AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN WAUKESHA COUNTY

Land in agricultural use encompassed about 112,611 acres, or 30 percent of the total area of the County, in 2000. The agricultural land base of the County has declined significantly over the past three decades, largely because of the conversion of farmland to urban uses. Between 1963 and 1990, the area extent of agricultural land in the County decreased by about 57,800 acres, a relative decrease of 29 percent. Much of the remaining agricultural land occurs in relatively small blocks, often intermixed with scattered urban land uses. Of the 142,400 acres of farmland existing in the County in 1990, about 98,200 acres, or 69 percent, were identified as prime farmland under the Waukesha County agricultural land preservation plan, adopted by the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors in 1984. The plan called for the preservation of most of the identified prime agricultural lands recognizing, however, that the limited prime farmlands would necessarily be converted to urban use to accommodate orderly urban growth and development.

Over the past approximately three decades, the prime agricultural acreage decreased by 41,800 acres, or 30 percent, from about 140,000 acres in 1963 to about 98,200 acres in 1990. Of the total prime farmland loss, 27,900 acres, or 67 percent consisted of  land, which were taken out of agricultural production, having been converted to urban development or other use. The remaining 13,900 acres, or 33 percent of the total loss of prime farmland, consisted of lands which remained in agricultural use but which no longer met the farm unit or farm block size criteria.

According to the Wisconsin 2008 Agriculture Statistics, there are currently 11,000 cattle and calves in Waukesha County, and 2900 of those are milk cows. All of Waukesha County's 37 dairy herds are Grade A. Waukesha County also is home to 1,000 hogs and pigs.