History of the dairy industry in Churchill County

When the bulk of the farmland surrounding Fallon was first homesteaded, around the time of the construction of Lahontan Dam, most farms were managed similarly. Alfalfa was the major crop grown. It was mowed with a horse drawn mower, that could cut about one acre per hour. The following day it would be raked and shocked. A few days later a harvest crew would pitch it onto slips (low trailers built about one foot above the ground) and it would be stacked as loose hay.

Often a few farmers in a neighborhood would jointly form a haying crew, then quickly harvest each farm's hay - one farm at a time. A year's supply of hay on a 40 or 80 acre farm would be 70-150 tons.

Most hay was fed on the farm where it was grown, with each farm having several horses plus six to 18 cows. The cows would be milked morning and night, by hand, or sometimes used as nurse cows. The milk would be put through a cream separator. The skim would be fed to calves, pigs, and chickens. A truck would make the rounds twice weekly to transport the cream to the M.P.A. (Milk Producers Association) plant on North Maine St., where it would be made into butter. Some of the farms adjacent to town would sell whole milk to their neighbors.

Before all farms had electricity, milk was cooled in the house in ice boxes. Fallon Ice Co. (located just North of M.P.A.) delivered blocks of ice through the area.

Nearly all farms had a few cows, but only a few had over 20 cows. Even so, the few dollars received from the cream checks were very important in providing the cash needed to purchase those things they could not provide for themselves, and to pay taxes and water costs.

During the 1940's several changes started. With labor shortages, due to many men gone in the armed services, many women began working in jobs outside the home. After the war, this continued. With outside cash income, often the cows, pigs, and chickens were discontinued. At the same time, health regulations began to require standards for any farms selling fluid milk.

This created a dairy market, where any farms wishing to continue selling milk were required to build Grade A barns and meet quality standards for cooling and storage of milk. Also milking machines came into use to do the milking. Many farms chose to quit milking cows, while others increased their herds to 3,050 cows per farm. About 60 grade A barns were built around Fallon between 1945 and 1960.

Between 1930 and 1960 the number of farms selling milk dropped from 200 to 60, but the 60 remaining were nearly all selling milk for fluid use. The M.P.A. co-op went bankrupt.

In the early 1960's farm bulk milk tanks came into use replacing milk cans. Farms either bought one, or quit milking cows. The number of farms selling milk dropped to 40, but the average herd size doubled to 80 cows per farm. Reno was now the principle market for milk. A chaotic period in marketing brought about the formation of milk marketing cooperatives - Associated Nevada Dairymen and All-Jersey, in order to fairly tailor milk supplies to market needs and assure the producer a fair price for his milk.

In the 1980's milk plant efficiencies dropped the number of milk plants in western Nevada to two. These could be more efficient if they concentrated on fluid milk only, so both co-ops merged into California Gold, a major milk marketing cooperative in California.

Today, herd sizes average 200-2,500 cows per farm. Those herds with mediocre management have dropped out. Most dairies today purchase some or all of their roughage, and all purchase most of their concentrate feeds. They gross an average of several million dollars per farm yearly. The 14 farms provide work for about 125 families. They are the market for a significant portion of locally-grown alfalfa hay and haylage. Also, they are major customers for farm machinery, dairy equipment repairs, trucking, and farm and dairy supply businesses. Revenue entering Churchill County from export of fluid milk is about $20-30 million dollars per year.

Gains in production efficiency have been spectacular. From a production per cow in 1939 of about 5,500 lbs. of milk, today each cow averages approximately 19,000 lbs., an increase of 350%. In 1939 an hour of labor would yield about 40 lbs. of milk. Today an hour of labor will produce about 750 lbs. of milk - 19 times as much! What other industries have improved efficiencies this much?

Some of the changes are:

• Artificial insemination. In the 1930's and before, all matings were to bulls. A.I. started in the late 1940's with a few herds and fresh semen, then 10 years later with frozen semen. Today most dairy matings result from A.I. New technologies such as Embryo Transfer are starting to be used.

• Milking machines. In the 1930's almost all cows were milked by hand. Over the years since, milking equipment has constantly been improved. Today, automatic take-off units are standard and many dairies use computers to constantly monitor production of individual cows.

• Milk handling and quality. From hand-milking into a pail in the 1930's, then pouring the milk through a strainer, milk now flows through pipelines and is instantly cooled to 38 degrees. It is transported in 6,300-gallon stainless tankers to milk plants where it is standardized, pasteurized and homogenized. From keeping only a few hours before turning sour years ago, milk will now keep very well for several weeks.

• Record keeping and management. From writing a few dates on a calendar 60 years ago, computers are now commonplace on Churchill County dairy farms. We know how much milk each cow produces every day, the percent protein, the percent butterfat and even the somatic cells to measure milk quality. We analyze what bull might sire the best daughter from each cow. We carefully plan what feeds will allow a cow to remain healthy and produce the most milk at the least cost. We consult with the veterinarian to plan what vaccines are most likely to keep our cattle healthy. We monitor with records, everything that has happened, we project into the future when each cow will calve again, and what is her probable performance.

The future of the dairy industry in Churchill County is in good hands.

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I wished to comment on the passing of Della Oats - a long time and important fixture in the history of Fallon. Her father-in-law donated the land that became Oats Park School and Oats Park about a century ago.

Indeed the land that Lahontan Valley News building sits on was part of the Oats Brothers corrals until 1968. Oats Bros. was the most successful breeding dairy herd of any breed in Nevada for many years, supplying dairy bulls to many of Nevada's early dairy herds in the days before artificial insemination.

Della herself was an outstanding teacher and raised two fine children. For a number of years, the Oats Bros. donated a fine heifer every year to the winner of the 4-H showmanship contest at the Nevada State Fair in Fallon. Probably a number of these winners still are part of the community.

John and Eleanor Oats' farm, where the hay was grown, was along Schurz Highway on the west side, south of the fairgrounds and north of St. Clair Road, now owned by the Gomes family.