When people think about Wisconsin agriculture, they immediately think of Wisconsin as a leader in dairy farms and cheese production. As of December 31, 2022, Wisconsin had 6,216 dairy farms, and in 2022 Wisconsin produced just over 3.5 billion pounds of cheese.
But results from the 2022 Census of Agriculture show that Wisconsin agriculture offers much more than dairy products and leads the country in several diverse categories.
According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Wisconsin is #1 in the following categories:
- ginseng acres
- beet acres for vegetable processing
- Chinese pea acres
- cranberry acres
- snap bean acres
- corn for silage acres
- milk goats
- mink
In addition, with just over 234,000 acres harvested for vegetables, Wisconsin leads its surrounding neighboring states in vegetable acres harvested.
Here’s a little more about Wisconsin ag: the state has 58,521 farms, 13.7 million acres of land in farms, and about 105,920 producers. In 2022, Wisconsin farms produced $16.7 billion of agricultural products and ranked 10th among states for value of products produced. Just over 26% of Wisconsin producers in 2022 were new and beginning farmers.
Thank you, Wisconsin producers, for responding to the 2022 Census of Agriculture! Wisconsin ranked second in response rate to the ever important, once-every-five-year ag census.
Visit the Wisconsin state and county agriculture profiles for more 2022 Census of Agriculture data.