A Description of the Agricultural Economy of the Southeast Wisconsin Rivers Basin

Excerpts from the report: The Southeast Wisconsin Rivers Basin lies in eastern and southern Wisconsin, north central Illinois, and northern Michigan. There are portions of two major continental drainage basins in the study area, the Upper Mississippi and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence. The study area has a total drainage area of about 15,530,606 acres or 24,266 square miles including the following eight subbasin drainage areas: Menominee River, Peshtigo River, Oconto River, Wolf- Fox River, Milwaukee River, Fox River (Wisconsin), Rock River, and Other Drainage Areas less than 800 square miles. Major cities are Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, West Allis, Racine, and Kenosha in Wisconsin and Rockford, Illinois. The object of this report is to describe the present agricultural economy and provide useful background information on the agricultural activity in the Southeast Wisconsin Rivers Basin. Materials are presented by economic subareas within the overall basin area. Comparisons of the Basin to the State of Wisconsin plus three Michigan counties and two Illinois counties and to the United States are made where relevant. Discussion herein concerns a brief description of the Basin, geographic concentration of production, and relative importance of the Basin in producing agricultural products. Analysis of trends and possible future agricultural activity by economic subarea will be limited to apparent directional changes.