06/10/2026
American Farming *250 June 9, 2026
Lillian had some friends over this week and while they were hanging out, I was trying to decide what to write about in this article. I asked one of her friends what farming thing she’d like to know the history of, and she said she was curious about America’s dairy history. She gave me a great suggestion and one I should have already thought of, considering that I married a dairy farmer! This one’s for you, E!
Cattle came to America with the early settlers, with the first arriving in Jamestown, VA in 1611, and 3 arriving in Plymouth, MA in 1623. More came over the next several years. Originally, cattle weren’t bred for specific purposes but were used for both dairy and beef. By the late 1800s, though, cattle were being bred for dairy. What about dairy products? Well, butter has been around for thousands of years and was originally made by putting milk in a sack, then bumping it regularly to churn the cream to form butter. Nomadic tribes would tie the sacks of milk to the side of their pack animal and butter would form as they walked. Churns were invented and until the 1800s, most people made butter at home for themselves or their neighbors. As more people moved into cities, the need for butter manufacturing increased and farmers would churn more butter to take to markets to sell. Manual churning is done with a paddle in a barrel that the churner keeps moving to form butter from the cream. It is then salted and the extra buttermilk is removed. Butter became commercially available almost nationwide by 1900.
While Louis Pasteur, the French scientist, created Pasteurization in the 1860s, it wasn’t used for milk in the USA until the early 1900s. In 1973, the US Gov’t mandated pasteurization for any milk used in interstate commerce. Pasteurization heats milk to a high temperature quickly, which destroys bacteria, but doesn’t harm the taste of milk. As urban populations grew and milk was brought in from farms, more people were sickened by bacteria in the milk because it sometimes took days to get it to the cities. The longer it took, the higher the likelihood of disease.
Cheese is very popular and has been made in the US since the Pilgrims began to make it from the milk of the cows they brought over in 1623. Back then, cheese was made by putting milk in the stomach of a deceased calf. The stomach contained rennet, a bacteria necessary for making cheese. Because new calves were born in the Spring, cheese-making was primarily done in the spring. Like so many other aspects of farming, this was originally done by families for their own households. Today, Wisconsin leads the country in cheese production, and it’s made in processing facilities using vats, controlled bacteria, and then hanging the curds in cheesecloth to drain.
**Sources: Churncraft, Milwaukee Magazine, American Dairy Board, USDA, Pennsbury Manor**
*FUN FACT #1: From 1895-1967, Wisconsin had an “Anti-Margarine” law. The law kept margarine producers from dying and selling margarine that was the same yellow color as butter.
FUN FACT #2: While we expect Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and even New York to be big dairy producers, you might be surprised to learn that California is the largest dairy producing state!
FUN FACT #3: The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 caused farmers to dump 3.7 million gallons (!!) of milk each day because of the steep drop in demand from schools, restaurants, food service providers and more.
