Wisconsin's Dairy Industry
The growth of the dairy industry in Wisconsin is a story of remarkable transfer of scientific knowledge to practical use. As dairy farming developed, Wisconsin's agriculture underwent transformation in less than 50 years.
Proposed as an alternative to wheat farming as early as the 1850s, dairying was common in southeastern and south central Wisconsin by the early 1860s. Farmers in other regions soon adopted diversified dairy farming, an enterprise favored by the state's geography. At first the "general purpose cow" provided milk, meat, and motive power, but milk production increased dramatically when farmers accepted the concept of the single purpose dairy cow and applied scientific methods to feeding, management, and selective breeding.
Most milk was made into cheese and butter, which at first were made on the farm. In the 1870s, however, factories began dominating the cheese industry, and in the 1890s, the butter industry.
Wisconsin had 245,000 dairy cows by 1867 and more than 2,000,000 by 1925. By 1907, Wisconsin, 13th largest state, produced nearly half the cheese and a tenth of the butter in the nation.
Marker can be reached from Interstate 43 at milepost 168, 2.5 miles south of Shirley Road (State Highway 96), on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
