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THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

SOME GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF DAIRYING IN ALBERTA

BY

AUSTIN A . LUPTON

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE
STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

OF

MASTER OF ARTS

EDMONTON, ALBERTA
APRIL, 1965

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

The undersigned certify that they have read,
recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies
acceptance, a thesis entitled Some Geographic
Aspects of Dairying in Alberta, submitted by
Austin A. Lupton in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

and
f or
a 1

ABSTRACT

Agricultural surveys of the Canadian west rarely stress
that farmers on the prairies contributed over a fifth of
Canada’s total milk production in 1961, A major portion of
this output comes from numerous mixed farms which are located
on extensive tracts of some of the most fertile soils in Can¬
ada. The fact that the manufacture of butter is in excess of
provincial needs is also often missed. Nevertheless farmers
in this province traditionally have supplied butter to the
British Columbia market. Milk production for fluid sales is
increasing in importance because urban populations have been
growing rapidly in Alberta since the second world war. Cor¬
respondingly, dairying adjacent to these domestic markets is
shifting from a secondary operation to a more commercial one.

The tempo of agricultural specialization is intensifying
and dairying too, is coming to be a better managed segment of
the farm economy in this province. The pressures leading to
this development are, to a large degree, of a commercial na¬
ture although provincial policies are equally important in
limited areas.

The geographical location of mixed farming and dairying
is linked to many variables, among which may be cited economic
demand, the physical environment and availability of trans¬
portation. Overt manifestations of cultural differences in
Alberta, as far as dairying is concerned, appear to be minimal

t

although the ethnic origin of the farmers is diverse. Agri¬
cultural specialization seems correlated with the generalized
climatic and resultant soil zones. Hence these generalized
soil zones have been employed as one of the bases for an areal
differentiation of the characteristics associated with dairy¬
ing throughout the province.

A discussion of the two major milksheds in Alberta has
been included because they provide an opportunity to study
specialized dairying and the forces affecting its location
in greater detail.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks are due to the following people who

provided information and much of their time:

R. S. Ellis, Chief, Agricultural Section, Census Division,

Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

R. E. English, Statistician, Farm Economics Branch, Dept.

of Agriculture, Alberta.

M. Ippolito, Milk Inspector, Milk Control Section, Board of

Public Utilities, Alberta.

W. Magrath, Chief Clerk, Dairy Branch, Dept, of Agriculture,

A lbert a .

B. J. McBain, Supervisor, Farm Cost Studies, Farm Economics

Branch, Dept, of Agriculture, Alberta.

D. H. McCallum, Dairy Commissioner, Dairy Branch, Dept, of

Agriculture, Alberta.

J. B. Moore, Administrator, Milk Control Section, Board of

Public Utilities, Alberta.

L. W. Rasmusson, Supervisor of District Agriculturists,

Extension Branch, Dept, of Agriculture, Alberta.

Further acknowledgement is made to Mr. G. Sitwell for
his valuable remarks regarding the revision of this thesis
and especially to Dr. A. H. Laycock for his patient super¬
vision. Mrs. M. G. Allison is thanked for her competent

typing of this thesis.

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT . ................ . . iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . .................... v

CONTENTS. ...... . ............. vi

LIST OF MAPS. . ................ vii

LIST OF FIGURES .....................vii

LIST OF TABLES . ix

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . xi

INTRODUCTION . xii

CHAPTER I PHYSICAL BACKGROUND AND REGIONAL

VARIATIONS IN FARMING AND DAIRYING. .... 1

CHAPTER II A SHORT HISTORY OF DAIRYING IN ALBERTA. . . 25

CHAPTER III TRENDS OF SPECIALIZATION OF DAIRYING

IN ALBERTA. ................ 40

CHAPTER IV THE DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTER OF

DAIRYING IN ALBERTA . ..... 66

CHAPTER V MILKSHEDS . . 112

CHAPTER VI CONCLUSIONS ................ 142

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

147

Vll

LIST OF MAPS

Number
1 A

1 B

2

3

4

5

6

7 A
7 B
7 C

7 D

8

9

10

11

12

13

Map

Physical Regions, .............

Climatic Regions, .............

Cows and Heifers as a Percentage of Total
Cattle Numbers and Cows Milked as a Per¬
centage of Cows and Heifers ........

Degree of Breeding of Dairy Cattle. © „ . .

Cows and Heifers Kept for Milk, 1921-1961 .

Milk Production, 1921 - 1951. .......

Distribution of Dairy Cattle in Alberta,
1961. ...................

Overlays Generalized Soil Zones

Average Precipitation, 1921-1950. . . . . .

Average Deficit, 1921-1950 . ........

Frost Free Period . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Protein Content of Hard Red Spring Wheat. .

Uses of Milk in Alberta Expressed as a
Percentage of Total Milk Production,

192 1-1951 « « ® © « ® ® . . . ® « ® . . ® .

Seasonal Fluctuation of Butter Production .

Distribution of Dairy Farms in Alberta,
1961. . . © © . © ® © © © © © . © © © © © ©

The Edmonton Milkshed, 1937 ......©.

The Edmonton Milkshed, 1964 ........

Overlay: Physiographic Units

The Calgary Milkshed, 1964. . .

2

2

. 45

. 51
. 71

. 73

. 77

. 86
. 86
. 86
. 86

. 96
© 99

. 110
. 119
. 125

. 134

VI 1 1

Number

1

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

Milk Production - Cows And Heifers Kept
For Milk-Cows Milked In Alberta,

1906 - 1961 . . 42

IX

LIST OF TABLES

Number Table Page

I All Census Farms - Average Size, Labour

Expended, and Gross Income - 1961 . ...... 5

II All Census Farms - Dairy Production, Income

Received and Disposal of Milk - 1961 . 10

III Dairy Statistics for the Prairie Provinces

- 1961 . . . . 12

IV Dairy Farming Areas in Alberta and Manitoba. . 15

V A Comparison of Farms in Dairy Areas in

Alberta and Ontario . . 22

VI Dairy Returns as a Percentage of Cash

Income from the Sale of Farm Products in
Alberta . 40

VII Farms with Dairy Cows Which Were Milked as

a Pe rcentage of the Total Number of Census
Farms. . . ............. 41

VIII Registration of Purebred Holstein Cattle ... 49

IX Production per Cow . . . . 56

X Average Size of Herd . . 61

XI Herd Size by Census Division in 1961 . 63

XII Milk Production in '000,000 Pounds for the

Month of May 1961 for 15 Census Divisions. . . 74

XIII Dairy Cows Expressed as a Percentage of

Total Cow Numbers for Five Soil Zones - 1961 . 82

XIV Milk Production Expressed as a Percentage
of Total Milk Production for Three Major

Soil Zones, 1926-61. ............. 90

XV The Number of Farms with Milk Production

Expressed as a Percentage of Total Farms -
and - The Number of Farms Reporting Milk or
Cream Sales Expressed as a Percentage of the
Number of Farms with Milk Production in Each
Census Division and in Three Generalized
Soil Zones . .

93

X

Number Table Page

XVI Fluid Milk Sales Expressed as a Percentage
of Total Milk Produced in each Census

Division - 1961. . . . 97

XVII Value of Agricultural Products Sold By

15 Census Divisions Expressed as a Percentage

of Total Income Received from the Sale of

Farm Products - 1960 . 102

XVIII Annual Milk Production and the Number of

Licensed Milk Shippers in the Edmonton
Controlled Area - Selected Years . 127

XIX Milk Production by Physiographic Unit-1964 . . 129

XX Annual Milk Production and the Number of

Licensed Milk Shippers in the Calgary
Controlled Area - Selected Years . 133

XXI Some Characteristics of Dairy Farms in

Two Milksheds - 1961 .

138

XI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Number

Illustration

Page

1

Mixed breed cows

in Northern Alberta

53

2

Grade Holsteins
farming in the
district .

associated with mixed
Bonnyville-St . Paul

53

3

Purebred Holstei
Mi lkshed .

ns in the Edmonton

53

Xll

INTRODUCTION

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

This thesis has been undertaken with the intention of
examining the trends of dairy farming and determining the char¬
acter and relative impoftance of dairying throughout Alberta,
with special emphasis on dairying in the major soil zones.

These trends and patterns are described and then discussed with
reference to physical, economic, and political variables.

Dairying is not evenly distributed throughout the province
of Alberta; rather, there are specific areas of concentration
in which local market or physical conditions make it feasible.
In the first case dairying is highly profitable and takes place
in spite of the local physical geography because proximity to
market is an overriding factor in the production of a bulky,
perishable product. In the second instance, dairying ranges
from a significant part of a crop- livestock economy to a last
resort for farmers who are still engaged in clearing the bulk
of their land or who are operating under physical conditions
which limit the long term production of all but a few fodder
crops .

Dairying is not an extremely important aspect of Al¬
berta’s farm economy in terms of the proportion that it con-
tributes to total farm income. For example, dairying in Al¬
berta contributed 7.4 per cent of the total gross agricultural
income in 1961 and the most it has ever contributed to farm

Xlll

income is 11.7 per cent in 1931. Dairying however, is import¬
ant in other less obvious ways: it is complementary to beef,
veal and hog production; it provides a fairly predictable source
of income which is earned throughout the year, rather than re¬
ceived in a lump sum at the end of a particular season; it adds
stability to the mixed farming economy in periods of crop fail¬
ure or economic setback; and lastly, the manufacture of dairy
products on a provincial scale helps to keep small urban centres
economically viable and provides needed employment for under¬
employed farm personnel.

Although dairying receives a great deal of attention from
the provincial government and the local dairymen's associations,
few attempts have been made to describe its location or how its
character varies from place to place. This kind of survey must
be executed before certain specialized aspects of the industry
can be examined. It is with the aim of partially fulfilling
this need that this thesis has been undertaken. Needless to
say, a geographer, because of his training, is particularly
concerned with these aspects of the industry.

