Dairy Farming
I remember turning that miserable crank on the milk separator. One of my brothers
and I would stand side by side and crank it. —Don Fedewa
Michigan's dairy industry grew dramatically in the early 1900s. While most Michigan
farmers had always kept a few cows for home dairy use and continued to do so, others began
to build herds to produce milk for sale. Dairy farms dotted Michigan's rural landscape
from Gogebic County in the Upper Peninsula to Monroe County in the Lower Peninsula.
 In the exhibit you can see a milk cooler that pumped
cold water through the inside of the S-curved fins. Raw milk was poured over the top of
the fins allowing it to be cooled to below room temperature. The milk was then poured into
a milk can and stored in the cool spring house.
You can also see a hand-cranked separator that was used to separate cream from milk.
Both products were then sent to the processing plant. The cream was made into butter and
cheese; the milk was sold.
 The home pasteurizer in the exhibit was used by Lansing,
Michigan, dairy farmer William J. Sharp to kill bacteria and keep the milk from going
sour. Sharp sold his milk products—bottled with his own label—from the back of a touring
car in downtown Lansing.
When electricity came to the farms, farmers bought milking machines. Milking by machine
decreased the amount of hand labor needed and allowed farmers to increase the number of
cows in their herds.
Scientific Advancements
 Pasteurization,
quality standard requirements, scientific advancements, the availability of electricity
and road improvements created safer, cheaper milk products. Farmers also relied on
scientific cattle production methods developed by scientists at Michigan Agricultural
College. This work helped to create the "ideal cow," a purebred registered cow
whose milk was greatly improved. Farmers who could afford these cows earned greater
profits from the higher quality and quantity of milk produced.
 One Michigan dairy farmer and geneticist,
Sarah Van Hoosen Jones (1892-1972)
from Rochester, applied scientific agricultural principles to raising improved crops (hay,
corn and small grains), higher-quality poultry and purebred Holstein-Friesian cows for
milk products. The first woman to earn a doctorate in genetics from the University of
Wisconsin, Jones was also one of the first women in America to be named a "Master
Farmer."
Marketing Michigan Milk
Michigan's urban populations of the 1920s generated a greater market for milk products
than had been seen in previous generations. Detroit became the largest market for milk.
Thousands of dairy farms, which became known as the Detroit milkshed, supplied raw milk,
then certified and finally pasteurized milk, cream and butter for sale in the city.
Farmers had to comply with standards established by Detroit milk inspectors. They included
sanitary handling and cooling to ensure clean, fresh milk.
Some farmers joined cooperatives to sell their dairy products to the urban centers and
increase their profits. Others remained independent, selling their milk products close to
home.
Fifteen thousand Detroit milkshed farmers organized the Michigan Milk Producers
Association in 1916. They collectively bargained with Detroit milk processors and
distributors for fair prices and control of the cost of meeting city standards. The
cooperative handled the resale of butter and, later, raw milk.
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