Cheese and So Much More: Ag Census Data Show Multi-Faceted Wisconsin Farm Economy

"Wisconsin (PDF, 941 KB) is known as America’s Dairyland; however, the 2017 Census of Agriculture data show us that Wisconsin has a diverse agricultural industry. It’s no surprise Wisconsin ranks number one in cheese production, but did you know it also ranks number one in corn for silage, cranberry, and snap bean production?

On the livestock side, Wisconsin is number one in milk goats and mink pelts. According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, Wisconsin farmers sold $11.4 billion in agricultural products and ranked ninth nationally in value of products sold. Sixty-four percent of these sales came from livestock, poultry, and their products, while 36 percent came from crop sales.

Although the number of farms and land in farms decreased from 2012, the average farm size increased 6 percent. In 2017, Wisconsin had 64,793 farms and 14.3 million acres in farms with an average farm size of 221 acres. Forty-eight percent of farms had sales of less than $10,000. Wisconsin ranks number one in the number of dairy farms with 9,037 milk cow farms. That can make a lot of cheese! The state ranks second in the number of organic farms with 1,537 organic farms.." 
Wisconsin 2017 Farm Census