PROCEDURE

Many of the data for this study have been gathered from
field work, personal interviews, and mailed questionnaires.

One hundred and twenty dairy plant managers, the heads and
other personnel of various provincial departments, and numer¬
ous farmers and provincial district agriculturists were inter¬
viewed during the summer of 1963. This study was made possible

XIV

through the courtesy of the Alberta Department of Agriculture,
the Board of Public Utilities, and an intersessiona 1 bursary
awarded by the University of Alberta.

Mr. R. S. Ellis, Chief, Agricultural Section, Census Div¬
ision, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, provided census materials
for areas much smaller than the normal reporting census units.
This enabled the author to construct fairly accurate dot maps
depicting the distribution of dairy cattle and dairy farms and
furthermore these distributions could be correlated more precise¬
ly with edaphic, climatic, and market characteristics. All of
the foregoing data were placed in historical perspective and
related to pertinent physical and cultural elements to provide
a comprehensive survey of dairying. The task was not particu¬
larly easy because numerous elements, both singly and in combi¬
nation, have contributed to the present character and distri¬
bution of the dairy industry of Alberta.

CHAPTER I

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND AND REGIONAL VARIATIONS
IN FARMING AND DAIRYING

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Physiography

Alberta is the westernmost prairie province, located be¬
tween 49° and 60° north latitude and between 110° and 120° west
longitude in the north and 110° and 115° west longitude in the
south. Almost the entire area of this province lies within
the plains physiographic region; the Canadian shield and the
Cordilleran region occupy a small part of the northeast corner
and the southwest side respectively (Map la). Relatively
young, poorly consolidated sedimentary rock composed largely
of Cretaceous and Tertiary shale, sandstone, and conglomerates
overlaying older sedimentary strata belonging to the Palaeozoic
era is the major constituent of the plains region. The parent
material for these rocks was derived for the most part from
sediments deposited on the bed of a shallow sea which had in¬
vaded the heart of North America several times, although some
rocks were formed from continental deposits. When the sea re¬
treated in the Cenozoic era a fairly flat plain remained
which sloped toward the east in the southern and central
parts of the province and to the north in northern Alberta.

The western edge of the platform has been gradually warped
upwards with the building of the Rocky Mountains late in the

.

2

Map 1 A Physical Regions

- •-

3

Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic and during the Tertiary per¬
iod of the Cenozoic era. The entire area has been subjected to
several stages of uplift and consequently also to subaerial
erosion for the greater part of its history, but the evidence
for these geologic events is partially obscured by glacial de¬
posits which were laid down during the Pleistocene period by
continental and alpine glaciers from the Keewatin centre and
Rocky Mountains respectively.

The most recent major erosive agent is running water which
seemingly has not yet been too effective because many of the
glacial deposits are still quite distinct and fresh in appear¬
ance .

Clima te

Two important features of the geographic location of Al¬
berta profoundly affect the climate of this area: first, the
northerly position of the province, and, second, its conti¬
nental position in the lee of the Rocky Mountains. This lat¬
ter feature has made the continental climate in Alberta much
more arid than it might normally be because the westerly winds
bringing the rain-bearing maritime Pacific air masses have
lost much of their moisture through orographic uplift by the
time they reach Alberta. Although the province receives, on
the average, small amounts of precipitation when compared with
the west coast of Canada or southern Ontario, it is quite ef¬
fective for agriculture because the bulk of it falls in the

growing season.

4

There is a latitudinal zonation of climatic types within
the province which are classified by the Koeppen system (Map
lb), from north to south, as: subarctic, humid continental
cool summer, middle latitude steppe and along the western
boundary the undifferentiated highland climate of the Rocky
Mountains. These climatic types indicate that the mean temper¬
ature increases generally from north to south while both the
actual and effective precipitation decreases. The middle lati¬
tude steppe climatic zone is especially noted for its aridity
because potential evapotranspira tion exceeds actual evapotrans-
piration resulting in drought conditions for most kinds of vege¬
tation. Farther north, in the humid continental cool summer
climatic zone, drought is less likely because, not only is pre¬
cipitation greater, but it is also more effective because the
average temperature is lower. This favorable condition is off¬
set by a slightly shorter growing season and a greater likeli-

1

hood of frost during the growing period.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FARMS IN CANADA

The following comparison of farming and dairying through¬
out Canada and within the prairie provinces is of value be¬
cause it places the study in context and indicates the import¬
ance of dairying in Alberta in a relative and absolute sense.

One of the most apparent conclusions of a general analysis
of Canadian farms as shown in Table I, is that productivity

1. The effects of rainfall, drought and frost on agriculture
are discussed in greater detail in Chapter IV.

■4

Table I

5

All Census Farms - Average Size, Labour Expended
and Gross Income - 1961

Region

Farm
Size
in acres

Popula¬

tion

per farm

Total Weeks of
Labour Expend¬
ed per, Farm

Income in
Dollars
per acre

Gross
Income
Per farm

Canada

359

4.5

23.1

12.5

4500

Mar it imes

161

5.0

23.2

15.0

2410

Eastern Canada

* 151

5.1

28.0

30.5

4605

Prairies

614

3.6

17 .5

7.6

4660

-k~k

West Coast

226

4.3

32.0

19.0

4300

Source: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada,
1961, Ottawa.

Canada. Dept, of Agriculture, Economics Division,

Current Review of Agricultural Conditions in Canada,

Vol. 24, No. 1, January 1963.

* Ontario and Quebec
** British Columbia.

per acre varies from region to region. Prairie farms appear
enormous in areal extent when compared with those of Ontario
and Quebec. In one sense, however, they are the same size, be¬
cause although the farms differed in area in 1961 they yielded
roughly the same total gross income (see Table 1). Income per
acre in the east was over four times as high as in the west so
that the farmer with a 151 acre agricultural enterprise in
Ontario or Quebec received, on the average, 4,605 dollars of
gross income; the same gross income received by the average
prairie farmer with a farm 614 acres in extent. This kind of
comparison of the productivity of farms is not valid for all

■

6

years because prairie agricultural income varies markedly in
response to climatic setbacks or fluctuation in international
demand for farm products. Nevertheless the relative position
of each region of Canada, as shown in Table I, does not fluctu¬
ate over tie long term. This comparison is not valid for all of
Canada in 1961 either unless both the percentage of the total
farm area actually used for agriculture and the number of part-
time farmers is considered. Gross income per farm for the
Maritimes, for example, is much lower than in any other part
of Canada because only 38 per cent of the total farm area is

improved and because a large number of the farms are really

2

only part-time operations.'" Thirty-eight percent is an un¬
weighted mean and is likely still too high because the 'smallest
province, Prince Edward Island, has the largest amount of im¬
proved land per farm. The comparison is not valid if other
measures of productivity are considered such as, net income,
or, profit per worker, since prairie farmers received larger
net returns which are partially related to a more efficient
operation due to economies of scale, and to different types
of operation.

Differences in output per acre in the various regions
cannot be attributed to physical factors alone, such as fertil¬
ity of the soil and climatic conditions, because there are
regional crop specializations that demand various degrees of
labour and capital inputs. For example, if Ontario attempted

to compete with the West on the same crop basis then the con-

2. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada,
1961, Ottawa.

7

trast in income per acre would not be so marked. (The long
term wheat yields per acre in the prairie provinces and Ont¬
ario is 16.4 and 25.5 bushels per acre respectively. Comput¬
ing the wheat yield for the average sized farm in each region
would show that 3,902 bushels could be grown in Ontario whereas
the prairie farm would yield 10,080 bushels. Even if the dif¬
ference in price between hard wheat and Ontario grown, lower
priced, soft wheat is ignored, there would be marked contrasts
in income which not even average transportation costs to the
lake head of 18 cents per bushel on western wheat, could erase.

The number of weeks of labour expended per farm indicated
in Table I, may provide a rough indication of the type of agri¬
cultural pursuit undertaken in the various regions of Canada.
Intensity of labour as a crop indicator should be used with
caution because it does not indicate underemployment on the
farm. A case in point is British Columbia which appears in
Table I to have the most intensive kind of farming in terms
of labour inputs, in all of Canada. Much of the farming on
the Fraser delta or in the Okanagan valley is intensive but
no more so than in Ontario or Quebec. A possible explanation
for the high average figure for labour inputs is that 45 per
cent of the farms in British Columbia are either of a part-
time nature or sold less than 1,200 dollars worth of agricul¬
tural produce in 1961. The latter figure probably indicates

3.

Pers. comm., R. E. English, Statistician, Farm Economics
Branch, Alberta Department of Agriculture.

8

that the operators were underemployed . - Labour used on the
average farm in the Maritimes or Eastern Canada in 1961 was
above the mean for Canada as a whole , whereas the average
length of the work period on a prairie farm was the lowest for
the entire nation.

One of the reasons for the disparity in the amount of
labour expended per farm is the type of farming undertaken.
Dairy farming as a commercial enterprise is exceeded only by
horticulture in terms of the amount of labour needed for a suc¬
cessful operation. Both of the farming regions in the east
acquired a major portion of their total gross farm income from
this type of farming in 1961 whereas dairy receipts constitut¬
ed roughly 7.4 per cent of total gross farm income on the
prairies. This suggests one of the deterrents to dairying on
the prairies. Because population densities are lower here

y

than in the rest of Canada, not only is a market lacking for
milk products but labour generally is not as plentiful and
labour costs are likely to be higher. Therefore other types
of farming are able to compete more favourably for the farm¬
er's time. When the additional factor of low cost land is
considered then it becomes just as, if not more, profitable
to farm extensively on the prairies with fewer labour inputs
as it is to farm more intensively on higher cost land in the
eastern regions.

