But cow numbers have remained steady at 1.2 million.
As of Jan. 1, the state had 7,292 licensed dairy farms compared with 8,110 a year ago. I
In the last decade, the state lost 5,637 dairy farms, a decrease of 44 per cent. That also suggests the rate of dairy farmer loss has more than doubled the last few years.
The number of Grade A dairies in Wisconsin is now 6,574; the number of Grade B dairies is 718 which includes 470 farms still shipping milk in cans.
Two years ago the squeeze on dairy farms was a hot election issue with farmers complaining in particular about a new milk pricing setup in Ontario that reduced milk-component imports.
That pricing setup was scrapped as part of free trade negotiations among the U.S., Mexico and Canada. It was also under appeal to the World Trade Organization which years earlier had ruled against separate pricing for Ontario milk that was processed into products for export.
