Wisconsin on the move; How now cow

One day about the time of the Civil War a typical Wisconsin farmer might have said quite angrily to another Wisconsin farmer. You and your friends the new farming notions. Why don't you book farmers take your fancy impractical ideas back to the library and real farmers get on with their farming. This typical Wisconsin farmer of that period was angry because another Wisconsin farmer had suggested that he change his way of farming. The Change the typical farmer was resisting that fancy new farming notion was dairying. It'll never work in resisting the idea of dairy farming. The farmer was not unusual. Most people resist new ideas. Most people don't like change. But here's the thing about change. Although people object to change and although many people refuse to change the world changes anyway. Change is bomb to come. It can't be avoided. Keep that idea in mind for a while.

You may recognize it later on. It's a useful idea and a useful idea like a milking machine should be applied in the right place at the right time. Wisconsin on the move. A Wisconsin School of the air series designed to supplement a study of our sting today which is about dairy farming. On a typical Wisconsin rolling hill about the time of the Civil War. A typical Wisconsin farmer might have stood surveying his fields might be. That's what he might have said during that period although tender green shoots of wheat covered his fields in all directions. This typical

Wisconsin farmer of that period saw only dollar signs stretching to the horizon for wheat was Wisconsin's most important crop a crop as good as money in the bank and in many cases used instead of money in the bank. Who eat my golden harvest it buys groceries it buys shoes it buys light and it builds houses it pays debts it puts cash in a man's pocket. It just grows and grows and finally it grows into money. Wheat was an excellent crop for a pioneer farm. All the farmer had to do is plant in order to profit. He didn't need much help and he didn't need much equipment in playing near Wisconson wheat was planted everywhere every year but continuous wheat cropping is hard on the soil and eventually some Wisconsin farmers noticed that their

fields were not producing as much wheat as they once had. I didn't grow as much money do this years I did last year. My dear colleague your soil is exhausted by continuous wheat crapping you have depleted its vital nutrients. What you say just then. I said Fran you're dirts all tired out tired out is it. Well over the years it better wake up before brighten time you want to give your land arrest plant it to Clover clover. Who wouldn't under previous money for Clover. Typical wheat farmers are always thinking about money. You want to start thinking about your land. Oh I can always buy more land one of these days we might run out of land in Wisconsin. Fiddlesticks big place Wisconsin very big place. The wheat farmer set in his ways didn't want to change them so a golden ocean of wheat covered the state of Wisconsin for over 40 years.

At one point Wisconsin was the second largest wheat growing area in America. Wait that's what the Milwaukee Sentinel said in 1861 and Wisconsin is the center of the Empire. But even standing on a rolling hill doing nothing while his wheat crop ripened into money the typical Wisconsin wheat farmer of eventually noticed that two different animals were increasing in Wisconsin. These two animals were to change his life whether he wanted to change or not. One of those animals was the dairy cow. There are still dirty things we wonder spend all his time taken care of that aren't profitable beasts.

That was the attitude of the typical wheat farmer to the idea of dairy farming. However the other animal whose numbers were increasing in Wisconsin was an insect an insect pest called the trench bug. And if you could get very very close to one of them this is what you'd hear. The sound of chewing. And the place the trench bug chose to chew was in the tired worn out wheat field of the typical Wisconsin wheat farmer. The situation was serious enough to bring the wheat farmer storming down from his lofty rolling hill branch. Sure enough my route through day little things growing larger. I got to pay my wife makes use of my bugs some generics. Oh it's terrible. About all a farmer could do to bugs of any kind in those days was raid and school in order to rid his field of chinch bugs. The

farmer would have to plant some other crops. Which didn't appeal to the appetite of the always hungry past. As long as he planted wheat he'd furnish food for the bugs right. If you won't go where I work the wheat farmer must either give up wheat farming altogether or give up wheat farming in Wisconsin. Word of warning my stubborn wheat farming friend. Are you fixing your fence. No I'm fixing to move the dish Sarn finish pitchers were for sale. So it down as quitting the farm are you quitting this one going west. You were. There are lots of good learned on third good prairie learned. Good for wheat.

