Milking the Plains: movement of large dairy operations into southwestern Kansas.
Western Kansas has an historical identification with cattle, with a focus on cattle ranching and more specifically since the 1950s, beef-cattle feedlots. Since the mid-1990s large dairy operations have moved into southwestern Kansas. Today more than twenty large dairies house more than 70,000 milk cows. These operate as confined feeding operations similar to beef-cattle feedlots. Regional advantages for the dairy industry include affordable land with wide-open space, local residents' cattle- and dairy-friendly attitudes, and other factors. Regional promoters have actively recruited dairies, and a dairy-business support system has emerged. The prospects for continued expansion of dairies in southwestern Kansas are unclear; despite the locational advantages and the possibility that the industry may continue to relocate here, as did the cattle-feeding industry several decades ago, further moves into the area may depend on continued resources availability and additional infrastructure development.
Kansas State University.
Lisa M B
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Harrington
Max
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Lu
David E
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Kromm
D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D003611:Dairy Products / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D003612:Dairying / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004467:Economics / Q000266:history; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D019649:Food Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007615:Kansas / Q000208:ethnology