We went to the Southwest Dairy Museum to learn the history of the dairy industry in Texas. There were a lot of exhibits showing the early methods of milking and the production of the milk.
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| Early Barn Scene |
Early dairy farming was a family venture -- all members of the family worked to make a living. Most families had two to three milk cows that supplied them with milk, butter, cream and cheese. At times some cream and butter was available to sell or trade for groceries at the local country store. Farmers learned early to take good care of their cows -- giving them ample feed and water. Shelter was provided for the livestock during the winter.
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| Early Day Kitchen |
Early day farm kitchens were the scene for the development of the American dairy industry. Milk was carried from the barn, usually in cans or pails, to the kitchen. Most often the farm wife and children handled the milk. Typically, the fresh milk was separated into cream and skim using the handy gadget called a "cream separator." The cream was churned by hand into butter, while the skim milk was used a livestock feed or to make cottage cheese.
With milk and cream, chicken and eggs, bacon and ham, fresh garden vegetables, and wood for heat and cooking, the early day farmers were fairly self-sufficient.
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| Cream Buying Station |
Sometimes farmers had more cream than they needed for their families, and often found a market for the extra cream at cream buying stations. Early day farmers relied on horse drawn vehicles such as wagons or buggies to carry their goods to market. So a cream market needed to be near the farmers. Thus, thousands of cream buying stations were placed in operation throughout the southwest to assemble cream from farms to be moved to central butter manufacturing plants.
The cream was usually sour cream because of the lack of refrigeration. Butter made from this cream had a distinctive sour flavor. This flavor along with generous amounts of added salt, caused the butter to taste quite differently from present day sweet cream butter which has little to no added salt.
Question: "Why does a milk stool have three legs." Answer: "The USDA declared three legs more sanitary because there was less to clean."
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| Cheese and Butter Plant |
In the 1920s, the farming economy of the southwest was in a bad financial situation. Low prices for farm goods coupled with reduced yields because of insects, caused farmers to look for alternative ways to survive. Sale of cream and milk to butter and cheese plants provided this alternative. Many milk plants were established to buy ungraded cream and milk from farmers. The big silver cylindrical device is the butter churn.
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| Butter Printer |
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Hand Operated Milk Bottling
Machine with Capper |
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| Hand Operated Milk Processing Room |
As farmers began to sell milk to the neighbors, they delivered milk in 5 or 10 gallon steel cans. Later glass bottles were used by some farmers. These were hand filled and capped. As this part of the farmers operation grew, they began to develop small hand operated bottling operations. These early plants had no refrigeration so various means were developed to cool milk before it was placed in the glass bottles. One of these early day milk coolers and hand bottling machines are shown in this picture.
Some farmers bought cream separators which allowed them to separate their milk into skim and cream. This cream was used to make butter with some being sold for coffee and whipping cream. Most of these early bottling plants were all hand operated as farms had no electricity.
Fact: "Milk is one of two substances in the world whose sole purpose is to be a food." (The other is honey.)
Fact: "An average cow will spend six hours a day eating and an additional eight hours ruminating, or chewing her cud. She chews at a rate of 50 times per minute."
This old building material was used to construct the "Country Store" came from the Koen Family Farm in Van Zandt County. The lumber came from an old storage building and shed that once housed one of the first Model Ts in that county. This farm has been in the Koen Family since 1866 and recently received a certification as a "Century Ranch" by the Texas Department of Agriculture.
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| 1930s Bottling Plant |
What a difference "electricity" made by rural America. By the early 1930s many of the milk plants had grown in size so that faster equipment was needed to bottle the milk. Electricity became available in some areas, which allowed the use of electrically powered equipment in milk plants. Milk coolers, separators, homogenizers, and milk bottling equipment all appeared after electricity came to farms.
Milk was distributed in glass bottles at the time this homogenizer was introduced in 1932, and milk quality was judged by the color and size of the "cream line" in each bottle. This new homogenized milk with no cream line in the bottle was judged inferior and not as "rich" as other non-homogenized milk.
By 1955 virtually all milk was homogenized and by the mid-1960s the paper container had practically replaced the glass milk bottle.
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| Milk Cooling Unit |
Milk is a highly perishable food and must be utilized quickly after production. Cooling milk quickly and storing it at a temperature near 36 degrees keeps it fresh for several days. Early farmers used various means to cool their milk. Placing cans of milk or cream in vats of cold circulating water or placing cans in wells were two common ways to cool milk and cream. When electricity came to rural America, milk coolers appeared. Water coolers were developed that cooled milk in a tank. Cans of milk were stored in these coolers.
