This report summarizes statewide information about Wisconsin dairy producers who use pasture and managed grazing as feeding and farm management tools. Surveys from random samples of Wisconsin dairy farmers conducted over the last decade by the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies provide information on how many farms, cows and acres are involved with managed grazing, how much milk and income grazing farms generate and what kinds of technologies grazing operations use. This work was funded by a USDA-CSREES grant to CIAS and by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Download selected figures from the report (high resolution .jpg files):

• Figure 1. Use of management intensive grazing on Wisconsin dairy farms, 1993-2003
• Figure 2. Percent of farms using pasture for milk cows by Crop Reporting District, 2002
• Figure 3. Percent of milk cows using pasture by Crop Reporting District, 2002
• Figure 4. Percent of milk produced on farms using pasture by Crop Reporting District, 2002
• Figure 5. 2003 debt levels on Wisconsin dairy operations
• Figure 6. Overall family quality of life among Wisconsin dairy farmers, 2003
• Figure 7. Change in family quality of life over past five years, 1998-2003
• Figure 8. Average number of acres operated per Wisconsin dairy farm
• Figure 9. Average number of milk cows per Wisconsin dairy farm
• Figure 10. Herd size distribution among Wisconsin dairy operations, 2002
• Figure 11. Technology usage on Wisconsin dairy farms with 25-99 cows