A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Byline: James Stemper, WMMB District 18 Director

The best way to understand why Wisconsin is considered "America's Dairyland" is to take a drive through the countryside almost anywhere in the state. As I drive from my farm in eastern Wisconsin to WMMB functions and dairy meetings in other parts of the state, I am constantly amazed at how the dairy industry is so much a part of our landscape. Farms are never far from view. Cows graze in pastures and on hillsides. Farmers work their fields as they grow crops for our 1.2 million dairy cows. Milk trucks take the milk from our farms to dairy plants and cheese factories across the state. Semi trucks transport the cheese and dairy products to supermarkets in Wisconsin and across the country. All of these are familiar sights on our local town and state roads and our interstate highways.

This past fall, WMMB produced two printed promotional items that really capture the sights and tastes of Wisconsin's dairy and cheese industry. The first printed piece is a collection of 10 full-color postcards that showcases the people, places and products that make up Wisconsin's $20.6 billion dairy business. The cover photo on the Wisconsin – America's Dairyland Postcard Collection is of a Brown Swiss cow named Popcorn, one of Wisconsin's 1.2 million REAL happy cows.

The second promotion item is an updated version of WMMB's popular Traveler's Guide to Wisconsin Cheese, Beer and Wine map which was produced a few years ago. This new Wisconsin map features the location of 139 cheesemakers, breweries and wineries located all over the state. In addition to names, addresses and locations, the map also contains other helpful information such as website addresses and tours.

This colorful map also contains fun facts about our state's dairy industry, such as:

• Colby cheese is a Wisconsin original created in the 1870's in the small town of Colby.
• Wisconsin is the ONLY state in the country to make Limburger cheese, and it is all produced in a single cheese plant in Green County.
• One out of every four pounds of cheese sold in the United States is produced by a Wisconsin cheesemaker.
• The Wisconsin State Quarter was the first state quarter to depict an agricultural theme featuring a cow, a wheel of cheese and an ear of corn.

Visit www.WisDairy.com/map to request a free copy of the Taster's Guide to Wisconsin map. To obtain a free copy of the America's Dairyland Postcard Collection, go to www.WisDairy.com/postcard to request your set, or call WMMB at 1-800-373-9662 to request a copy.

James Stemper milks 400 cows with his wife Mary Ann, children Tom, Ken and Helen and daughter-in-law Silvana. He has served on the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board for 13 years.