Canada, Dept, of Agriculture, Economics Division, Current
Review of Agricultural Conditions in Canada, Vol. 24,

No. 1, January 1963, p. 20 0

4.

I

9

A REGIONAL COMPARISON OF MILK PRODUCTION IN CANADA

If milk production per acre of land in farms is accepted
as one of the indices of the degree of agricultural speciali¬
zation, then Eastern Canada is the major dairy region for all
of Canada and the Prairie Provinces are least involved with
this kind of farming enterprise (see Table II). The percentage
breakdown of cash income would appear to substantiate this con¬
clusion because farmers in Eastern Canada earned 26.4 per cent
of their gross farm revenue from dairying and farmers on the
prairies only 7.4 per cent. This is not unexpected, of course,
because the Prairie Region has traditionally been noted for
wheat and, more recently, for beef production. However, it is
not generally appreciated that the Prairie Provinces produced
approximately 21 per cent of the total milk production in Can¬
ada in 1961, which is more than the production of British Col¬
umbia and the Maritime region combined. However a much smal¬
ler proportion of the milk produced in the Prairie Region is
sold as fluid milk; therefore there are fewer specialized
milk producers here than in other parts of Canada. On the
other hand the proportion of milk sold to creameries for but¬
ter production is higher on the prairies (see Table II).

Cream sales are important because market possibilities for
fluid milk are low and because production of this commodity
is an important component of a mixed farming and general live¬
stock economy. Up to 90 per cent of the milk produced for
cream sales remains on the farm as skim milk which means that

Table II

All Census Farms - Dairy Production, Income
Received and Disposal of Milk - 1961

10

Milk Pro-

Percentage

Disposal of Milk ;

as

duction in

of Gross Farm

a Perce

?ntage

of

Pounds per

Income Received

Total

Production

Region

acre of land From Sale of

Fluid

Cream

Ret

ain-

in Farms *

Dairy Products

sales

sales

ed

Canada

10.0

15.9

57.0

31.0

12

.0

Mar i time

s

16.5

21.0

40.5

35.2

24

.3

Eastern

Canada

36.7

26.4

68.5

22.7

8

.8

Prairies

3.0

7.4

20.5

61.3

18

.2

West Coa

St

16.0

24.4

87.0

4.3

8

.7

Sour ce :

Canada

. Dominion

Bureau of Statisti

cs, Census of

Canada ,

1961,

Ottawa .

Canada. Dept, of Agriculture, Economics Division,
Current Review of Agricultural Conditions in Canada,

Vol. 24, No. 1, January 1963.

For month of May 1961.

prairie milk producers retain a larger percentage of their total
milk production as animal food for hogs and beef calves, than
do producers in the east. (A correlation coefficient computed
on a nation wide basis for the production of milk for cream and
raising of hogs and cattle indicates that there is a high de¬
gree of correlation between these activities.) Therefore,
although money received from the sale of dairy products total¬
led only 7.4 per cent of Alberta’s gross farm receipts in 1961,

5. r is .8 for milk for cream and hogs and .6 for cream and
beef cattle. Both values are significant at the .05
level. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coeffici¬
ent was computed using data by provinces from the 1961
Census of Canada.

11

dairying is in fact indirectly providing additional income
through the marketing of livestock. This is also an important
source of income in eastern Canada in an absolute sense, but
it is not an important aspect of the dairy industry in a rela¬
tive sense because a much smaller proportion of the total milk
output which is used for animal feed is retained on farms here
either as skim or whole milk (see Table II).

Dairying on the Prairies

Alberta leads the Prairie Provinces in the number of milk
cows and in total milk production. The dairy industry is not,
however, as important in a relative sense to this province as
it is to Manitoba because it contributes a smaller proportion
of the total gross agricultural income (see Table III). Com¬
parison of average herd size, the percentage of total census
farms reporting cows kept for milk and the percentage of com¬
mercial farms reported as dairy establishments, indicate that
dairying is most important in Manitoba followed by Alberta and
Saskatchewan .

Milk is utilized in differing proportions for various
purposes in each province. Alberta emphasizes the industrial
uses of milk. When compared to the other two provinces Al¬
berta uses almost twice as much milk to manufacture cheese
and miscellaneous products and slightly more for creamery
butter. Fluid sales account for a smaller proportion of pro¬
vincial milk production in Alberta and per capita consump¬
tion is less than in the other Prairie Provinces. The urban

12

Table III Dairy Statistics for the Prairie Provinces

- 1961 -

Alberta Saskatchewan

Manitoba

No. of milk cows in f000’s *

340

296

258

Average herd size

4.7

3.1

6.0

Cows per acre of land in farms

.0072

.0046

.0142

Percentage of farms reporting
milk cows

61.0

52.5

63.0

Percentage of commercial farms
reported as dairy farms

4.5

1.3

7.0

Total milk production in ’000,000Ts
of pounds

1720

1344

1128

Percentage of milk for creamery
butter

55.7

49.4

52.4

Percentage of milk for cheese

1.3

0.1

0.8

Percentage of milk for miscellaneous
manuf act ur ing

6.8

3.0

3.5

Percentage of milk for fluid sales

21.5

25.6

28.4

Percentage of milk used on farms **

14.7

21.9

14.9

Percentage of gross income from
milk sales

7.2

4.5

10.1

Main agricultural speciality in terms
of percentage of gross income
received

Cattle &
Ca Ives
27.3

Wheat

51.3

Wheat

26.8

Source: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada,
1961 , Ottawa.

Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Dairy Statistics,
1963 , Ottawa.

Canada. Dept, of Agriculture, Economics Division, Current
Review of Agricultural Conditions in Canada, Vol. 24,

No. 1, January 1963.

Cows and yearling heifers kept for milk.

■** Milk consumed in farm homes and fed to livestock.

13

population for Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba is approxi¬
mately 843, 398 and 588 thousand respectively.^ If the per¬
centage of farmers not reporting dairy cows is accepted as the
percentage of rural people that must purchase milk then the
possible market in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba rises to
1,033, 658 and 718 thousand respectively. Milk producers in
Saskatchewan and Manitoba sold 460 and 450 pounds of milk per
capita in 1961 whereas Alberta dairymen sold roughly 100 pounds
less per capita.

Saskatchewan farmers are apparently attempting to be more
self sufficient in dairy products because they retain a higher
percentage of their milk output for farm needs than do produc¬
ers in Alberta or Manitoba. It is difficult to explain this
phenomenon because farmers in the other prairie provinces are
purchasing much of their dairy requirements in local urban cen¬
tres. However the lower percentage of farmers reporting milk
cows in Saskatchewan when compared to Alberta or Manitoba in¬
dicates the difficulty of dairying in this province and it is
possible that many farmers who are isolated from major service
centres maintain dairy cows because they are forced to supply
their own milk needs.

Although farmers in Manitoba obtained a larger propor¬
tion of their total gross farm income, in 1961, from the sale
of dairy products, farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan re-

6. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada ,
1961, Ottawa.

14

ceived more money from dairy sales because they produced and
sold a greater volume of milk. Dairying however, is more im¬
portant to Manitoba and Alberta in a relative sense because it
is part of their more predominantly mixed farm economy whereas
it is less important in Saskatchewan because farmers here are
highly specialized in one or two agricultural lines. For ex¬
ample, over 50 per cent of total gross farm income in Saskat¬
chewan was received from wheat sales alone and over 75 per cent
was derived from three agricultural endeavours. In the re¬
maining prairie provinces, the same proportion of the gross
farm income was acquired from five agricultural pursuits.

Dairy Areas in Alberta and Manitoba

Specialized dairying is carried on close to each important

urban centre on the prairies. The area devoted to it is often

so small, however, that this agricultural enterprise is not

shown on the small scale ’’type of farming” maps which have

... . .7

been constructed by using census subdivisions as mapping units.
Therefore specialized dairying in Saskatchewan cannot be dis-
cussed because no data exists, although in 1961 there were
1,032 farms which were classified in the dominion census as
commercial dairy farms.

Those parts of the prairies in which farmers received
at least 70 per cent of total farm income from the disposal
of livestock and livestock products, and 40 per cent of this

7. S. C. Hudson et- al.. Types of Farming in Canada, Publica¬
tions of the Canada Dept, of Agriculture, No. 825,

Ottawa , 1949 .

%

15

Table IV Dairy Farming Areas in Alberta and Manitoba

Farm Characteristics

Alberta

Manitoba

Average farm size

259

239

Average herd size

6

6

Average number of beef cattle

3

0

Average number of swine

15

6

Land Use as a Percentage of
the Total Farm

Improved land

56.00

35.00

Crop land

45.50

20.00

Seeded pasture

.05

.03

Income Characteristics per farm
in percentages

Part time farms

18

24

Sales less than $1,999

27

40

Sales over $9,999

7

3

Source: G.A. Lane and J. G. Carson,

Agricultural

Statistics ,

by Type of Farming Areas, Ottawa, 1956.

income figure is derived from the sale of dairy products alone,

8

are classified as dairy areas. Both Alberta and Manitoba
have two areas so classified. Those in Alberta occur immedi¬
ately adjacent to Edmonton and Calgary, whereas one in Mani¬
toba is in close proximity to Winnipeg and the other much
larger area is farther south and east of this urban centre

G. A. Lane and J. G. Carson, Agricultural Statistics by
Type of Farming Areas, Ottawa, 1956, p. ii.

8.

16

in the Red River valley. Because the definition is fairly
broad these areas are not necessarily composed of highly spe¬
cialized fluid milk producers. It is more likely that they
are a mixture of fluid milk shippers,, mixed farms whose occu¬
pants emphasize cream and likely hog production, and, possibly,
farmers who have no milk or cream sales at all but are includ¬
ed because they fall within the confines of the mapping unit.
Mixing variables will, of course, make comparisons less valid
but reference to outside material appears to substantiate the
general patterns indicated here.

