The primary source that I will be using for this topic is the history of Wisconsin dairy industry. I found this source from Wisconsin historical society website. The reason I choose this source is that this is going to be a good starting step to reach my goal about this topic. As I said that I do not know much about my topic, I need to start with basic information. I think this source will be helpful because that any present things are affected by its history. There is no doubt that the great history of Wisconsin dairy industry lead Wisconsin cheese to be famous. I expect that this source could satisfy some of my curiosities.
This source is written by Erica Schock who is an author of Wisconsin History Highlights. This article is written for anyone who is interested in local history or Wisconsin dairy industry. The purpose for writing this is to give us knowledge about the history of Wisconsin dairy industry. This article is mostly about how dairying and dairy industry have expanded in Wisconsin. It includes who started dairy industry and when it is started as well.
In “The rise of dairy farming”, Wheat was the earliest and the greatest cash crop for people in Wisconsin. The only thing they needed is a proper land to grow wheat. It brought a high rate of financial to state. However, by the late 1850s, the price of wheat began to drop due to lowering quality and increasing competition from other states. Charles Rockwell who is one of the earliest cheese maker in Wisconsin found out that dairying could be the possible alternative to wheat and started dairy industry in Wisconsin in 1837. Throughout this fact, the number of dairy cows increased by late 1800s and it lead more than 90 percent of Wisconsin farms to raise dairy cows. Moreover, because of dairy farmers who settled in Wisconsin this time were from New York. They brought with their skills for commercial dairying and producing butter and cheese. And University of Wisconsin helped to promote Wisconsin dairy industry in 19th century. Professors did some experiments to invent better dairying methods or make dairy products to have better quality. In the 1870s, leader of Wisconsin cheese industry organized some professional organizations to develop their products and Wisconsin Dairymen’s Association became the most famous organization in Wisconsin. By their best efforts, Wisconsin became the dairy state in the nation.
From this reading, I learned a lot not only about Wisconsin cheese but also the history of Wisconsin dairy industry. I believe that cheese industry cannot be started without any primary connections with such as other crops, milk or butter. Because they could not be able to get much profits from wheat in 1850s, they decided to start dairy industry. I am grateful to learn and know how dairying has started in Wisconsin and how people were focusing on this to make their products better. This reading gave me the basic background about Wisconsin dairying history before I research about cheese industry in more detail. I am sure this is a good start knowing the history. Even though I got lots of information related to my topic, I am still curious about what people did to develop their products or what makes Wisconsin cheese so famous. So I would like to start researching more detail by focusing on how Wisconsin Cheese industry has developed.
This is a really good second blog post. I think you are on the right track on finding out the true history behind Wisconsin’s famous cheese! This blog post makes me think about what struggles did they face while figuring out how to keep the cheese good instead of going bad? How did they treat their animals? What was it like to make cheese, was it difficult? Maybe include the exact process on how it was made. I know it is a long journey on how it was developed and perfected but your on to a great start!
I think this will be a good topic because maybe it will explain why Wisconsin is known for being a cheese state, and how the cheese from here came to be so good! This seems like a great website to get started with because I think it will definitely give you some background information that you are looking for. I would also maybe use the reading that we were given the option to write about for extra credit back in Segment one, “Creating Dairyland” by Edward Janus. I did read this and found a lot of similar information, if not more in depth, about the first source that you have chosen. You can find this reading on D2L, under Content, “Segment One” and it is the last reading.
I have totally forgotten about that! I will definitely use that reading for my next source! Thank you so much for reminding.
This is a great first source for your research. I think that the research of the dairy industry will provide you with an excellent basis for your research on the cheese industry as well. By finding a couple more sources on dairy on how the animals are treated, and what the techniques these Wisconsin farmers use for their dairy industry, it will give you a better understanding on why Wisconsin is known as the cheese state, and why it is known for its cheese. A question that sticks out to me is where and when did Wisconsin start being know for its cheese? Was their a certain instance that made this happen, or was it a series of events that added on to each other?