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Article: IN SEACH OF GREENER PASTURES LIFE CHANGES ACCOUNT FOR LOSS OF SOME DAIRY FARMS.(BUSINESS)(CROSS COUNTY)(Column)
- Article from:
- The Capital Times
- Article date:
- October 18, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Capital Newspapers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: John Oncken
In 1934, census data showed that Wisconsin was home to 180,695 dairy farms. Today, according to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service, there are about 18,500 individual dairy operations. Thus, in 67 years there has been a loss of over 162,000 dairy farms.
"Horrors," many say, "isn't it a shame that so many family farms are going out of business?" Others suggest that this loss of farms is some kind of conspiracy and that the farmers were somehow forced out of business.
Think again. Dairy farmers did and do leave their business for many reasons including education, technology, lifestyle changes and changing family and ...