Sustainable Dairy Farming in Wisconsin

What is Sustainable Farming?

Sustainable farming is stewarding the land and protecting local waterways. It’s keeping cows healthy and happy. It’s looking out for our community and leaving the farm stronger for the next generation. It’s at the heart of what makes Wisconsin dairy farming great.

It's What We Do

Dairy farms in Wisconsin have practiced sustainability in one form or another for generations. Minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency are how we keep the farm strong for the next generation. Providing a nutritious diet and veterinary care keeps our cows healthy and helps ensure the highest quality dairy products. Caring for our land and water keeps Wisconsin’s dairy farming communities strong.

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99% of Wisconsin dairy farms are still family owned

The Wisconsin dairy industry has a $52.8 billion impact on the state economy

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What Sustainable Farming Looks Like for Wisconsin Dairy Farmers

Dairy farmers in Wisconsin know that their kids, their communities and even the state economy all depend on their ability to make the farm stronger year after year. Hear from a few real dairy farmers on how sustainable farming techniques are strengthening the farm for the future.

Fulfilling Their Father's Vision

Fulfilling Their Father's Vision

Learn how Jamie Pagel Witcpalek and her brothers are keeping the farm in the family and turning poop into power — just as their father wanted — using methane digesters.

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Conserving Local Waterways

Conserving Local Waterways

Ken Feltz and his family are part of the 28 dairy-farmer-led watershed groups that protect hundreds of thousands of acres of land and water in Wisconsin.

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Looking Into Their Farm's Future

Looking Into Their Farm's Future

Cody Heller and his family discuss growing crops in fields with solar panels, saving energy through GPS guidance and redefining how to produce food across the nation.

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Sustainable Dairy Farming Practices

Dairy farmers in Wisconsin maximize efficiency and minimize waste to keep the farm strong for future generations. Thanks to innovations in crop production, irrigation and cow nutrition, producing a gallon of milk in 2017 required 30% less water and 21% less land than it did in 2007. The average dairy farmer also captures and reuses each gallon of water on their farm up to four times.

Sustainable farming techniques like these are what it takes to ensure that every year we keep improving, and today’s tools and processes are making that possible.

Dairy farmer in Wisconsin kneeling in hay to feed a brown and white spotted calf from a bottle.

Environmental Stewardship and Conservation

Wisconsin dairy farmers have a long history of caring for their land and water as just another way of caring for their cows, families, farms and communities.

Wisconsin is home to several farmer-led conservation programs, such as UW-Discovery Farms, that look to solve environmental challenges by improving farm practices. Dairy farmers in Wisconsin are decreasing fertilizer and pesticide use, selecting less water-intensive crops and converting to practices that reduce soil disturbance in the name of soil health and water conservation.

Man in a t-shirt and baseball cap walks with his toddler daughter in a field of crops on a Wisconsin dairy farm.

Recognizing Good Environmental Stewardship on a Dairy Farm

In 2023, Noll’s Dairy Farm in Alma, Wisconsin, won the Leopold Conservation Award for their family’s efforts of environmental stewardship and conservation. They are one of approximately 20 farms across the nation to receive this honor.

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Aerial view of contour strip farming, a sustainable farming practice that preserves soil by alternating crops and grass.

Sustainability

While it is true that the number of farms in Wisconsin is shrinking and the size of individual farms is growing, many of these farms are being combined with multiple family members or merged between families. 95% of Wisconsin dairy farms are still family owned.
Almost all farms, no matter the size, use technologies that focus on improving energy, water, and land use efficiency — it’s what keeps the farm going. In fact, thanks to increasingly efficient and innovative dairy farming practices, producing a gallon of milk in 2017 requires 30% less water and 21% less land and a created a 19% smaller carbon footprint than it did in 2007.
Some farms use solar energy to decrease their reliance on fossil fuel power plants. Some target their biggest energy use (milk cooling) and use plate coolers and ground water to reduce their energy needs. Many in Wisconsin also employ on-farm bioenergy systems that capture methane from manure (held in air-tight tanks or lagoons) to create renewable energy. Overall, Wisconsin dairy farms try to use less and protect their community’s land and water because it’s what keeps Wisconsin dairy farming strong.
Cows do produce methane as part of their digestion processes, mostly through burps, and farmers are working with nutritionists to reduce the fermentation that causes these burps. Wisconsin also has more on-farm bioenergy systems that capture methane from manure than any other state.
A dairy cow needs ~45 gallons of water a day to produce 12 gallons of milk, and farmers know they can’t waste a drop. The average dairy farmer recaptures and reuses each gallon of water up to 4 times on their farm.