Breeding, Feeding, & Weeding: Dairy Farming in Johnson County
Until the late 1950s, nearly every farmer kept a few milk cows. Milk, cream, and butter were consumed by the family; any excess was sold to neighbors or local merchants. Today, only dairy farmers own milk cows. This highly specialized type of farming requires expensive equipment and the most up-to-date technology.
Dairy farming has been an important industry throughout the history of Johnson County. In 1870 Johnson County farms produced 24,850 pounds of cheese and 219,358 pounds of butter. These figures do not include the amount of natural or raw milk produced by each of the county’s 2,566 farmers. “Cheese making is carried on at several points in the county,” reported the Olathe Mirror in 1877, “and the dairy products of some of the larger farmers are no unimportant items in their profits from the farm.” During the nineteenth century, farming became increasingly mechanized, reducing the amount of physical labor required to harvest crops. Farmers could devote more time to improving their lands and developing new techniques.
Dairy farmers benefited from the increased use of technology. The cream separator came into general use by dairy farmers in the late 1890s. This hand-operated device allowed the farmer to separate cream from the milk, instead of transporting raw milk to a creamery for separation. Hauling large cans of milk to a creamery exposed the raw milk for long periods of time with little or no refrigeration. A great deal of milk was lost under this time-consuming, unsanitary process. The cream separator also improved the quality of cream and reduced the farmer’s labor.
This and other scientific developments paved the way for an important educational program established in 1914—the Agriculture Extension Agency. County extension agents served local farmers throughout the country, providing them with information and training in new methods and technology. The Extension Agency raised dairying in Johnson County from a neglected industry to one that produced nationally-recognized dairy herds and quality milk products.
A Tottering Industry
When the Agricultural Extension service was first established, Johnson County’s dairy farmers were particularly in need of help. An editorial published in 1916 proclaimed, “the dairy business in Johnson County is tottering, when it should be a leading industry. Many are abandoning it, as they cannot make it pay.” Johnson County’s first extension agent, Harry Wilson, began working with area farmers in 1919. A former dairyman from southeast Kansas, Wilson recommended dairy farming as a “solution to the economic ills of the County.”
After World War I, farmers needed to diversify their operations, as wheat prices dropped to their pre-war levels. Additionally, the soil needed replenishing after many years of continuously growing wheat and corn. Dairying provided farmers a cash-based income and an opportunity to improve the soil by raising nutrient-rich grains and grasses to feed their livestock. Local conditions were favorable to dairying, including an adequate water supply, available pasture land, a modern road system, and proximity to an urban market. Wilson stressed improvement in three areas for success in the dairy industry: better breeding, quality feed, and weeding poor producers out of the herd. He also taught farmers that improved record-keeping and testing for milk fat levels and disease would measurably increase their production. Farmers who participated in these improvement programs and those offered at the state college in Manhattan increased their income by one third.
A Dairying County
In 1923, dairying was designated a “major project” for the Johnson County Extension Office. Getting rid of tuberculosis was a primary concern that year. Farmers were encouraged to test all cattle; twelve hundred head were tested, and thirteen cases of tuberculosis were found. A Cow Testing Association was organized in cooperation with Wyandotte County’s dairymen. The Association hired a cow tester to visit participating farms each month. Milk was tested for butter fat content, and the number of pounds of milk given daily was recorded to determine total production for the month. Testing programs and daily records helped farmers identify less productive cows to cull from the herd in order to increase overall production.
By 1927, the Extension Agent reported that dairying was “one of the major livestock operations of this county, being ideally located adjacent to Kansas City, and with a network of all weather roads, the market is accessible throughout the year.” He further described the favorable conditions for dairying: “The soil and climate is adapted to the production of all the necessary feed crops and with the development of the soils…the necessary roughages can be produced very economically.” A major accomplishment in 1927 was the organization of a Dairy Herd Improvement Association in Johnson County. This organization was reported as a “distinct step forward in the improvement of the industry,” providing herd testing and culling for maximum production.
Breeding was another area of concern for dairy farmers. Throughout the 1920s, the Farm Bureau helped distribute purebred bulls and cows to farmers to stimulate an interest in dairying. In 1927, local dairyman K. Klausen traveled to Wisconsin to purchase eighteen purebred Holstein bulls. The Extension Agent helped spread them throughout the county, in part, he said, to counter the “tendancy [sic] for dairymen to go to the stockyards and pick up any kind of a sire.”