So you're going to continue your wasteful destructive wheat farming method which is just as good as money in the bank you know just as good as money in the bank for a while for a while but wait cropping strips the land of its vital nutrients so overworked there's premier learned who are there's miles and miles of this country that haven't even been touched by the plough. There's a whole Wild West of farming yet. Yes but one of these days we might run out of land in the wild west fiddlesticks big place to wild west very big place. Besides the chinch bugs will follow you. They'll move right out west with you maybe show where they're going to crawl and take in the trade. As long as there was land in Pioneer America. Cheap land the wheat farmer could flee westward. On fresh land he could again harvest several big and healthy crops of wheat.

But eventually having grown nothing but wheat having once again taken from the soil without putting anything back into the soil the wheat farmers fresh land would be as tired as his Wisconsin land had been susceptible then to drought disease and the change bug the wheat farmer would have to change his farm again or finally change his way of farming. You know if you're getting the idea that the typical wheat farmer of this period was a stubborn fellow who resisted change who thought only of today's profits and never about tomorrow's possibilities then you've got the picture. The type of Wisconsin farmer who cared about the future who was willing to change his ways willing to take risks that type of farmer is not called a typical wheat farmer. He is called typical dairy farmer situation. He claiming prices declining yields drought disease but I

now have to rotate my crops fertilize my fields change my ways. What a bother. That's the man. A farmer who didn't like change any more than anybody else but a man who realized when he had to accept change. Now perhaps you think we're being a little hard on the typical wheat farmer. We've made him out to be rather narrow minded and set in his ways. Well the typical dairy farmer is pictured as an intelligent earnest fellow who is always pushing progress. Well perhaps it's time to call him a little historical support. The following is from a speech made in 1879 by IJA clap a can o should bury man. The Razor has but few and simple things to think of. He may plough so reap and market 500 acres of grain and still be a man of few ideas and of narrow mental culture. But the dairy man is compelled by the very necessity of his business to be a

man with open eyes and active mind. He must see and talk with his brother dairy man. He must visit their establishment and study their methods. He must attend the fairs and conventions. He must read books and papers pertaining to his calling. Read books and papers study proper methods attend meetings. Why was all this more important to the dairy farmer than to any other farmer of this period. Well the wheat farmer remember only needed to plant in order to profit wheat. It just grows and grows and eventually it grows into money. WHEAT It just grew and grew. But the dairy farmer tied to a cow it was said in those days that a dairy farmer was tied to a cow herd doe aren't profitable beast were to stoneage there what do you feed it. Shoulda written

cleanup after it. And when you're all tired out from a hard day or nurse maid in a CO you have to sit up all night studying books about better ways to feed it shelter it clean up after it. Eventually if you work hard enough and all the book theories are right the call creates a little moon which when you put into it churn occasionally turns into butter which were niche food to eat. And if gotten the market before it spoils can sometimes be sold for money trouble of cowers in addition to being dumb and unprofitable. They're complicated. No doubt about it. Dairy farming was more complicated than wheat farming. It required more buildings more equipment more business and mechanical knowledge than a field of wheat. But in addition there were many new complications in dairy farming because at this time it was in a state of change. Just about the time that the

Wisconsin farmer decided to change the dairying dairying itself was being changed by scientific discoveries and developments relating to dairy cows dairy crops and dairy products. Even a farmer who was willing to change his ways might have been puzzled by the variety of new methods he was expected to accept and adopt. Follow For example just the problem of feeding a Col in the winter feed a condo in the winter. What are you going to feed a con in the winter. Pastors all covered with snow. Exactly what are you going to feed a col when her pasture is all covered with snow. Best thing to do with college in the winter is to sell em to market. Buy more in the spring. When I'm sorry Jennifer but the Buy have to buy. I don't have enough money left to buy food to feed me. When the pastor was all covered with snow most early dairy farmers sold their cars to market milk and butter customers simply did without these products or paid very high

prices for them. Cheese factories close dumb from November to April but if dairy farming in Wisconsin was to succeed as a business some way had to be found to make it a year round business. Finally in the 1880s Wisconsin farmers read about a European development called a silo. This was a structure in which green corn could be kept fresh and nutritious. All winter corn was cheap to grow and one silo could hold enough fodder to winter a sizable herd of collars. But a silo as early converts discovered was a really new farming notion regarded as complicated funny looking and suspicious. They're pretty good so what do you have build in there to endure burning tower some sort of a proper rest. Room. What are you doing back here you know wheat farmer thought you went west where I decided to change my ways instead I

