History: Processing Milk Products

January 1946, the Clark County Press front page headlines stated: 500 million pounds of milk in 1945 - $28 million of cash and liquid resources in Clark county. This was the top production of the county for all time. It was 10 percent or more above the high mark attained in 1944, which was also a record. It is believed this increase in production may give Clark county a rating of fourth or fifth in the United States.

The number of cattle assessed in the county was 102, 775 of which more than 80,000 were milk cows. The cooperative livestock shipping associations of the county shipped out more than a million dollars worth of stock in 1945.

Clark county is accustomed to processing practically all of the milk produced here. It has about 100 dairy plants, some of them large and more of them moderate size, in which dairy products are made. Clark county stood second in production of American cheese in Wisconsin in 1944. its production was sufficient to fill 1,225 railroad freight cars, each containing 20,000 pounds.

In the early years of dairying here, milk went largely into butter with later, the development of cheese, historically cheese had been made into large cheddars, which must be processed and cut for marketing. There has been some production of butter and evaporated milk in the county, with the strong trend toward cheese.

The present peak of production was due to the war effort. When the way ended there cut-backs and cancellations, the first act of which was thought to disrupt a portion of the trade. What has actually happened is quite different. The demand for fluid milk and cheese still seems to be strong.