Survey: Most dairy farmers plan to stay in business
US - Most of the state’s dairy producers who were surveyed this spring say they plan to still be milking in the next five years, but about 27 percent say they will discontinue the practice while 3 percent say they will downsize, according to results released on Thursday.
6 July 2007
1 minute read
Of those producers who say they will stay in the business, 46 percent said they would keep their current herd sizes while about 25 percent will increase the number of animals in the next five years, according to the survey.
In Manitowoc County, ag agent Scott Gunderson said they have seen the number of dairy farms departing the business annually decrease from the high teens each year to between 12 and 15 annually in the last five years.
“We’re seeing a slowing of that exiting,” he said this afternoon. “We still have a lot of people who call and want to get into dairying, but many of them cannot because of the capital intensive business they’re looking at.”
Gunderson, who is with Manitowoc County University of Wisconsin Extension Service, said a program in place for the last year-and-a-half — called Lakeshore Area Network for Dairy — is aimed at connecting farmers leaving the industry with those coming in.
Source: Green Bay Press Gazette