Question: How many pounds of milk does it take to make one pound of butter? (18; 28; 25; 21) Answer: It takes the cream from 21 pounds of milk - almost 2-1/2 gallons to make one pound of butter.
About 1955, bulk refrigerated tanks began to appear on southwest dairy farms. The first tanks were small - often having a capacity of 100 to 200 gallons. As farms increased in size, so did the milk storage tanks. Today may farms have tanks capable of holding 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 gallons of milk. Today's modern dairy farms with efficient milk cooling equipment produce milk that meets high quality standards.
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| Hand-operated vacuum pump |
This is a great story of the hand operate vacuum pump, as told by Verl Brainard of Enid, Oklahoma: In the 1920s by great grandfather, Herman Benkendorf operated a dairy farm in Garfield County, Oklahoma, milking 30 cows. Herman and his wife Freda had 6 children. The oldest four were girls. He knew they were approaching marrying age because the neighbor's boys were visiting quite frequently. One day soon his family labor was going to start shrinking. Herman was shopping in a catalog one day and saw an ad about a machine that would milk two cows at the same time. He thought what a wonderful machine that would be! He could bless his daughters into marriage and still maintain one of the largest dairies in Garfield County.
Finally the great day of anticipation arrived. The new machine was assembled and milking time arrived. Herman offered a challenge to his children. 'You children start milking at the far end of the barn, I'll start at the other end, and we'll see who can milk the most cows -- get started now cause I'll be milking two cows at a time.' Herman milked two cows that night while the children milked 28. With disappointment he cleaned his new machine and stored it in the grain barn, never to use again.
Riddle: What do you call a cow that can't give any milk? Answer: An Udder Failure!
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| Milk Delivery 1916 |
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| Can Moving 1920s |
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| Early Grade "A" Dairy 1955 |
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| Long Can Wagon 1920 |
Question: "What is the weight of the average dairy calf at birth? Answer: Jersey 45 pounds; Brown Swiss 85 pounds; Holstein 90 pounds."
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| The Creamery |
The Creamery is an authentic 1940's soda fountain at the museum, which dispenses old-fashioned malts, milk shakes, sundaes, ice cream sodas, banana splits, and the regular ice cream cones. We had some ice cream after we toured the museum and it was wonderful. Their ice cream is rich and tasted great. Unfortunately, we were told it is not sold in grocery stores; it's called Valley Farms. If you find any, let me know.
The Ice Cream Sunday was created in 1881 in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, by Ed C. Berners, who operated an ice cream shop. A customer asked Mr. Berners to put some chocolate sauce on his ice cream. Prior to this golden moment in time, chocolate sauce had been used only in ice cream sodas. But, Berners complied and the resulting concoction cost 5 cents. It was only served on Sundays.
Alaska is the number one ice cream eating state. Alaskans consume about six gallons of ice cream per person per year. The national average is four gallons, or sixteen quarts each, or about 53 billion scoops ... enough to serve everyone in the world 12 ice cream cones.
Riddle: Why did the cow jump over the moon? Answer: The farmer had cold hands.
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| Brown Swiss (Switzerland) |
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| Milking Shorthorn (Valley of the Tees River in England) |
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| Ayrshire (Scotland) |
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| Jersey (Isle of Jersey, English Channel off coast of France) |
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| Holstein (Holland) |
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| Ayrshire (Scotland) |
Cow Tales: In western Europe, people used to leave out saucers of milk for the house spirits to drink. They believed that this would keep the house free from bad spirits.
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| "Cal. C. Umm" |
Cal is a life-sized human skeleton, riding a bicycle complete with helmet and backpack, discussing the critical part of dairy products play in the prevention of bone disease and osteoporosis. Your bones should look like Cal's if you take care of yourself. Yes, we need to make sure we get enough calcium every day to keep our bones strong. Also, we need exercise.
Osteoporosis starts early in life if calcium rich foods are not consumed each day; however, it does not become visible until the many years later when an older adult begins to walk in a stooped position. The disease develops silently until the spinal column begins to compress from the weight of the body.
These two models show what happens to the spinal column if it's not taken care of. Yikes, I sure don't want to look like that. But I don't each much dairy as it kind of messes up my system. But I eat other foods rich in calcium, plus I take a calcium capsule every day. And of course, there's exercise - walking, push ups, weight lifting.
Quote of the day: "Love is an ice cream sundae; with all the marvelous coverings. Sex is the cherry on top." ~~ Jimmy Dean
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