If you haven’t kept on the edge of Wisconsin agricultural news, then you’re missing out on some cheesy new numbers published by Wisconsin AgConnection. In short we're doing grate. Like so ...

 

1. 3,045,748,000 pounds

As any cheddar-blooded Wisconsinite could predict, we made a lot of cheese last year. Like, a lot. Well over 3 billion pounds. That’s enough cheese to make us the number one producer in the country (again). In fact ...

2. 26% Sconnie cheese

Wisconsin cheese production accounts for 26% of the total cheese makin' done in the United States. 

3. 24% special

We’re also diversifying our palettes – we broke our record for speciality cheese production, which accounted for 24 percent of our total cheese making. That's an over 56 percent increase since 2014. 

4. 9,900 farms

Wisconsin has 9,900 licensed dairy farms.

5. 2,639 gallons

That's the average milk production per cow per year in Wisconsin – 2,639 gallons.

6. 129 cows

The average number of dairy cows per farm in Wisconsin is 129. 

7. 138 plants

And by "plants" we mean "cheese factories," of which Wisconsin is home to 138. Compare that to our 14 butter plants and 14 yogurt plants. 

BONUS: $43.4 billion

Dairy contributes $43.4 billion to the Wisconsin economy each year. This absolutely shreds what oranges do for Florida ($9B) and potatoes do for Idaho ($6.7B).  

 

If you want to read more about just how awesome Wisconsin is at cranking out the curds, check out this handy dairy data download, and see how we compare to other states.