However, some small farms with underproducing herds lack resources to make substantive changes.

“I think the bigger challenge is what do you do with the ones that are lagging so far behind that they are still only producing 12,000 pounds,” Smith said. “They are depreciated out, and the farmer is aging. There is no way — even if there is a willingness for the next generation to take over — to have the funds to take over.”

Other opportunities exist to educate farmers, the UW’s VandenBosch noted.

“We have a number of different formal and informal programs to be able to transfer knowledge about best practices and emerging knowledge,” she said, including undergraduate programs at UW-Madison and UW-River Falls, the UW-Madison short courses and the UW-Extension, among others.

Stephenson noted processors understand there are opportunities for growth. “They have more potential markets for their products than they have the ingredients” to make them.