Many of us were super excited for 2020 because 2019 was rough in many different ways. We saw crazy weather, late harvest and may other things that affected our daily life. It breaks my heart to report this, but according to WSAW in Wisconsin, the state lost around 800 dairy farmers in 2019. Earlier this year, we heard from Minnesota farmers talking about how rough of a year it has been on them.

As we know, Wisconsin is the dairy state, so this greatly impacts the Wisconsin economy. The article says that the exact number of dairy farmers that were forced out of business was 773. That is up by about 100 farmers from 2018. Many dairy farmers have left the industry because of low prices on milk as well as the losses they suffered due to weather. Overhead cost to run an operation like this can be high and when you don't expect bad weather, it can put you in a tailspin.

One dairy farmer said that  2020 is starting out pretty good. Milk prices are up a bit compared to last year at $16.90 per hundredweight. If this trend continues as well as the weather holds out, 2020 may be a great year for farmers. The article also mentioned the fact that fewer folks are choosing to go into the dairy farming industry than in past generations.

It breaks my heart to see this many farmers leave the industry. Yes... it's a tough job to have because you are on call all the time. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that farming is in your blood and having to step away for issues that are out of your control can be super hard. I'm hoping that 2020 is so much nicer to the farming industry.

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