Two years ago, hoping to promote economic development in the state, Wisconsin's Governor Thompson sent Agriculture Secretary Allen Tracy to California to attract large-scale dairy operations. 2 Wisconsin now has 51 livestock operations with 1,000 or more animal units, and another 19 operations of this size have been proposed in 1998. This 37 percent increase would be the biggest jump in large livestock farms Wisconsin has ever seen. The biggest dairy facility proposed to expand would milk 1,400 cows. The largest hog farm facility proposed to expand would have approximately 3,000 hogs, and the largest poultry farm could have as many as two million chickens.
Agriculture is also a primary source of groundwater pollution.
6 Groundwater provides 97 percent of Wisconsin communities with their water supply needs. In Wisconsin, there are over 800,000 private wells and 10,000 municipal wells. 7 Factory farms in Wisconsin have created serious pollution problems throughout the state. Fish kills have been reported on numerous occasions. Hundreds of game fish died, along with thousands of minnows and sculpins, cool water forage fish that provide food for larger fish.