Farmers in the dairy areas in Alberta appear less special¬
ized than their counterparts in Manitoba because the average
farmer in Alberta raises beef cattle and hogs in addition to
dairy cows on a farm which is only slightly larger than the
average farm in the dairy areas of Manitoba. There is some
indication that land is used more intensively in Alberta than
in Manitoba, because there is a greater number of livestock
units per acre and a larger percentage of the average farm is
improved land, crop land and seeded pasture. Dairy areas in
Alberta are exceeded only by wheat areas in the amount of im¬
proved land per farm, whereas Manitoba dairy areas have the
least improved land of all types of farming except cattle
raising. Patterson noted that dairying in Manitoba occurs
’’...where the lowest percentage of land is cultivated due to
stones, impeded drainage or immediate necessity for soil

.

■

17

conservation and maintenance of f er t i lit yn . ^ Farms in the
dairy areas of Alberta probably have more arable land because
they came into existence in response to political regulation
as well as economic factors. Dairy producers increased in
numbers in response to urban demand for fluid milk and they
located initially close to the market to minimize transporta¬
tion costs and the danger of milk spoilage. As transportation
improved, the importance of distance to market decreased while
that of local feed costs increased. But dairymen in areas
with lower feeding costs generally have not displaced milk
producers with prime agricultural land closer to the market
for a variety of reasons, one of which is, that prior to the
second world war urban milksheds were fixed by the Milk Con-
trol Section of the Board of Public Utilities and the Edmonton
and Calgary City Health Departments to an area within 15 and
20 miles respectively of these cities.* 11 These regulations no
longer apply but they were in force long enough to encourage
the development of dairy areas immediately adjacent to the two
cities. These areas continue to flourish, especially around
Edmonton, because milk quota allotment restrictions institut¬
ed by the Board of Public Utilities favour dairymen who are
already supplying milk to these cities. The Manitoba Milk

9. H. L. Patterson and H. W. Trevor, The Dairy Farm Business
In Manitoba, 1942 to 1947, Ottawa, 1949, p. 11.

10. Loc.cit.

11. Pers. comm., B. J. McBain, Supervisor, Farm Cost Studies,
Farm Economics Branch, Dept, of Agriculture, Alberta.

.

18

Control Board has not advocated the same restrictions for dairy
farmers under its jurisdiction, and one of the results has been
a tendency for Winnipeg’s milk supply to come from areas with
lower feeding costs, farther away from the city.12 Prior to
1947, 8,5 per cent of the city’s milk came from within 30 miles
of the city, in 1947 the percentage dropped to 75 and has con¬
tinued to decline to 61 per cent in 1961. 13

Income characteristics provide additional evidence that
farms in dairy areas in Alberta are used more intensively than
in comparable areas in Manitoba. Approximately 18 per cent of
these farms in Alberta were classified in 1961 as part time
and 27 per cent had sales of less than $1,999 whereas the fig¬
ures for Manitoba were 27 and 40 per cent respectively. Alberta
also had more farmers in these areas, in terms of percentages
and absolute numbers, who reported sales over 9,999 dollars in
1961. Income per farm from the sale of farm products is likely
higher in these areas in Alberta than in similar areas of Mani¬
toba .. because a greater area of land is improved and sown in
cash crops and because the average farm supports larger numbers
of livestock.

Case studies appear to indicate that specialized dairying
is also more intensive in Alberta than in Manitoba. Patterson
and Trevor, for example, carried out studies of dairy farms in

12. H. L. Patterson and H. W. Trevor, op . cit . , p. 11.

13. Manitoba. Milk Control Board, Annual Report, 1947, p. 4,
and 1961 , p. 2, Winnipeg.

19

Alberta and Manitoba from 1939 to 1947. 1-4 The studies were
conducted in different years in each of the provinces and
sample farms were not chosen by random selection. Data are
provided however, pertaining to the average size of farm, the
amount of land used for crops, herd size and amount of capital
invested in each dairy enterprise for successive years in each
province .

Whole milk shippers in Alberta in the period 1941-1942 had
dairy herds which averaged 43 animals per farm, with the farms
having an average size of 402 acres. Sixty-three per cent of
these average farms were in crop and the average capital in¬
vestment was 25,879 dollars. Data compiled for Manitoba one
year later indicate that fluid milk producers operated larger
farms with an average area of 493 acres. Fifty-one per cent
of the total farm area was used for crops, and each farmer
maintained an average of 23 dairy cows per herd. Total invest¬
ment per farm was roughly 21,575 dollars. Irrigation farming
in the vicinity of Lethbridge produces higher yields per acre
than most other prairie farming areas but greater amounts of
capital and labour must be expended to achieve this result.

It is these values for herd size, etc. that make the differ¬
ences between the two provinces especially noticeable. How¬
ever if the data for the irrigation area in proximity to
Lethbridge are ignored Alberta still leads Manitoba in all

14. H. Lo Patterson and H. W. Trevor, op . ci t .

Patterson, H. L. , Dairy Farm Business in Alberta, 1939-

1943 , Ottawa, 1948.

'

,

20

values except in capital invested per farm.

In summary, dairying in Alberta is more important than
dairying in Manitoba in terms of total income realized, but
less important here than in Manitoba in terms of the percent¬
age that the sale of dairy products contributes to total farm
income. On a provincial scale a greater proportion of the
farms in Manitoba have dairy cows than is the case for Alberta
or Saskatchewan. In addition, there are more dairy cows per
acre of land in farms in Manitoba than elsewhere on the
prairies .

An examination of these areas within the individual prov¬
inces, classified by G. A« Lane and J. G. Carson (Footnote 8)
as dairy regions, indicates that farmers within these regions
in Alberta appear to be less specialized than their counter¬
parts in Manitoba, although they achieve a greater outturn of
product than the average farm in the Manitoba dairy regions.
Lastly, farms were also utilized more intensively in Alberta
in 1939 to 1947 than in Manitoba.

No attempt has been made to compare dairy farms in terms
of profit per farm and in the absence of data it cannot be
assumed that the more intensive nature of dairy farming in
Alberta is necessarily more profitable.

Comparison of Specialized Dairying Areas

Having cursorily examined some farm characteristics and
the degree of specialization in dairying on a national level
and in the west, it may be of interest to compare those areas

21

in Ontario and Alberta which have a dairy specialization in
terms of the percentage of total gross income received from
this type of farming. The criteria used in defining the areas
is the same as that used in the foregoing section. ^ Ontario,
rather than Quebec, has been chosen as the standard against
which Alberta will be compared because dairying is more com¬
mercial in Ontario.

Quebec has more dairy cows and commercial dairy farms
than Ontario but yields per cow and per farm are decidedly low¬
er. Cow breeding, as indicated by annual milk yields per cow,
is better in Ontario and a larger proportion of the milk from
these cows is sold on the fluid milk market for human consump¬
tion. Farmers in Quebec, on the other hand, retain a larger
percentage of their product on the farm for animal feed and
home use .

Alberta has a much lower percentage of farms specializing
in milk production than Ontario and perhaps the most obvious
reason is the lack of market demand. Most areas in which
farmers are engaged in intensive dairying are in close prox¬
imity to urban places. This is particularly true in Alberta
where the two major urban imilksheds- are located within these
dairy areas. However farming in these specialized areas in
the two provinces differ in the intensity of production.

The proportion of improved land and area in crops is
similar for both provinces but there is less seeded pasture

15. G. A. Lane and J. G. Carson, op . c it . , p . ii .

I

Table V

22

A Comparison of Farms in Dairy Areas in
Alberta and Ontario*

Alberta

Ont ar io

Number

Percent
of total

Number

Percent
of total

Number of farms

2,583

3.5

38,423

31.8

Average acres per farm

259

138

Improved acres per farm

163

63.0

85

59.0

Acres of main crops

118

46.0

56

41.0

Acres of seeded pasture

13

4.0

22

14 .5

Numbers of cattle

19

16

Cows for milk

6

32.0

8

50.0

• * c Vc

Milk production per farm

3,390

lbs .

4,944

lbs .

Milk production per acre

13.1

lbs c

36

lbs .

Source: G. A. Lane and J. G. Carson, Agricultural Statistics by
Type of Farming Areas, Ottawa, 1956.

* In May 1961.

in Alberta both in terms of percentage of the total farm area
and actual acreage (see Table V). If the percentage of the
land occupied by crops on farms in the dairy areas in Alberta
is converted to areal measure then there is a greater emphas¬
is placed on crop production here than in Ontario. This is
necessary because in addition to the lower average yields
per acre discussed previously, a greater volume of feed per
cow must be grown in Alberta because of the longer feeding

period.

'

23

There are more livestock of all kinds, per farm, in the
dairy areas of Alberta than in similar areas in Ontario, but a
smaller number of them are dairy cows. The typical farm in
these areas in Alberta maintains a dairy herd of six milking
cows in addition to 13 other cattle kept for beef, 15 pigs and
177 chickens. In Ontario there are eight animals per herd,
fewer beef cattle, only half the number of pigs and roughly
two-thirds of the number of chickens on the average farm in
the dairy areas.

Farms in these dairy districts in Alberta are almost
twice as big as those in Ontario and yet milk production is
decidedly less for a number of reasons. The most obvious are
that there are fewer cows per herd, and milk production per cow
is lower in the west than in Ontario. Perhaps this is a result
of inferior breeding but the lower milk yield per cow is also
related to the longer winter feeding period which tends to de¬
press average production. Cows achieve peak production when
grazed on fresh pastures. It is generally conceded that milk
production is lower per cow with a winter calf than per cow
with a spring calf because it is fed dry fodder during the
winter stall feeding period. In Ontario green fodder is
available for longer periods and milk production per cow is
correspondingly higher. A final reason suggested for lower
milk production per farm in Alberta is that the average farm¬
er appears to be less specialized here than in Ontario. Not
only is the average dairy herd smaller but the farmers are

24

likely achieving a large percentage of their gross farm reven¬
ue from the sale of other kinds of livestock and farm products.

