigger. The average Wisconsin farm in 2022 was 236 acres, the largest it's been in more than two decades. And it's not just acreage. Herd sizes are getting larger as well. The number of milk cows in the state declined less than 2% since 2017, despite the drop in dairy farms.
Julie Keown-Bomar, executive director of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, said fewer farms on the landscape is a concern to her organization even though agricultural productivity stayed high. The loss of farms and farmers makes it harder for rural communities to survive, she said, making it crucial for policymakers to help small and medium-sized farms stay viable.
"It's a choice we're making about what kind of farm systems and food systems we want," Keown-Bomar said. "It's not inevitable that we have to continue in this direction."
Running a farm was pricey, but it paid off
The market value of Wisconsin's agricultural products in 2022 was $16.7 billion, up from about $11.4 billion in 2017 and ranking 10th in the nation.
Greg Bussler, Wisconsin's state statistician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the state's agricultural strength comes from its diversity of products, compared with states that primarily grow corn or raise hogs. Wisconsin farmers harvested close to 221,000 acres of multiple kinds of vegetables in 2022, Bussler said, more than any neighboring states. It ranked first in the nation for ginseng production and second for beet acres.
That diversity helps smaller producers stay in the marketplace, said Jason Mugnaini, executive director of governmental relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
"They’re finding ways to be unique and resilient," he said.
It also got more costly to farm in 2022. Wisconsin farmers spent about $12.7 billion on farm expenses that year, including increasingly expensive feed and fertilizer. The average expenses per farm grew by 47% since 2017, Mugnaini said.
But profit kept up. The average farm's net cash income in 2022 was $77,839, more than double what it was in 2017. Fewer farms reported net losses in 2022 as well.
Wisconsin has more new farmers, and they’re younger
Wisconsin had close to 28,000 "new or beginning" farmers, who’ve been farming for a decade or less, in 2022 – about a 16% increase from 2017. Those farmers made up just over a quarter of Wisconsin’s total, and the majority of them were younger than 44.
But challenges to keep new farmers in the profession and get more land in the hands of young people remain. Wisconsin lost more than 1,000 farmers under 35 since 2017, and meanwhile, the average age of a farmer inched up from 56 to 56.7.
Still, experts see the number of new farmers as positive.
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“I think sometimes the perception put out there is, ‘Farmers are getting old and gray and there isn’t really a future in farming,’” Bussler said. “But this shows that things are turning over."
The number of female farmers in Wisconsin declined slightly in 2022, though it had jumped up between 2012 and 2017 partly due to a change in the way the census captured demographics.
Ninety-nine percent of Wisconsin farmers were white. Other racial groups saw small increases in farmer numbers, including American Indian or Alaska Native producers, Black or African American producers and producers who identified as more than one race.
Cover crops, other conservation efforts slowly increased
Slightly more Wisconsin farmers reported taking steps to protect soil and water quality in 2022.
They planted nearly 754,000 acres of cover crops — plants that protect the soil and keep it in place during the offseason — about a 23% increase from 2017. The number of acres that were not tilled also increased, from about 2.2 million in 2017 to about 2.4 million in 2022. No-till practices reduce soil disturbance.
Those acres are still just a small portion of Wisconsin’s total farmed acres.
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“I would have hoped to see that pick up a bit faster,” said Erin Silva, a professor of organic and sustainable agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Establishing a cover crop can be challenging during Wisconsin’s short growing season, and some farmers may fear that doing so would negatively impact their cash crop. But Silva said there’s enough evidence to the contrary that she thinks more could take the plunge – particularly on common cover crops like cereal rye.
More Wisconsin farms have solar panels, other forms of renewable energy
Census data show that renewable energy producing systems, which can provide farmers with an alternate source of revenue, are increasingly popular on farms.
More than 3,600 Wisconsin farms used some such system in 2022, about a 25% increase from 2017. Almost 1,000 more farms had solar panels, for example.
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Keown-Bomar said the overall increase likely resulted from more federal investment in renewable energy programs that farmers heard about and utilized.
Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at (920) 996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com.