CHAPTER 1 The Not-So-Big Cheese State Line Road is one of those unique spots where you can actually hop across state lines On the south side Illinois the Land of Lincoln A few steps north America’s Dairyland Wisconsin Rightly enough Highfield Farm Creamery sits on the Dairyland side of the street This tiny farmstead is home to a happy herd of 19 cows It’s also home to the cows caretakers cheese makers Terry and Denise Woods Travel with us to meet Terry and Denise and to learn about what it takes to keep Wisconsin’s smallest milking parlor churning 4 21st century skills library
Highfield Farm Creamery helps Wisconsin earn its nickname of America’s Dairyland
BEFORE 15,000 YEARS AGO DOG Eurasia 15,000 YEARS AGO SILKWORM East Asia 7,500 YEARS AGO LLAMA South America 6,000 YEARS AGO 5,000 YEARS AGO CHICKEN East Asia and Middle East 4,000 YEARS AGO SHEEP Middle East 11,000 YEARS AGO GOAT Middle East 10,500 YEARS AGO 10,000 YEARS AGO PIG Middle East 10,300 YEARS AGO CATMiddle East 9,500 YEARS AGO HONEY BEE Middle East 10,000 YEARS AGO COWMiddle East 10,300 YEARS AGO HORSE Central Asia 5,500 YEARS AGO CAMEL TWO Central Asia HUMP 4,500 YEARS AGO A HISTORY OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS CAMEL ONE Central Asia HUMP 3,000 YEARS AGO TURKEY North America 2,000 YEARS AGO DUCK East Asia and Middle East 1,000 YEARS AGO TODAY HAMSTER Middle East LAST 100 YEARS Dogs are thought to be the first domesticated animal Wisconsin is one of America’s leading milk and cheese producers It has more dairy farms than any other state and is home to more than 1 2 million cows Each year these cows produce more than 30 billion pounds 13 6 billion kilograms of milk making Wisconsin second only to California in milk production Wisconsin is also the place where that milk gets made into cheese Whether American or cheddar mozzarella or feta Wisconsin makes more cheese than any other place in 6 21st century skills library
the United States It’s no wonder that fans of the state’s only professional football team the Green Bay Packers proudly call themselves Cheeseheads Some Wisconsin megafarms house up to 5,000 cows These massive operations send the cows milk to manufacturing plants There it’s processed into cheese Workers monitor giant vats and operate conveyor belts From Wild Ox to Docile Cow Like goats sheep and pigs cows were first domesticated in the Middle East By examining fossilized DNA evidence archaeologists archaeologists have learned that humans began to capture and tame wild oxen into cattle around 10,500 years ago This would have been a huge challenge for our ancient ancestors These wild oxen were much larger and not nearly as mild-mannered as the cows we know today 7 Nature’s Makers