25

CHAPTER II

A SHORT HISTORY OF DAIRYING IN ALBERTA

In many instances past events and political rulings have
guided the development of the industry so that many aspects of
dairying are difficult to understand if this part of the survey
is ignored. A short history of dairying is offered, therefore,
in the hope that the measures of specialization, discussed in
the next chapter, and the present day distribution of dairying,
described in Chapter IV, may be better understood.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

One of the first instances of commercial dairying in the
west took place in the Selkirk settlement at Fort Garry. Nor¬
mally the fur trading companies did little to encourage agri¬
cultural settlement because farmers destroyed the habitat of
fur bearing animals but in this case it was tolerated because
it obviated the necessity of hauling supplies great distances
for the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Red River Settlement pro¬
duced butter and other provisions for the trading posts far¬
ther inland and provided an excellent base for competition
between the Hudson's Bay and the North West Companies.

Dairying in Alberta Prior to 1905

When the Hudson’s Bay Company established forts it often
attempted to reduce operating costs by maintaining small
dairy herds, which had been acquired from Fort Garry. Later,

-

26

as agricultural settlement increased in magnitude, cattle were
brought into what is now the province of Alberta from Montana
and the Pacific Coast. Most of these cattle were likely used
to establish a ranching economy in southern Alberta, but large
numbers were absorbed by smaller mixed farms. These farmers
were, of necessity, self sufficient in perishable dairy prod¬
ucts and their cows were used primarily to satisfy the needs of
the farm household but occasionally when surplus butter and
cheese were produced they were exchanged at local service cen¬
tres for goods which were not easily manufactured or grown on
the farm.

With the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in
1885 and with a general reduction in freight rates under the
Crow's Nest Pass Agreement of 1897 an impetus was given to com¬
mercial dairying because production in excess of household

needs could be shipped to the mining and lumbering centres in

2

British Columbia.

In 1888 the first dairy factory in Alberta was establish¬
ed near Calgary to take advantage of eastern and western mark¬
ets now made available by the rail connections. Financially,
this factory was not a success but it was the forerunner of
commercial, industrial dairying with its attendant specialized
milk suppliers and factory production.

1. C. F. Prevey, The Development of the Dairy Industry of
Alberta, Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Toronto,
1950, p. 5.

2. H. A. Innis, Problems of Staple Production in Canada,

Tor onto, 1933 , p. 9.

27

Other cheese factories and creameries were established
shortly afterward near the larger urban settlements, which
were also on railways. It is difficult to discern the most
important pre-requisite for establishing a dairy processing
plant in this period: proximity to a stable source of raw mat¬
erial or to a railway line. Many dairy businesses failed in
spite of their rail connections because they were unable to
achieve a high level of production in the absence of a constant
supply of milk and it became necessary for the federal govern¬
ment to advance loans and to assume the management of these
dairy plants on a temporary basis.

’’The Laurier Liberal Ministry from 1896 to 1911 is best
remembered for its contribution to the opening up of the Canad¬
ian West”3 and part of the settlement policy entailed encour¬
aging a more stable mixed farming economy. In addition to
temporarily managing dairy plants the government established
new factories in likely areas, distributed imported eastern
dairy cattle at nominal costs to farmers in the vicinity of
the new venture, and marketed the finished product.

Growth of the Dairy Industry, 1905-1924

The period 1905-1924 was one of great expansion for the
dairy industry in Alberta. Cattle increased in numbers four
times from 101,245 to 433,628 and butter production expanded

3. J. J. Talman, Basic Documents in Canadian History,

Tor ont o , 1959 , pp . 122-123.

'

28

• 4

substantially. The total number of both cheese factories and
creameries advanced from 49 in 1905 to 101 in 1924 with an in¬
crease in production from approximately two million pounds of
butter and one million pounds of cheese in 1905 to roughly 22
million pounds of butter and 1.7 million pounds of cheese in
1924. 5 6 This growth in productivity is a reflection of the
rapid expansion of agriculture on the Canadian prairies. Dairy
production did not keep pace with population increases because
the local market was partially satisfied by butter from east¬
ern Canada and from New Zealand via the port of Vancouver.

In 1911 the government withdrew from the manufacture of
dairy products although it still aided the industry by market¬
ing butter, establishing a system of inspection of plants and
grading the final product. Federal and provincial aid to the
newly developing industry had apparently been so successful
that the privately owned dairy concerns were making it diffi¬
cult for government operated firms to obtain raw material. ^

Most of the creameries grew in size because they were located
in expanding urban markets which possessed branch railway
lines that extended deep into mixed farming, cream producing
areas. In 1906, 86 per cent of Alberta’s creameries each had

V V

4c Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Dairy Branch, Statistics
of Progress, Province of Alberta, Edmonton, 1929.

5. Pers. comm., D. McCallum, Dairy Commissioner, Dairy
Branch, Dept, of Agriculture, Alberta.

6. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1910,
Edmonton, p. 100.

29

an annual capacity of less than 200,000 pounds; by 1924 only
22 per cent produced less than 200,000 pounds per annum.

The largest expansion of the dairy industry was coinci¬
dent with the first world war. Alberta was able to recapture
a large part of the domestic and British Columbian market be¬
cause world demand for New Zealand butter had caused the price
to increase so that, in spite of its lower quality, the Alberta
product was able to compete very favourably,,

It is

likely t

hat

spe ci a

lized dairy

farming became well

est

ablished

in this

pei

:iod be

cause by 1921 Calgary and

Bdmont on

wit

h more t

han 122,

000

people

provided a

reliable whole milk

and

butter

ma rke t .

Although

dairying wa

s still subord

inate to

the

growing

of cash

grain in

the mixed f

arming areas,

milk and

ere

am were

becoming

an

import

ant source

of year round

income

bee

ause dai

ry plant

s were mor

e stable in

their operati

on than

the

y had be

en prior

t o

1911 a

nd because

local markets

appeared

rea

sonably

secure .

A Period of Relative Decline, 1925-1929

The dairy industry experienced major readjustments in this
five year period. The rapid expansion which had been experi¬
enced during and immediately after World war one came to an
end because it was increasingly difficult to dispose of sur¬
pluses on the contracting export market. With the re-entry of
New Zealand and Australian dairy products into Canada markets
in Alberta and British Columbia began to contract. In 1925
Canadian imports and exports of butter were 198,000 pounds

t,

\ . •'

30

and approximately 27 million pounds respectively; by 1929 this
situation was reversed because imports totalled 26 million
pounds and exports one and a half million pounds. ^ At the
same time, alternative farm products became more attractive be¬
cause, although butter prices received at the creamery remain¬
ed fairly stable, beef and wheat markets improved both in price

g

and volume. Dairy farmers began to concentrate on cash crops
and sold their heifers and calves for beef with the result that
the combination of beef and dairy cattle sales depleted the
total number of livestock remaining in the province (Fig. 1).
Butter and cheese production declined because of the drop in
cow numbers but creameries increased slightly in number with
the result that the province suffered from plant overcapacity
and the industry was less efficient.

The United Farmers of Alberta, a political movement, ad¬
vocated cooperatives in this difficult economic period to pro¬
cess and market agricultural commodities. This resulted in
the creation of a number of dairy pools or cooperatives, the
largest of which were the Northern, Central, and Southern
Alberta Dairy Pools. The provincial government used this
opportunity to terminate its marketing policies and in 1927
withdrew from this activity.

7. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Trade of Canada
Exports Annual, 1920-1939, Ottawa.

8. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual report, 1925, p. 1
and 1928 , p. 2, Edmonton.

31

Depression and Drought, 1930-1939

Prices for agricultural commodities were uniformly low
throughout this period? while operating costs remained com¬
paratively high . (Indices of wholesale prices for Canadian
farm products and prices of purchased commodities and services
used by farmers are computed as 100 for 1935-1939. By compari¬
son the ratio of farm prices to purchased inputs for Alberta
is 1.14 for 1929 , .90 for 1934, „87 for 1939 and 1.13 for 1944.) 9 10
Farmers attempted to remedy this situation by increasing wheat
acreages and the volume of livestock production. Cattle num¬
bers rose to 1,700,600 by 1936 because it was more profitable

10

to feed low cost grains than to sell them.

The Hawley-Smoot 1930 Tariff Bill discouraged exports of
agricultural commodities to the United States and western farm¬
ers began to retain stockers and feeders and finish them on the
prairies for the British market which demanded a higher qual¬
ity of beef. When this market failed to absorb all of these
cattle some were utilized for milk production; so that by 1936
there was an unprecedented high of approximately 750,000
dairy cows in Alberta.

Wheat production proved uneconomic in the thirties, be¬
cause depression prices were often lower than production

9. Alberta. Bureau of Statistics, Facts and Figures,

Edmonton, 1954. Computed from tables 122 and 126,
pp . 222 and 225.

10. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1931, p.15
and 1932, p. 7, Edmonton.

■

32

costs and later, during periods of drought, yields per acre
were negligible in southern portions of the province. The
dairy commissioner reported in 1934 that, "On account of dim¬
inishing returns from grain crops many farmers were obliged to

•it 12

milk cows to supplement farm income".

Milk output increased from about 1,000 million pounds in
1930 to 1,616 million pounds by 1939 Creamery butter pro¬
duction for 1930 and 1939 was 17,716 million and 29,749 mil¬
lion pounds respectively and cheese manufactures rose from ap¬
proximately one to two million pounds in the same decade.