decided to be a typical Berryman by visiting my brother Derriman and studying the proper methods it would use that thing for years. Then it is a silo I knew scientific development course I should've recognized it immediately. Shiloh store milky and no longer to star sign me Jan shyly. Oh sure. Jimmy finish not salad stuff do you grow that or buying it you grow and I mean you grow corn but you chop up and put into something low like this. The corn stays good because it's airtight and because of the acids caused by fermentation it's a very nutritious add may be finished but adds huge fermentation and you're going to give it to the collars to eat right sided stuff will give your collars introduction I'm not saying it'll Richter troops fall off

ridiculous. I read somewhere that collars you wouldn't accept shyly Josh on this here cause will accept signage long before you thick headed farmers except the silo. But that's alright because with my silo I'll be selling milk all winter long at high prices while you sit around complaining that farming doesn't pay because with no feed you'll have no collars no milk and no money. I want to go home and read some more books and papers pertaining to your calling. Show you different years brother Dermott old friend. Oh hold on a minute. Do you suppose you could loan me that book of yours about Shiloh's. Oh I read the book like Garrett. I mean good very informative show for Barr Shiloh's. It might be you know it just might be the Shiloh for winter feed is just as good as money in the bank.

Yes you're just as good as money in the bank. The Sino as you know was the answer to the storage of cheap nutritious winter feed. Now the next development in winter feeding would have completely puzzled the early dairy man. But by that time there was a new type of dairy man in Wisconsin. He might have been the son of a wheat farmer or the son of a dairy farmer but he was different from them. He liked change and he especially liked progress and he thought of himself as part businessman and part scientist because he had studied the proper methods in school. He heroics get a parent stop complaining you're not list. Damn. I'm listening stun it start again. Well the quality of milk eels is affected by the protein component of the cow's diet. Oh is it now. I thought it was affected by what your friends are. Well that's what I just said well I never heard of a feed call protein protein dead is what's in the feed wheat bran contains more protein than

oats. Course it does yeah. Therefore you should mix your ration to provide a proper amount of protein as well as carbohydrate to quit that fancy foolishness when you're making me dizzy with all that protein talk. I've tried to be a good Berryman and I've tried to have an open eye an active mind but but come now do I have to go to school or not a Frida Kahlo. All right Jennifer is. Right again about that protein stuff. Where do I get it. Do I grow it or buy it. The early dairy man the farmer who was willing to change his ways and His Son the educated farmer started and completed the transition from Wisconsin's first from tier wheat farms to the type of modern dairy farms which produce more dairy products than any other state in the nation. Only 50 years separate the year Wisconsin was the second largest wheat growing area and the year it was officially declared America's dairy land. That happened in 1912 when

dairy commissioner JQ Emery announced in the amount and value of her dairy products. Wisconsin now ranks first in the Union in just two generations. Wisconsin farmers had moved from there. Are we to judge growers and growers had moved from wheat to know this. Do I have to go to school to learn how to feed a cow. Oh those were fifty years of change drastic change and all those changes came before the 20th century before the great century of change and farm equipment farming methods and farm life. The gasoline tractor and electric current still lay in the future. They would bring further changes but by the time they came along. Typical dairy farmers knew that if the scientists and inventors suggested some fancy new farming method the whole world might change its way of doing things as a result. In any case the

changes would come. They couldn't be avoided. And there's that handy idea again. Keep that idea in mind when you talk about America's dairy land because dairy farming is still changing. Keep that idea in mind whenever you talk about Wisconsin on the move because Wisconsin is still changing. Can those changes be avoided. Well you'll find part of the answer. If you look for the answer to this question in America's dairy land could you find a job as a dairy farmer. Talk about that. Wisconsin on the move is a Wisconsin's go to the air series designed to supplement a study of our stick to the scripts are written by Claire

councilor production and narration by Carl Schmidt. This is the Wisconsin School of the air. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.