Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland, but there is more produced and processed in our state than just milk and cheese. Wisconsin ranks first in the nation for​ snap beans for processing, cheese, cranberries, ginseng, mink pelts, dry whey for humans, milk goats and corn for silage.

Wisconsin agriculture is a big economic driver contributing​ $116.3 billion annually to our state’s economy. 

• Food processing activity contributes $107 billion to industrial sales.
• The state is home to 58,521 farms on 13.8 million acres. The average farm size in Wisconsin is 236 acres.
  

Wisconsin agriculture provides jobs.

• Annually, 353,900 jobs or 9.5% of the stat​e’s employment.
• On-farm activity contributes 143,690 jobs.
• Processing contributes 298,400 jobs.

Wisconsin is one of the top states in the production of the major processing vegetables.

• In 2024, Wisconsin grew 4.28 million cwt of snap beans and 846,400 cwt of green peas.
  
• The state ranks third in the nation in potato production, harvesting potatoes on 67,500 acres in 2023​.

The state is known for its fruit production, including its state fruit – the cranberry.

• Wisconsin cranberry production for 2023 totaled 5.01 million barrels.
• Wisconsin produces 62 percent of th​e nation's crop making us the top cranberry producing state in the country.
• The state also produces a large tart cherry crop, producing 10.0 million pounds in 2023. 

Wisconsin is home to about 5,300 dairy farms, more than any other state, and 1.28 million cows.​

• The dairy industry itself contributes $52.8 billion to Wisconsin’s economy each year.
• The feed mills, dairy equipment manufacturers and technicians, veterinarians, construction companies, genetics companies, milk haulers, dairy plants,  dairy software companies - create a wave of economic impact that rolls across the entire state. 

Wisconsin is #1 in cheese.

• Our state’s nearly 1,200 licensed cheesemakers produce over 600 types, styles and varieties of cheese – nearly double the number of any other state.
• Wisconsin cheesemakers make 25% ​of the nation’s cheese, producing 3.58​ billion pounds in 2024.
• In 2024, the state ​led the nation with the production of 1.02 billion pounds of specialty cheeses. ​

Wisconsin exported $3.97 billion of agricultural and food products to 151 countries in 2024. 

• Wisconsin currently ranks 12th among U.S. states in food, forestry, and agricultural exports.
  
• Wisconsin ranks first in the export of ginseng, cranberries, specialty cheese, prepared meat, 
  bovine genetics, and mink pelts.
  
• ​​The state's top agricultural export markets include Canada, Mexico,​ China, Korea, and Japan.
• Sauces and yeasts, dairy, and prepared vegetables were Wisconsin's most valuable agricultural export categories ​in 2024.