WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Marathon County Historical Society is hosting a presentation Saturday on the dairy industry in Wisconsin.
Part of the society’s History Speaks series Patrick Geoghegan of the Wisconsin Dairy Farmers will host a talk about the origins of dairy in Wisconsin, the evolution of the industry and where dairy is headed on Saturday, October 20th at 2 pm.
Sandy Block the program director for the Marathon County Historical Society explains the current impact of the dairy industry has on Wisconsin that will be discussed during the talk. “Wisconsin’s dairy industry as a whole is 43 billion dollars worth of economic impact on Wisconsin. And that is many times more than Florida oranges is in Florida and Idaho potatoes are for Idaho.
The talk ties into an exhibit open at the Woodson History Center. The exhibit titled Milking Time: Evolution of the Dairy Industry in Marathon County details the beginning of dairy in the area. Block describes some of the features of the exhibit. “Part of the exhibit is on building barns. So there’s a model of a barn and there are some tools that were used by a man who built a lot of barns in Marathon County. We have maps of where cheese factories were in 1930.”
Block suggests allowing time to take a look at the exhibit before or after the presentation. She feels the presentation coupled with the exhibit allows for a unique learning experience. “There’s just a lot of history and this will give people another way to learn about an important part of our economy.”
The talk titled The Milk Industry in Wisconsin, begins at 2 pm on Saturday at the Woodson History Center. Admission is free and the program lasts for about an hour.
