Image 1. Photo by Jonathan Bolinger.

Sarah Lloyd knows first hand the challenges Wisconsin’s dairy industry faces. She regularly works on her family’s 400-cow farm, along with being a member of Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative. She feels first-hand what dairy farmers across the state are experiencing: hot temperatures in August and September are slowing down dairy.

“It definitely reduces production,” Lloyd told reporters at Wisconsin Public Radio. “You can see it immediately that day.” High temperatures mean less milk. This is one of the reasons why Wisconsin’s climate historically was good for dairy agriculture. 

Rising temperatures and other extreme weather conditions are already forcing farmers to adapt their production techniques and schedules. The UN Environment Programme defines climate adaptation as any adjustments in processes, practices, and structures that help deal with the impacts of climate change. The problem is that climate adaptation on Wisconsin dairy farms has  decreased growth in productivity by -0.32%. 

In 2020, researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied the relationship between dairy agriculture and global climate change. They added to an existing body of literature that shows climate change is having substantial effects on dairy production. 

What was really interesting about this new study is that it showed that dairy production is growing overall. There are a number of different factors helping to grow dairy productivity… climate adaptation just isn’t one of those factors. It has the opposite effect.

Fig 1. Chart by Eric Njuki in “Climatic Trends Dampened Productivity Growth on Wisconsin Dairy Farms,” USDA. 

The study looked at five different factors that help to improve farm productivity: changes in technology, environmental and economic changes, technical efficiency changes, unidentified factors, and climatic effects. Every factor had a minimal effect or helped to increase overall growth… except for climate adaptation. 

The rate that climatic effects decrease productivity is not as substantial as most of the factors that help to increase growth. But even a small decrease can impact farmers already struggling to save their farms.

Challenges for Small Farmers

The problem for most small farms is that they are increasingly competing with larger producers in a more globalized dairy industry.

The percent of small dairy farms dropped from 54% to 20% between 2002 and 2017. 

Larger farms owned by wealthier farmers can afford to purchase more cattle and more efficient technologies, which allow them to improve production more and more to keep up with out-of-state and out-of-country competitors. Smaller farmers with less disposable income struggle to keep up, and often eventually have to sell or close their operations.

Climate change presents small farmers with a whole new realm of challenges and needs. 

Rising Temperatures and Closures

Rising temperatures mean cows produce less milk, as the Lloyd family’s farm has already experienced. Changes in Wisconsin’s year-round temperatures have decreased dairy outputs for the average farm by 20.1 metric tons per year. While the output is dependent on the size of each herd, that is the equivalent of an average loss of 1.6 cows. 

Hotter days also limit available feed, affect the management of pastures, alter reproduction, and heighten cows’ risks of disease. Each of these effects add further costs and risks to farmers. For those with small herds, even small disruptions in production can spell trouble.

Temperature changes lower productivity all year around. Increased precipitation is the other primary climatic effect currently in Wisconsin. In the summer, this also has a significant negative effect on farm productivity. 

Looking forward

The authors of the study offer much-needed solutions to the information they gather on the effects that climate has on farm productivity. 

The authors call for increased funding to research and develop new technologies to help farms continue to adapt to increasing temperatures and precipitation. They also call for identifying farmers with slower rates of production. With that information, education and training for pre-existing technologies can be directed to farmers that are lagging behind in production to try to prevent closures. They also emphasized the need for direct action, education, and training all in the effort of reducing overall greenhouse emissions. Preventing further emissions will prevent even more harmful effects of climate change– those that affect the Wisconsin dairy industries, along with other industries and peoples in different places around the world. 

Wisconsin dairy agriculture still produces 27% of the country’s cheese. In order to help small dairy farmers be a part of that production, tools and knowledge for dealing with climate change’s negative effects must be accessible and widely shared, particularly to help smaller farms remain in operation. 

This new research demonstrates that climate change is amplifying the challenges small dairy farmers are already facing.