Throughout this chaotic economic period the industrial
sector of the dairy economy generally experienced orderly
growth. Plant numbers remained fairly constant and output per
plant increased throughout the decade. Such was not the case
for the primary producer. Milk and cream shippers increased
in numbers from roughly 39,000 in 1932 to 53,000 in 1936 and
61,000 in 1939 with the result that sales per farmer became
lower each year. Competition for fluid milk quotas in major-
urban markets resulted in prices so low that dairy farmers
found it unprofitable to supply milk on a long term basis.

A number of attempts were made to aid the dairy industry.

11. G. E. Britnell, "The Depression in Rural Saskatchewan”,
The Canadian Economy and Its Problems, Toronto, 1934,

p. 101.

12c Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1934,
Edmonton , p . 9 .

13. Co Fc Prevey, op . cit . , pc 160.

■

33

The federal government imposed tariffs on dairy imports in
1932 and established the Federal Butter Export Stabilization
Board in 1935 to create larger domestic and export markets for
Canadian farmers. Under these conditions Alberta butter sales
increased in British Columbia because imports from New Zealand
were curtailed. The provincial government placed the Edmonton
and Calgary milksheds under the control of the Board of Public
Utilities in 1933. The Milk Control section of this board, in
consultation with shippers and manufacturers, delineated the
boundaries of the milkshed, licensed shippers and factories,
and established prices for milk. These methods appeared suc-
cesslul in stabilizing the fluid milk industry and within a
short time other major urban centres were placed under the con¬
trol of the same authority.

By the end of the decade a number of factors indicated
that the industry had regained a modicum of stability. For
example, production expanded and except for a reversal in price
in 1938 and 1939, prices increased steadily from the extreme
lows experienced in the early thirties. Alberta dairy manu¬
facturers were aided by the federal tariff and sold over 50
per cent of their butter each year to British Columbia. Fin¬
ally, the Board of Public Utilities passed legislation design¬
ed to protect fluid milk markets from undue competition. At

the same time, dairy processing became more rational with in-

. . . . U

creasing productivity per plant and decreasing costs per unit.

14. C. F. Prevey, op . cit . , p. 199.

34

Unsuccessful ventures were weeded out by economic pressures,
at first, and later in the decade by a provincial Licensing
Advisory Board which was established to review the need for
additional plants and for the renewal of licenses of existing
ones .

The Second World War, 1940-1945

With the advent of the second world war the demand for
agricultural commodities increased.. Because prices encouraged
wheat and beef production and labour was in short supply,
dairy farming tended to be neglected until the federal govern¬
ment commissioned the Agricultural Food Board and Dairy Prod¬
ucts Division of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board to regu¬
late agriculture by means of subsidies, ceiling and floor
prices, and acreage reduction payments on selected crops.

Creamery butter production reached over 38 million
pounds in 1943, a figure that was not surpassed until 1961,
and cheese output achieved a level that has not been duplicat¬
ed to date. These manufactured milk products increased at a
greater rate than did total milk production because subsidies
on butterfat and milk for fluid sales or manufactures encour¬
aged producers to sell a greater proportion of their milk
output than had been the case in the previous decade.

Although butter and cheese production increased because
of world shortages in these commodities, dairy processors in
Alberta rarely, if ever, sold their product outside of the
traditional provincial and British Columbian markets.

Cheese

»

35

and butter output increased substantially from 1940 to 1945
because Alberta was able to dominate local markets in the ab¬
sence of eastern cheese and New Zealand butter which were in

15

greater demand overseas.

The number of creameries continued to decline while out¬
put per plant increased, perhaps in response to labour short¬
ages but most certainly because of the policies of the Licens
ing Advisory Committee. Except in 1942, 18 cheese factories
operated in Alberta throughout the war but production varied
from year to year in spite of federal subsidies of roughly 20
cents on a hundred pounds of milk because cheese makers were

allowed to resell milk to fluid milk processors if they de-

. , _ . , _ . , „ 16
cided it was more profitable.

This era in the history of the dairy industry of Alberta
is best described as one of increased expansion incurred by
the policies of the federal government and by the lack of
competition from foreign and eastern Canadian competitors.
Total milk output rose to a historic high of 1,789 million
pounds in 1943 and a larger proportion than was normally the
case entered commercial and industrial channels in response

to local demand and federal subsidies

17

Production per

15. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1940,
Edmonton, p. 53.

16. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1944,
Edmonton, p. 46.

17. If the percentage of milk used for farm butter produc¬
tion is not considered in this example then the percent¬
age of milk released into commercial channels was 66.4%

36

creamery expanded from 317,000 pounds of butter in 1940 to
406 y 000 pounds in 1944 and this level of productivity was not
reachieved until the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Even
cheese output , which has rarely been an important part of Al¬
berta's dairy economy, was more than double present day produc¬
tion.

Postwar_Rg_ const ruction to the Present, 1946-19 6 1
Strong demand for dairy products in the immediate post¬
war period resulted in price increases after the removal of
controls by the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. Farmers main¬
tained milk production in spite of the loss of subsidies be¬
cause milk and cream prices increased by more than 60 per cent
and because other agricultural pursuits such as beef produc¬
tion, became less attractive with the removal of price sup¬
ports for livestock, and the withdrawal of subsidies on feed
grains. For most sectors of the agricultural economy immedi¬
ate prospects appeared assured although many farmers feared
an agricultural depression similar to the one following the
first world war. Postwar reconstruction in Europe meant in¬
creased food sales to that part of the world and the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations offered pros-

in 1935, 73% in 1940 and 86.3% in 1945. The rationale
for ignoring milk used in the production of farm butter
is the difficulty in discerning the proportion of this
commodity that entered the butter market.

Source of statistics^ Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture,
Dairy Branch, Annual Report, Edmonton, 1962.

■

37

pects of increased international trade in primary products.
However many of these prospects did not materialize with the
result that total cheese and creamery butter production and
output per plant declined in the late forties. This trend was
not arrested for butter output until 1952 and the cheese indus
try has not yet regained its former prominence. Most of the
problems of the industry were old ones. Canadian butter ex¬
ports were reduced from over 45 million pounds in 1946 to 10
million pounds in 1950 and later in 1960 to 1,710,000 pounds
because of increased competition for world markets. ^ Al¬
berta, once again, began to lose control of butter markets in
British Columbia because of increased competition from New
Zealand. Local demands for cheese were supplied from eastern
Canada. Finally, beef and wheat production offered more at¬
tractive farming alternatives, especially later in the fifties
In 1949 the domestic butter market was threatened by
oleomargarine but a number of steps were taken to protect the
butter industry. The Alberta Legislature assented to ”An Act

19

Respecting the Regulation of Control of Margarine’1 which
required that margarine not be coloured yellow and that if
it were served in public eating places as a butter substi¬
tute there must be prominant notice given of this fact. An
Order in Council at the federal level instituted a measure

18. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Yearbook,
1947, 1951 and 1961, Canada. Ottawa.

19. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1949 ,
Edmonton, 1950, p. 62.

‘

38

under the Agricultural Price Support Act to stabilize butter
prices, by the use of price supports and purchasing policies
which allowed surplus butter to be sold to the Prices Support
Board. Margarine continues to be a threat however, because
sales in Alberta in 1950 were 19.2 per cent of total Alberta
butter production and they have increased each year to 26 per
cent of butter production in 1961.

Farming in the fifties became difficult because costs

rose more rapidly than prices for agricultural commodities.

The ratio of farm prices to purchased inputs declined from 134

20

m the period 1949-1953 to 117.1 in 1954-1959. Milk produc¬
tion dropped from over 1600 million pounds in 1949 to 1,430
million pounds in 1955 but increased again to 1,550 million
pounds at the end of the decade. Although the beef industry
expanded in response to increased demand for meats dairy cat¬
tle continued to decline in numbers, partially because of re¬
duced demand for milk but perhaps,, more importantly because
dairymen were beginning to upgrade the quality of their stock
so that fewer cows were needed to produce a given quantity
of milk. Creameries, however, became less efficient be¬
cause of decreased production per plant in the early part
of the decade. This condition was shortlived because the
number of^p^Lants was reduced from 92 in 1950 to 86 in 1961.

At the same time butter production, after its initial drop

20. W. Mackenzie, ”The Terms of Trade, Productivity, and
Income of Canadian Agriculture”, Canadian Journal of
Agricultural Economics, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1961.

39

from 1949 to 1952, increased from 27 million pounds in 1952
to 40 million pounds in 1961. By 1961 productivity per cream¬
ery was beginning to equal wartime levels .

Remedies for low farming returns came from two major di¬
rections throughout the fifties and early sixties. The federal
government applied import controls and support prices on non¬
fat, dry milk products, cheese and butter and, farmers made
their operations more efficients Milk producers became much
more specialized in this period. They began to employ many
techniques, such as, undertaking larger operations and main¬
taining records of the performance of individual cows. This
resulted in increased milk yields per animal and per farm.

40

CHAPTER III

TRENDS OF SPECIALI ZATION OF DAIRYING

IN ALBERTA

Farming as a way of life is being superseded by farming as
a commercial venture. In order to compete in modern markets
farmers are concentrating their efforts along narrower lines
by specializing in fewer agricultural ventures on a larger
scale. Dairying, too, has generally become more specialized
in Alberta with fewer farmers maintaining larger herds which
produce increasingly large yields of milk per cow.

Dairying has never been one of the major agricultural
enterprises in Alberta. In 1920 the sale of dairy products
contributed 5.6 per cent (see Table VI) of total farm income
derived from the sale of farm products. Prior to this date a

Table VI Dairy Returns as a Percentage of Cash

Income from the Sale of Farm Products
in Alberta.

Year

1920

1926

1931

1936

1941

1946

1951

1956

1961

Percentage

5.6

6 . 5

11.7

10.2

8.2

11.5

8.4

«

00

8.7

Source: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Quarterly Bul¬
letin of Agricultural Statistics, Ottawa, 1926-1961.
Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Sixth Census of
Canada , 1921, Ottawa.

