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Dairy on the Prairie 9
farms lacked adequate refrigeration, such as milk cool-
Dairy farmers waiting to deliver their ing pools (semi-subterranean tanks with water circu-
milk to the Eldora Creamery, Hardin lating around the milk pails) or ice houses. In Eastern
County, Iowa. Courtesy of State Histori- Iowa, factories served farmers within a seven-mile or
cal Society of Iowa, Iowa City. lesser radius of the factory: hauling milk daily over
greater distances left no time for other farming tasks.
The farmer could obtain the manufacturing waste
products to feed his livestock (whey, in the case of
cheese-making; skim milk from butter-making).
The Factory System solved many problems. Farm
sources of neighboring farmers at a men and women no longer had to make cheese or
single facility to process into a mar- butter, both laborious tasks. Professional cheese and
ketable product. One person and their butter makers were not prone to spoiling large batch-
assistant would be responsible for es of product, as could sometimes happen at home.
making butter or cheese and would As cheese and butter manufacturing techniques were
not be distracted by other farm- systematized in factories, the overall quality in-
ing tasks. Thus began the true factory move- creased. Railroads could transport butter
ment in the dairy industry. quickly and under refrigerated condi-
FACTORY DAIRY PRODUCTION Desiring to make their farms more tions. Also, factories had the resourc-
Pioneer women's surplus production of home- profitable, farmers were optimis- IN HIS es to widely market their products,
manufactured cheese and butter was the first impor-
tant step in the industrialization of dairy farming. tic that dairy factories could be RECOLLECTION OF EARLY unlike most home-producers.
With more people moving into cities—and not own-
ing their own milk cows—and the availability of rail the answer to a succession of BUTTER MARKETING, Cheese and butter dealers from
transport to efficiently ship large quantities of fresh
dairy products, the demand for butter and cheese in- crop failures, blights, com- MONTICELLO-AREA FARMER JOHN Chicago and the East Coast
creased during the late 1850s. But a dramatic profit
could be made only if butter or cheese were produced modity price instabilities, LORENTZEN ( 1 8 8 0 ) RECALLED THAT traveled into Iowa to sample
on a grander scale than possible on a single farm.
and general difficulties in HOME-MADE BUTTER WAS SOLD TO the fares and award season-
Some farmers tried their hand at intensifying the
scale of production, enlarging their dairy herds and making ends meet in the MERCHANTS IN al contracts for cheese and
purchasing equipment (like large cheese vats or 20-
gallon butter churns) that could process greater quan- 1860s. The first cheese fac- . . .tubs, in pots, nail kegs, fish butter delivery. Some Iowa
tities of milk into product. Oftentimes, this cottage tory in Jones County, and barrels, prints, rolls,—some white, factories sent representa-
industry was a family effort. Few of these large-scale probably the State, began some yellow, some good enough to tives East to compete for
cheese or butter producers made the transition to true collecting milk from neigh- eat; some that was carefully combed, top butter and cheese
factory production because start-up costs were pro- boring farmers in 1864: Asa with no hair in it, and some that awards, thus attracting
hibitive, the process was very labor intensive, and they Bowen's Cheese Factory. dealers.
had little experience at marketing cheese and butter.
The first creamery in Iowa, wasn't combed, with the hair mixed The Factory System also
The solution was obvious: pool together milk re-
John Stewart's Spring Branch to keep it together. In this way it posed new challenges to ru-
Creamery in Delaware Coun- w a s collected a n d s h i p p e d off. It ral Iowans. Milk had to be de-
ty, opened for business in 1872. never came back! What it was livered to the factory daily or
Factories could produce butter or used for remains a twice daily, which expended
cheese or both, with butter facto- mystery to this day.34 great quantities of the farmer's
ries also known as creameries. time on Iowa roadways. This task
The farmer had to deliver cans of was especially unwelcome during har-
milk once or twice daily to the factory: most vest and hay-making seasons. Some
