By the numbers
A Wisconsin dairy cow, on average, produced nearly five times more milk in 2024 than the average cow did 100 years ago, data from the federal National Agriculture Statistics Service show.
The average Wisconsin dairy cow produced 5,280 pounds of milk in 1924. In 2024, the average cow produced 25,493 pounds.
Wisconsin dairy farmers produced a total of 32.4 billion pounds of milk in 2024, an increase of 500 million pounds over the level in 2022.
Over the same period, the average number of dairy cows in the state decreased by approximately 3,000, from 1,272,000 to 1,269,000.
In other words, Wisconsin farmers continue to produce more milk from fewer cows.
This continues a steady trend dating to the mid-1940s. The state’s dairy cow population peaked in 1945 at 2.36 million head of cattle. That level declined over the next 60 years, falling to about 1.24 million in 2005 before stabilizing.
Meanwhile, milk output has steadily increased. In 1924, the earliest year in the dataset, just over 10 billion pounds were produced by the approximately 1.9 million Wisconsin dairy cows. That amount climbed to 25 billion pounds in 1988 before receding slightly, in line with the decrease in the cow population. But beginning in 2005, the dairy output in the state began to climb again and has increased steadily since.
