With their way of life in jeopardy, dairy farmers search for ways to stabilize markets

Rick Barrett:

“It’s a fair representation of what true life is,” Stokes said. “I cannot expose my kids to anything more real than the struggles, the benefits and the responsibility we all take in it.”

That’s a tall order these days for many farmers. Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017, and about 150 have quit milking cows so far this year, putting the total number of milk-cow herds at around 7,600 — down 20 percent from five years ag