Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection

Wisconsin became America’s Dairyland through early and dedicated efforts of farmers and state policy makers. Through more than 150 years of painstaking effort in agriculture and food safety, “Wisconsin” means wholesomeness, tradition, integrity, craftsmanship and uncompromising quality. An article on the history of food safety regulation in Wisconsin is available here.

USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service Wisconsin Field Office is operated in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and provides valuable data on crops, livestock, demographics, environmental conditions and more.

In order to keep Wisconsin the county’s leading cheesemaker, tax credits have been enacted to modernize dairy and livestock operations, and the Dairy Business Innovation Center was founded to help farmers and diary producers improve and expand their work. These actions have spurred more than $2 billion in private investments and have revitalized what’s now the $26.5 billion dairy industry.

Wisconsin has over 1,200 farms that are certified organic, the second-highest number of any state in the country, behind only California. Wisconsin is the leading organic dairy state, and more than a quarter of the nation’s 87,000 organic dairy cows live in Wisconsin. More resources for organic farming in Wisconsin can be found here.

One of Wisconsin’s greatest agricultural strengths is its agricultural diversity, both in the variety of crops and the size and number of farms. With 78,000 farms across the state, Wisconsin is the nation’s top producer of cranberries, oats and snap peas and is among the top-five producing states of potatoes, maple syrup, sweet corn, green peas, cucumbers for pickles, and other crops.

With an average dairy herd of about 100 cows and close to 13,000 dairy farms, Wisconsin is a state in which farms of all sizes have an opportunity to succeed and a predictable path for growth. Half of all new dairy farmers are implementing managed grazing programs to reduce overhead costs and to strengthen the productivity of the land.

With $59 billion dollars annually and about 1 in 10 jobs dependent on agriculture, the Working Lands Initiative has been implemented to protect the most essential resource for Wisconsin’s signature segment of the economy – the land. The voluntary tools of the program so far have identified 200,000 acres of contiguous blocks of prime agricultural land for protection, toward a goal of 2 million.