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issuing an order allowing him to keep his Grade A permit on the condition that he stop selling raw milk. This was an
unjustified move, given that DATCP based its decision solely on what the narrator said he was doing; there was no
other evidence mentioned in the order about Self selling raw milk.
To compound matters, on April 1 Self’s cooperative, Westby Creamery, terminated his membership; on April 18
DATCP sent Self a “notice of deadline to change assigned dairy plant,” stating the farmer has until April 30 to find a
processor to pick up his milk. With the current state of the dairy industry, that is not an easy task, yet if he fails to do
so, DATCP will revoke his Grade A permit.
The American dairy sector has been in a decades-long decline that is currently accelerating. In 1992 there were
more than one hundred thirty-one thousand licensed dairies in the U.S.; at the end of 2017 there were just over forty
thousand. The number of dairies closing shop has increased substantially since the beginning of the year. In 1992 the
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average herd size for farms was seventy-four cows; by 2017 it had risen to over twenty-three hundred, highlighting
the consolidation in the dairy industry and the exit of small farms from the commodity milk system.
Wisconsin went from about twenty-nine thousand dairy farms in 1995 to a little over nine thousand at the end
of last year. Two particular recent developments have accelerated the decline of conventional and organic dairies in
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Wisconsin. First, more conventional milk is being shipped into Wisconsin from other states. In 2017, more than one
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hundred trailer loads of milk per day were coming into Wisconsin from states such as Michigan, Indiana and Ohio;
frequently this milk was being sold for less than the price that conventional fluid milk would normally sell for.
Secondly, this year certified organic CAFO dairies in Texas have increased shipments of milk to Wisconsin. Ac-
cording to a March 24 USA Today story by a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer, six certified organic dairy farms in
Texas produced about 23% percent more milk than all of Wisconsin’s four hundred fifty-three organic dairy farms
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combined in 2016. The greater supply of organic milk has led to more quotas for producers and co-ops cutting back
on members; in addition to Self, Westby Creamery recently terminated the contracts of seven other members.
The commodity milk system is becoming more untenable than ever for small farms. Recent prices around the
country for conventional milk have been as low as one dollar eleven cents per gallon; while there are some organic
producers who are still doing well, prices overall have declined substantially for organic milk. And farmers wanting to
sell cows are finding little or no market. Oversupply and lower pay prices mean a race to the bottom for commodity
milk. One way for producers to escape or survive the commodity milk system is to sell raw milk for direct consump-
tion; prices farmers can get for raw milk sales to the consumer are much higher than what they can receive for either
conventional or organic milk intended for pasteurization. In Wisconsin the law is there for dairies to sell raw milk and
improve their bottom line; the problem has been DATCP and its interpretation of what an “incidental sale” is.
The legislature passed the incidental sale law in 1957. The original intent of the law was that any sale of raw milk
for human consumption was an incidental sale. At the time the law went into effect, there were over one hundred
thousand dairies selling raw milk intended for pasteurization in the state; for all of them, sales of raw milk for direct
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human consumption were likely a very small percentage of total sales.
At one time DATCP interpreted the incidental sales law as meaning only one sale of raw milk per customer
ever. In 2008 the department changed that, issuing a regulation that stated, “a sale is not incidental if it is made in
the regular course of business, or is preceded by any advertising, or solicitation made to the general public through
any communications media.” There is nothing in the statute legalizing incidental sales that prohibits advertising or
solicitation.
DATCP’s interpretation of “not in the regular course of business” has been unfavorable to raw milk producers
and consumers. It’s time for that to change; America’s dairy land is in an emergency situation. Dairies are going out of
business every day in the state. DATCP can help Wisconsin dairy farms by either adopting a more liberal interpreta-
tion of what constitutes “not in the regular course of business” or by waiving enforcement against dairies selling raw
milk direct to consumers in the regular course of business. For precedent on the latter step, DATCP needs only to
look at the bordering state of Michigan.
Michigan law prohibits the sale or distribution of raw milk for human consumption; nevertheless in 2013 the
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) adopted a written policy in which it would
not take action against dairy farms distributing raw milk through herdshare agreements. MDARD set parameters that
had to be in place, such as a written contract between the farmer and consumer for it to waive enforcement; DATCP
could take a similar tactic in Wisconsin.
DATCP is charged with promoting Wisconsin agriculture; one way it can do that with the current dairy crisis is to
change its enforcement or interpretation of the law to one that benefits raw milk producers and consumers. Producers
like Chaz Self have the quality raw milk and the potential demand to succeed. DATCP shouldn’t be preventing Self
from selling raw milk. DATCP has an opportunity to help dairy farms stay in business. Ultimately, it would be great to
pass a bill taking the word “incidental” out of the Wisconsin raw milk statute; but with the accelerated decline dairy

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