The
Dairyman was founded in 1885 in
Fort Atkinson,
Wisconsin, by
William D. Hoard as an expansion of regular agriculture columns he wrote in the
Jefferson County Union. It began as a four-page
folio supplement to the
Union and became a wholly separate publication in 1889. The publication grew rapidly, rising from 700 subscriptions to the folio in its first year to more than 6,000 subscriptions by 1889. Hoard used the magazine to advocate for new agricultural techniques, including the use of
alfalfa as cattle feed, the use of
silos to store
silage, and the use of the
Babcock test to measure the level of
butterfat in milk. Advocacy for the use of silos had particular success; by 1925, one-fourth of all silos in the United States were on the farms of
Dairyman subscribers. Hoard also used the magazine to advocate for legislation, such as using the
Dairyman to organize a letter writing campaign to increase regulations on the sale of
oleomargarine in 1895. Hoard led the publication until his death in 1918, when he was succeeded as
managing editor by Arthur J. Glover. By the mid-1920s, the
Dairyman had an international audience, with readers in Japan, Australia, and England. By 1985,
circulation had grown to 180,000 in 104 countries. That year, 91% of milk producers in the United States received the
Dairyman. As of 2021, circulation of the magazine had declined to 47,650. ==Hoard's Dairyman Farm==