Lag noted in USDA dairy failure data reporting

An industry publication points to an inherent disparity in federal government dairy data:

Licensed U.S. Dairy Farms Dropped 8.8% Last Year

Keep in mind that these are annual averages. For example, the average number of dairy farms listed by USDA for Wisconsin is 7,720 in 2019. Wisconsin actually reached that level in about June of last year. By January, 2020, there were just 7,292 farms licensed to sell milk in Wisconsin, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and another 34 left the business by February 1.

A separate data set shows the Wisconsin had 12,467 dairy farms at the end of 2010 - - 


- - which was Democrat Jim Doyle's last year in office before Walker and his pro-CAFO-expansionist/do-nothing party launched an eight-year consolidation of power.