California dairy industry

[3] The California gold rush fueled demand for dairy, which until then was scarce, expensive and shipped from the East coast or Chile.

[3] In 1857, the first commercial California dairy was founded and the leading dairy was located in Point Reyes, thanks to the first large scale dairy ranch operation by the Steele Brothers who bought an 18,000 acre ranch in San Mateo County and later a larger ranch in San Luis Obispo County, and the Laird brothers.

Temperate climate and long seasons for grass growing in the coastal areas, particularly in San Luis Obispo, Sonoma county and Humboldt County, California benefited the development of the dairy industry.

[3] In 1870s cultivatation of alfalfa with irrigated water began in San Joaquin Valley and local production of butter and cheese equaled consumption; by 1880 there were already 210,000 milk cows in California.

[2]: 28 As of 2006, the Inland Empire, formerly one of California's largest areas for dairy farming, had lost a significant amount of land to real estate development.

[6] In 2018, the Trump trade war led China to put retaliatory tariffs on US dairy products.

[10] Since only part of the feed is local forage produced on other California farms, the rest must be shipped in from other states and also Canadian provinces, causing emissions from transportation.

In 1893, it was renamed the California Dairy Association and dealt with distribution, quality standards and benchmarking prices.

[11] In 1940, the Dairymen’s Union of California was renamed the American Dairy Association, to promote U.S. milk products to consumers through advertising.