This site contains the content and additional information for the 175th Anniversary of Dane County display at the Dane County Regional Airport. Content was created by the Dane County Historical Society.

Early Farming in Dane County

Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland and Dane County plays a large part in that designation.  There are 400 dairy farms in Dane County with about 50,000 dairy cows that make up the county’s $700 million a year dairy industry today.  However, dairy farming was not always as important to the county as it is today.  It was many years after the first immigrants came to the county before dairy farming took hold in south central Wisconsin.

Farmers harvesting wheat. (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 56923)

Tobacco field (photo by Andreas Dahl). (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 26428)

The first immigrants to the area grew wheat almost exclusively.  Wheat was easy to grow and produced results quickly, even allowing farmers to harvest two crops per year.  The years between 1840 and 1870 saw quick and profitable production of wheat in southern Wisconsin.   

The quick rise in popularity of wheat production resulted in very little crop rotation; the soil began to weaken.  Lower prices and a chinch bug infestation in the 1860s contributed to a decline in wheat production. By the end of the 1860s, farmers began to see the need to diversify their crops.

Corn and tobacco came into the Dane County picture.  With an increase in livestock farming came feed crops such as hay and oats.

A farmer milks the family cow. (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 44178)

Dairy farming in Wisconsin was slow to take off at first.  Many farmers had a single cow or two to provide for their families, but most could not afford to buy enough cows or build barns for dairying.  Outlets for selling milk were usually limited to local grocers; initially there were no good methods for getting milk to the larger cities.  Early on, there was little attention paid to dairy cow breeding or to the methods used to get the herds to produce more milk.

Cheese factory, with workers and horse-drawn delivery wagons in the front. (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 38776)

Starting in the 1850s, immigrants from the east coast of the United States – the main dairy region of the country at the time – began migrating to Wisconsin. These farmers brought the genesis of a more scientific system of dairying to Dane County.  They were instrumental in beginning local cheese factories.  While one farm family would not have enough milk for cheese production of respectable size, several neighbors could "change milk" - one making cheese one day and another one making cheese the next day - out of the combined supply. This was the beginning of many cooperative cheese factories, where farmers could come to sell their milk.

By the 1870s the tide was turning and cheese factories were established in nearly every town.

farmer feeding his herd. (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 78642)

Workers paraffining cheese at a cooperative cheese factory (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 4477)

Farmers' co-operative cheese factory. (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 76304)

A tractor class in front of Agriculture Hall at University of Wisconsin-Madison (1927) (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 36226)

Several factors contributed to dairy farming becoming the important industry it is today in Dane County:

--The advent of cylindrical silos for winter grain/feed storage.

--The establishment of various “dairymen’s associations” which promoted new dairying methods and helped transition local farmers from wheat growing to dairying.

--The creation of the Agricultural College at the University of Wisconsin in Madison which brought farming and science together and helped spread the science of dairy farming to local farmers throughout the county.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural campus with sheep and dairy barn in the background. (Image from Wisconsin Historical Society WHi 38801)

The UW Dairy Barn is located on the agricultural campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The building was constructed as a result of lobbying by the UW Dean of Agriculture, William Henry.  In addition to its use as a teaching facility for Wisconsin dairy farmers, the Dairy Barn was the site of significant scientific experiments, including selective breeding of cattle; and testing for diseases like bovine tuberculosis. These developments, among others, were instrumental in Wisconsin's increased adoption of dairy farming in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which resulted in its reputation as America's Dairyland.

Updated February 12, 2011