By the late 1920s, dairying was no longer a “tottering industry” in Johnson County. Area farmers had organized a cooperative to secure stable prices for milk. In 1929, Johnson County’s dairy farmers produced over three million gallons of milk. Local dairymen delivered their milk and dairy products to grocers, restaurants, and homeowners in Kansas City. Others sold their milk to area processing plants to be bottled or made into butter and cheese.
The Worst Years
The Depression years brought heavy rains in 1929 and drought conditions in 1920; the Extension Agent reported these years as “among the worst ever experienced in the memory of the older residents.” Cattle were stolen from several dairy farmers throughout the 1930s. Others, like Ben Zarda, recalled giving away calves to reduce the number of cattle they had to feed. Farmers were encouraged to cull their herds even further. “Not more cows but better cows” became the motto as farmers worked to improve efficiency and increase production levels.
Prices fell drastically for milk and dairy products, and dairymen had a difficult time collecting the much-needed cash from their customers. Another drought in 1934 forced farmers to purchase expensive feed for their cattle. Feed loans were available at local banks; reduced shipping rates for drought areas also provided some relief. By 1935, the Extension Agent noted that several dairymen had stopped selling their milk to distributing plants and were retailing the milk themselves, developing routes in the city.
The 1940s presented greater challenges for area dairy farmers. Rationing, labor shortages and high grain prices curtailed many dairy farm operations. The war and related defense jobs took away their supply of year-round laborers willing to work seven days a week from pre-dawn to dusk. High grain prices quickly consumed any profit the dairy farmer could realize. Between 1943 and 1944, seventy-five dairies went out of business due to the labor shortage. Those who did survive learned new methods to increase production with fewer cattle.
During the 1940s, the dairy industry came under increased scrutiny to insure the safety of milk and dairy products. Scientists and nutritionists had identified disease-causing germs in raw milk in the early 1900s. Milk inspectors had been conducting spot tests of dairy products since the 1920s, and many dairy farmers had been pasteurizing their milk since the 1930s. The quality of milk in many cities, however, was often uneven at best. New outbreaks of diseases during the 1940s resulted in stricter guidelines. Nearly every major city, including Kansas City, adopted a milk ordinance requiring dairymen to pasteurize their milk. In order to retain a license to sell milk in the city, dairy farmers had to invest in additional equipment and comply with new guidelines to certify the quality of their milk.
The grading system became an important factor in dairy farming during the 1950s. Three grades of dairies operated in Johnson County: Grades A, B and C. Grade A dairies produced the highest quality milk and dairy products; Grades B and C milk was used to make cheese and other dairy foods. By 1959, Johnson County banned the sale of ungraded milk or dairy products. A Health Department survey identified five hundred families in Johnson County who sold Grade A milk on a regular basis. However, 95% of the milk consumed was processed in manufacturing plants outside the area.
Suburbia: A New Challenge
The post-World War II housing and population boom in Johnson County brought further changes for area dairymen. In 1951, dairying was the county’s leading industry, producing three to four million dollars of milk and dairy products. Many dairy farms were still scattered throughout Mission, Shawnee, and Overland Park. By the early 1950s, however, land in northeast Johnson County was more valuable for suburban housing and commercial development. Families who had farmed in these areas for generations sold their land or changed their method of operation. Harry Walmer’s family had settled in Johnson County in 1879. In 1951 he summarized why he abandoned dairy and hog farming: “Workable land is becoming too scarce and the taxes are getting too high. The real estate men are beginning to call more and more—but that’s what you have to expect when each acre will sell for $1,000 - $1,500.” Walmer’s former 300-acre farm was platted and developed. He rented land further west where he raised Hereford steers and kept two milk cows for family use.
The Zarda family had been dairying in Merriam since the early 1920s. They sold their dairy herd in the 1950s, after a severe drought which drove many farmers out of business. The Zardas acquired processing plants and continued to manufacture milk and dairy products in Johnson County.
Currently, there are nine dairy farmers in Johnson County. Their farms are primarily located in the southern and western regions of the county, sometimes referred to as “the fringe.” The average size herd is fifty cows. All milking and processing is done mechanically. The Mid-America Dairy Association buys and processes nearly all of the milk produced in Johnson County and the metropolitan area. This cooperative picks up the farmer’s milk on alternate days and transports the homogenized, pasteurized product to a processing plant in large, steel bulk tanks. Perhaps the only constant in this ever-changing industry is how the value of milk is determined. The weight of the milk and the amount of butter fat produced is still used to establish the price of milk. As did their predecessors, Johnson County’s dairy farmers continue to adapt to change, combining new technology and skill to increase milk production with fewer, high-quality cows.
--ALBUM vol. 8, no. 4 (fall 1995)