41

greater proportion of Alberta's milk production appears to
have been used primarily on the farmstead, and sales to cream¬
eries for butter manufacturing appeared almost incidental to
the main farm business of grain and beef production. The im¬
portance of dairying was greatest during the decade of the
thirties, not because the rate of growth of milk output in¬
creased but because dairy products proved saleable when other
agricultural commodities were not.

From the end of the thirties to the present the number of
farmers who maintained dairy cows declined (see Table VII) and
at the same time the total number of cows was reduced by 40
per cent (see Fig. 1). Milk output did not decrease corres¬
pondingly and, in fact, after an initial drop in the later
forties it has continued to increase in volume to the present
(see Fig. 1). Dairy returns, expressed as a percentage of the
total cash income which is received from the sale of farm

Table VII Farms with Dairy Cows which were Milked

as a Percentage of the Total Number of
Census Farms.

Year 1916* 1921 1926 1931**1936 1941 1946 1951 1956 1961

Percent- 73 79 - 70 79 76 73 71 65 61

age

Source: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada,
1921-1961, Ottawa.

Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of the
Prairie Provinces, 1916-1946, Ottawa.

■k

**

Dairy cows defined as milch cows.

Dairy cows defined as cows in milk or calf.

MILK PRODUCTION - COWS AND HEIFERS KEPT FOR MILK- COWS MILKED IN ALBERTA

1906-1961

MILK PRODUCTION IN MILLIONS OF POUNDS

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NUMBER OF CATTLE IN THOUSANDS

43

products, has grown at the same rate as the local farm economy
throughout this period so that between 8 and 9 per cent of
total farm income was derived from the sale of dairy products
from 1941 to 1961 (see Table VI). The only time that this
percentage exceeded these figures was during the war years,
because of increased domestic sales and government subsidies
on milk and cream.

These trends towards higher absolute production and in¬
creased production per cow and per farm have become especially
noticeable in the last decade and they are related to the in¬
creased commercialization of agriculture.

MEASURES OF SPECIALIZATION

It is easier to say that farming is becoming increasingly
specialized than to measure the degree of specialization. A
number of approaches are examined however, and, taken together,
they seem to indicate the importance of dairying and its level
of development in the farm economies of the various parts of
Alberta .

Farmers may own dairy cows and report this fact in the
decennial censuses of Canada but this is no guarantee that
all of these animals will actually be milked. This possibil¬
ity appears greater for cows on farms where dairying is only
marginally important than for cows on specialized dairy farms.
Therefore the proportion of cows actually milked, of the
total number of cows kept for this purpose, expressed as a
percentage, is probably an excellent indication of the degree

44

of specialization within the industry.

In the early history of the province cows were kept to
supply farm needs, and it was only occasionally that surplus
butter was sold. As long as the farmers’ needs were satis¬
fied it is likely that it was of little importance what pro-
portion of each herd was actually lactating. Later, from
approximately 1900 to 1920, railway construction and the first
World War enhanced markets for dairy produce and throughout
this period more cows per herd were milked than in any subse¬
quent decade until the fifties (See Fig. 1 and Map 2). This
measure may be an indication of early specialization, but un¬
fortunately it may also be a reflection of the lack of pre¬
cise definitions and procedure for the execution of the early
censuses of the prairies. In any case, no matter how dairy
cattle were defined in any period the definition was likely
the same for the entire province and regional differences in
the development of dairying within Alberta can be illustrated
by the use of this device.

Farmers in the south, for example, where commercial
dairying has rarely been important, have traditionally milk¬
ed only a small proportion of the cows and heifers kept for

2

this purpose (see Map 2).^ Cows, which could be used for

1. Alberta Dairymen’s Association, Coming of Age, 1940,
Edmonton, p. 32.

2. Designations, such as southern, central and northern
Alberta have come, through common usage, to mean areas
in Alberta which are not necessarily coincident with the
geographic southern, central or northern parts of the

Map 2

45

46

milk or beef, depending on market conditions, were kept to sup¬
ply home needs and in some cases to act as nurse cows for beef
calves. For the most part only those farmers close to urban
markets viewed milk production as a commercial operation. But
as time went on and the trend towards increased specialization
became more firmly established these southern farmers, like
most farmers in Alberta, tended to buy more of their food re¬
quirements and discarded the practice of supplying their own
milk. Those people who continued to maintain dairy cows have
become more specialized and are milking a greater percentage
of their herds for longer periods of time. The last mentioned
point has also resulted in cows dwindling in numbers, because
fewer are needed to maintain a constant volume of milk.

The pattern in division 17 in northern Alberta is similar
to that of the southern census divisions, in that a large pro¬
portion, and in some years a major proportion, of the cows
kept for milk are not used for this purpose. The pattern is
not the same in southern Alberta and division 17 for identi¬
cal years since advances in farming techniques in the north

have lagged behind those of the south because this northern

3

area has, until recently, been the pioneer fringe.

province. Calgary, in division 6, is in southern Al¬
berta, Red Deer in division 8 is in central Alberta,
while Edmonton in division 11 is accepted as being in
northern Alberta. Therefore for the purposes of this
discussion divisions 1 to 6 are synonymous with south¬
ern Alberta, divisions 7 to 9 represent central Alberta
and the remaining divisions comprise northern Alberta.

3. D. F. Putnam, Canadian Regions, Toronto, 1952, p. 391.

■

-

47

Even today there is a greater emphasis on self-sufficiency
in the poorer farming areas in division 17 than occurs farther
south. But lately cattle in division 17 are beginning to be
bred for their ultimate purpose. Now there is greater differ¬
entiation here between milk cows and cattle raised for beef
with the result that increasing numbers of cows kept for milk
are bred expressly for this purpose. With better farm manage¬
ment in division 17, especially in the last few years, the per¬
centage of cows milked of the total numbers of cows kept for
milk has increased appreciably.

Historically, there has been greater interest in milk
production in the central part of the province than in either
the north or south, because mixed farming is predominant here
and because urban markets are larger. Percentages of cows
milked in these census divisions were higher than in other
parts of the province in almost every year except 1936 when
many cows of poor quality were shipped from the south because
of the economic and the drought conditions, and added to the
more northerly herds.

Provincially (Fig.l ) the proportion of dry cows (cows
kept for milk but not milked) has declined steadily from the
thirties to the present and appears to correlate with the re¬
cent trend towards increased commercialization of agriculture.

A greater proportion of each dairy herd is being used intens¬
ively for milk production in most areas within the province.
This feature has become most noticeable within the last ten

'

’

48

years but it appears that regional differences can be illus¬
trated using this index of specia lizat ion „

Breeds

In the majority of cases the degree or quality of breed¬
ing of dairy cattle is directly related to their importance as
a source of income. Therefore, in many instances, an analysis
of breeding may indicate to what degree farmers are special¬
izing In milk production.

Both the federal and provincial governments have encour¬
aged prairie dairymen to upgrade their stock. As early as
1898 the federal government instituted a programme whereby

purebred cattle were purchased in the east and sold in the

4

west at cost, plus a subsidized transportation charge. Never¬
theless, improvement in breed has proceeded at a rather lei¬
surely pace with one per cent of the milk cow population re¬
ported as purebred in 1901, three per cent in 1931 and a re¬
duction to approximately two per cent in 1941. Improvements
that had been achieved prior to 1930 were reversed during the
depression because mixed breed beef cows were utilized as
dairy animals and their poor lines were likely passed along
to their progeny.

The provincial government assumed control of the federal
Dairy Herd Improvement Programme in 1933 and provided breed¬
ing information and, more recently, insemination service

Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Report, North West
Territories, 1898, Ottawa, p° 46.

4.

*

49

through the Department of Agriculture. This programme has
achieved noticeable results, especially within the last ten to
twelve years (see Table VIII). The number of purebred cattle

Table VIII Registration of Purebred Holstein Cattle

Year

Alberta

1910

4

1920

88

1930

14 6

1940

112

1950

1104

1960

2028

1961

2232

Source: Pers. comm., Holstein Friesian Association.

registrations with the Canadian Holstein Friesian Association
were less than 200 from 1910 to 1940; by 1950 they had in¬
creased to 1,104 and in 1961 the 1950 figure was doubled to

2.^232. 5

Cattle with Holstein Friesian characteristics have con¬
stituted a major proportion of Albertans dairy cow population
from 1911 to the present because they have demonstrated the
necessary stamina to withstand the rigors of the Canadian
northwest, and more important, milk production per cow is

5 . Pers . comm. ,

Holstein Friesian Association.

. -r

50

greatest for this breed. Other breeds, such as Ayrshires,
were important until the end of the thirties but they have
since declined in numbers.

A map showing the degree of breeding of dairy cattle has
been constructed using data received from a questionnaire sent
to all district agriculturists. In the absence of proof of
pure breeding the problem is subjective, depending not only
upon the degree of familiarity that each agricultural repre¬
sentative has with his area but also upon the interpretation
given to the terms "scrub", "mixed breed”, and ’’grade Hol¬
stein”. Therefore, because the map represents subjective
data and because it has been generalized from only 42 refer¬
ence points, it may not possess the degree of accuracy ascrib¬
ed to maps compiled from more objective material. It is,
nevertheless, valuable in that it indicates those areas of
the province in which specialized dairying takes place.

The distribution of the quality of dairy cattle appears
to reflect both the uses to which they are put and local
physical conditions. Many of the farms in the poorer agri¬
cultural areas, namely those located on grey wooded soils in
the northeast part of the province, from Athabasca southeast
to Cold Lake, have cows which are so thoroughly mixed in
terms of breed that it is often difficult to discern their
ancestry. This condition holds true for those areas of the
Peace River district which have been cleared recently or are
still in the process of being adapted for agricultural use.

