Celebrating our farmers this Dairy Month
It is June Dairy Month, where we celebrate Wisconsin dairy farmers and the industry. The most popular way to celebrate is to stop by a June Dairy Breakfast, typically hosted at a family farm with the support/help from local businesses, groups, and FFA.
Dairy farming is almost casual at this point, with cows dotting the landscape of our state, from border to border. So casual in fact that we tend to forget its history and impact on our culture and economy.
Wisconsin wasn’t first known as the dairy state, so how did it become a milking power-house? When Europeans came to Wisconsin, the first thing was fur trading. Fast forward to the early 1800s, when Wisconsin eventually became part of America, Wisconsinites quickly found another commodity: huge White Pine trees that made great lumber. In less than a century they cut the majority of the White Pine down.
Once they realized the trees weren’t coming back, they began to clear the areas of stumps and cultivated a new industry; wheat. By the 1850s Wisconsin was the nation’s top producer, making 1/6th of the Nation’s wheat supply, becoming known as “America’s breadbasket.” However, just like the fur and White Pine, it didn’t last.
The Wisconsin farmer didn’t give up, but instead innovated. Farmers quickly found success with alternative crops and rotations; especially with forage crops. It wasn’t long until farmers found that Wisconsin’s climate and soil produced quality feed, especially in Marathon and Clark County (that it’s known as the “Cloverbelt” region). They weren’t the only ones though, entrepreneurs from New York saw this as well. Most of these entrepreneurs were dairy farmers, and started bringing their herds to Wisconsin.
It didn’t take long for dairy farming to be adopted, and immediately became the most viable business practice in rural Wisconsin. By 1899 over 90% of Wisconsin farms were dairy farms. From fur to cheese curds, the rest is history. Here are some more dairyaire facts:
n To all my goat farmer friends, I saved this first bullet point for you! Even though Wisconsin’s dairy farms are mostly cows, did you know Wisconsin leads the nation in milk goat, and it’s not even close: 18% in the US, with over 74,000 head.
n Dairy farming in Wisconsin is perpetuated by generational farming, for over 180 years. As of today around 95% of the Badger State’s dairy farms are family owned.
n Wisconsin leads all US states in cheese production (a position held every year since 1910), making an average of 280-300 million pounds of cheese each per month.
n Our state is the 5th largest producer of cheese in the world, producing more cheese than most countries. For example: we make more mozzarella than the entire country of Italy.
n As of May 2023, there are 1,268,000 cows, each producing on average 2,085 pounds of milk. That’s 2.6 billion pounds of milk, and one of the highest levels of milk production in the US.
n In January, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection reported there are 6,116 milk cow dairy operations. Clark and Marathon County had the most, making up 17.1% of the state total (Clark County 665, Marathon 382).
n According to most recent data available (2017), the dairy industry brought $45.6 billion to Wisconsin’s Gross Domestic Product, which is 7.1% of the state total.
n 90% of Wisconsin milk gets made into cheese, and the remainder creates butter, ice cream, and cultured products like yogurt.
n Wisconsin’s 14.2 million acres of farmland contributes 435,700 jobs annually, 11.8% of the state’s employment.
n The phrase “Cow Boss!” or “Come Bossie!” is not only a real term, but is also in the dictionary. Bos is Latin for cow, and eventually became an English noun boss. Now say “come boss” a dozen times, and eventually you’ll hear yourself saying a shortened version of that call, sounding like “cow-boss”. That’s where the word coboss comes from, which means “a call to cows.”
So this month make sure you drink a tall glass of chocolate milk, put a little extra butter on your pancakes, and thank the men and women who make our state America’s Dairy Land.
Sources: National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA. Quickstats.hass.usda.gov/ results.com Dairy Producer License list. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection Deller, Steven. “The Contribution of Agriculture to the Wisconsin Economy.” University of Wisconsin-Madison. UWExtension. 2019 Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary Wisconsin Historical Society
The Soil
Sound-Off
