U.S. Dairy Farming Still A Struggle Despite Rise In Milk Prices

WEST BEND, WI - SEPTEMBER 29: Next generation farmer Rick Roden, rounds up a cow that gave birth the before at the Rob-N-Cin farm on September 29, 2010 in West Bend, Wisconsin. The farm has roughly 400 head of cattle and about 1,800 acres of crop land, and has diversified with a harvest around 1,800 acres of corn, soy and alfalfa that helps maintain any short comings that the milk industry may bring. The Rodens like many other dairy farmers are still struggling to recover from last year's devastating milk prices that were nearly $5 dollars per 100 weight bellow the number needed to break even for sales. The dairy industry in Wisconsin is a huge integral cog in the state economic wheel that brings in roughly 26 billion dollars annually and is more important to the state then Citrus is to Florida and potatoes are to Idaho combined. It is stated that roughly each dairy cow in Wisconsin brings in about $16,000 of economic activity outside of the farm. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images)