Authors

C. Larsen

Bulletin No.

134

Document Type

Bulletin

Department

Dairy Husbandry Department

Description

At the present time the dairy business in South Dakota is not practiced intensively except by comparatively few farmers. Dairying is carried on largely as a side line. In this connection the readers should bear in mind that South Dakota is a new state and that it has been and still is in a transitional period. It is passing through the different farming stages through which all other great agricultural states have passed, with this difference, that the duration of the various stages between range farming and the more intensive mixed system of permanent agriculture is much shorter. The rise in value of land, the increase in rural population, the higher price of crops, and the depletion of soil by continuous cropping in South Dakota: have been so rapid, that it is somewhat difficult for the average tiller of the soil to keep pace with necessary farming progress. The dairy business is practiced on the majority of South Dakota farms. According to the Thirteenth United States Census, seventy-eight per cent of all farms in South Dakota keep cows for milk. About 52 per cent of all cows over two years old are classed as dairy cows. The average number of cows per dairy farm is six. During the last decade from 1900 to 1910 the number of dairy cattle increased from 270,634 to 369,764. From the above data it is evident that the dairy business in South Dakota is increasing, but not intensively practice except in few instances.

Keywords

milk, butterfat, creamery, dairy industry, dairy farming

Pages

23

Publication Date

3-1912

Type

text

Format

application/pdf

Language

en

Publisher

South Dakota Experiment Station, South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts

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