It was founded in 1885 by William D. Hoard as a supplement to the Jefferson County Union and is published in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

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.

[3]: 57 [4]: 368–369 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.

[5]: 160  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.

[10] Described by the Los Angeles Times as the "best-known dairy farm in the world," the property was used as a means to increase the credibility of the Dairyman and as a place to conduct agricultural experiments.