' •

Map 3

51

52

Within this northern area there are local concentrations of
cows with higher degrees of breeding than the average, which
appear to reflect increased market opport uni t ie s . For example,
Peace River, High Prairie and the Bonnyvi lle-St . Paul district
have creameries, and in two cases fluid milk processing plants,
which likely encourage a more commercial type of dairying in
their proximity.

Farmers in the older, well established districts, farther
south in the province, generally maintain better bred cows
which range from mixed breeds to purebred Holsteins. There
are exceptions to this genera liza t ion, of course, because a
combination of scrub and mixed breed dairy cattle occur in the
semi-arid east central and extreme southern portions of Al¬
berta. Better bred cows are situated in predominantly mixed
farming areas which are located in the irrigation districts of
the south, and on the more fertile soil areas farther west
north. Cows of the highest quality are co-incident with the
Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary milksheds, in which fluid milk
is produced for human consumption and for the manufacture of
a wide variety of milk products.

The degree of breeding likely reflects more than just
the importance of dairying in some parts of Alberta. It is
generally accepted that specialized milk producers are ex¬
tremely conscious of the quality of their animals, and the
records of the Dairy Herd Improvement Programme substantiate
this idea because the use of artificial insemination is great-

53

1 1 lus . 1 .

Ulus. 2.

. 3.

Mixed breed cows in Northern Alberta.

Grade Holsteins associated with mixed
farming in the Bonnyvi 1 le- St . Paul district.

Purebred Holsteins in the Edmonton milkshed.

Ulus

54

est in those parts of the province which produce fluid milk.
However , poor breeding may demonstrate not only a lack of int¬
erest in dairying because some other enterprise is more import
ant; for example, beef and grain production in east central A1
berta, but it may also indicate that an area is in an early
stage of agricultural development and that, although cream
sales are an important source of farm income, breeding is poor
because of the lack of capital to purchase high quality ani¬
mals .

Production Per Cow

Milk production per cow has generally increased in Al¬
berta from at least 1921 to the present (see Table IX). This
increase has been most noticeable in the last decade, especi¬
ally for those areas in which specialized dairymen produce
fluid milk for human consumption. The following discussion
outlines some of the factors which have influenced production
both in the province as a whole and in specific parts of Al¬
berta .

One of the objectives of the federal government in insti¬
tuting the Dairy Herd Improvement Programme early in the twen¬
tieth century was to record milk production per cow so that
farmers could identify and cull undesirable animals from their
herds. The federal programme was most successful near the end
of the twenties and beginning of the thirties. Eighty-seven
herds composed of 289 animals were tested in 1929 and the fig¬
ure rose to 4,220 dairy cows in 409 herds in 1931.

'

55

In 1933 the federal government withdrew from this pro¬
gramme in Alberta and the provincial government in the absence
of staff and funds was forced to convert the federal testing
procedure to a mailing system whereby farmers sampled their
own herds and maintained their own records. The programme im¬
mediately lost momentum and remained ineffective until the be¬
ginning of the second world war. Farmers were optimistic
about market possibilities with the advent of another world
war since export markets had expanded during the first. This
may explain the increased interest in herd improvement in
1939-40. But markets for dairy products failed to materialize
until the war was well advanced and by this time the number
of participants in the programme had declined. When demand
did increase it was experienced in the domestic market, not
from Great Britain, and in the absence of competition from
other countries the quality of both cows and milk products
declined.6 The number of animals registered in the scheme
decreased steadily from 2,094 in 1942 to 1,178 in 1945.

This trend was arrested and reversed in the postwar period
and the number of cows tested has increased appreciably ever
since. At the same time provincial figures for production
per cow suggest that the desired goal of increased produc¬
tion has been achieved, at least partly, in response to the
policies of the Dairy Herd Improvement Programme (Table IX).

6. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1945,

Edmonton. The percentage of both butter and cheese grad¬
ed as first class declined in the years 1942-44.

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57

The results for cows currently enrolled in the testing pro¬
gramme are even higher. For example, annual milk production
was more than 11,000 pounds per cow for the 14,000 cows tested
in 1963.

The average production per cow has increased most notice¬
ably within the last decade for the province as a whole (see
Table IX) but increments in milk production per cow for differ¬
ent census divisions for the same period suggest that there
are regional dissimilarities. If some of the factors which
affect farming are examined from 1921 to 1961 then many of the
underlying reasons for these variations become more apparent.

In 1921, the first year in which cows actually milked
were recorded, cows with the highest milk yields in Alberta
were located near Calgary in census divisions 4 and 6
(see Table IX). Dairy animals in proximity to other major
urban centres such as Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Red Deer and
Edmonton were likely of higher quality than the average be¬
cause of excellent market opportunities and as a result pro¬
duction figures for the census divisions in which these
cities are located were generally higher than those for the
remaining political divisions. There are anomalies however,
which are difficult to explain. For example, in 1921 pro¬
duction figures for division 12 were higher than those for
division 11 although the first has no major cities and the
latter contains the provincial capital. In the same year

figures for the northern divisions were generally lower than

58

the rest of the province perhaps because agriculture in this
area was in a less advanced stage because it was settled later.
The only exception to this generalization occurred in division

16 in which the main urban centres of the Peace River district
are located.

As time passed, production figures for the southern
census divisions in which irrigation has become important rose
to a greater extent than did those for areas in which dry farm¬
ing or ranching is the predominant agricultural pursuit. After
1926, for example, farmers in census division 2 maintained
dairy cows with consistently greater milk output than their
counterparts in divisions 1 or 3 where irrigation was less im¬
portant .

Farther north milk producers in census division 11 grad¬
ually improved their stock so that by 1961 milk production per
cow was greater than that of cows kept to supply Calgary’s milk
needs. Manufacturers of dairy products and fluid milk pro¬
cessors in Red Deer have traditionally obtained their milk from
census divisions 8 and 9. This constant demand for manufactur¬
ing milk induced farmers to refine their operation so that
production per cow has remained consistently high in this area.
But it was rarely as high as that encountered in areas associ¬
ated with Calgary or Edmonton because much of the milk is pro¬
duced by mixed farmers who are selling a product for which
ne i the r the standards nor cash returns are as high as those
associated with fluid or market milk. Interest in the quality

59

or milk producing capabilities of dairy cows under these con¬
ditions is therefore correspondingly lower.

Throughout the period from 1921 to 1961 average milk
yields per cow have been lower farther north and west than
those in the more heavily settled parts of the province.

In summary, yields per cow have increased everywhere in
Alberta within the last forty years but improvement has taken
place at a greater rate in some areas than in others. Produc¬
tion figures indicate that dairying in southern Alberta is more
important where irrigation is practised than in those areas
lacking irrigation. Milk production per cow has increased
most rapidly in central Alberta. This area is well suited to
dairying and mixed farming and there are excellent opportunities
to sell milk in the local fluid milk markets or to manufactur¬
ers who sell a large proportion of their product outside of
the province. Milk yields in northern Alberta are increasing
at a slower rate than in the remainder of the province, al¬
though in terms of rainfall and soils the north is one of the
more suitable areas for milk production. The major deterrents
to dairying in this part of the province are, however, dis¬
tance to market and the lack of good transportation facilities.

Herd Size

Size of herd affects the profitability of dairying.
Patterson demonstrated that costs per pound of butterfat in
1941 in the Edmonton district increased as herds were enlarg-

ed from one to sixteen animals. He went on to show that it

7. H. L. Patterson, Dairy Farm Business in Alberta, 1939-
1943, Ottawa, 1948, p. 35.

60

the number of cows kept for churning cream or milk for manu¬
factured products was between roughly ten and eighteen then the
dairyman lost money because costs for added equipment were
greater than returns from the sale of dairy products. Records
of fluid milk shippers demonstrate the same general trend; de¬
creasing profits as herd size increases from ten to sixteen
animals, then a rapid increment in profitability until a maxi¬
mum is reached with roughly 28 cows and finally, a decreasing
rate of return with the addition of more animals to the herd.
Changes in technology and/or the ratio of prices of inputs and
milk output will likely cause changes in the minimum size of
herd which can be kept for profitable milk production. Never¬
theless it seems probable that there will always be a minimum
size for profitable herds.

Economic principles are not solely responsible for herd
size in Alberta because another important local factor that en¬
courages increases in herd size is the method used by the
Board of Public Utilities for distributing milk quotas. In
1953 the average size of herd kept for production of fluid
milk in the Edmonton milkshed was 18 (see Table X); by 1961;,
this figure had risen to 2 1 . Certainly herd size is increas¬
ing because the larger dairy operation is a more viable enter¬
prise but probably more important is the fact that it is in¬
creasing because a dairyman who has already demonstrated his
ability to fulfil past quota requirements is given the right

ket when additional quotas are allot-

to ship more milk to mar

61

Table X Average Size of Herd

Provincia 1

Edmont on

Year

Census

Milk

Cows

Cows

Act ua 1 ly
Mi Iked

3 Census Years
Floating

Mean

Year

Edmonton

Mi lkshed

1916

5.7

1921

5.8

3.2

1953

18

1926

6.8

4.3

3.7

1954

20

1931

7.0

3.5

4.0

1955

21

1936

8.0

4.3

4.0

1956

22

1941

6.1

4. 1

4.3

1957

22

1946

6.4

4.6

4.4

1958

24

1951

6.0

-

4.4

1959

25

1956

5.4

4.2

4.8

1960

26

1961

6.4

5.4

1961

27

Source: Provincial - Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics,
Census, 1906-1961, Ottawa.

Edmonton - Pers. comm., Public Utilities Board of
Alberta .

ted. Therefore expansion in herd size increases the likeli¬
hood of further expansion and generally results in the even¬
tual exclusion from the market of smaller dairy concerns.

Wide differences obscure any long range pattern in herd
size in Alberta. The average number of cows per farm report¬
ing dairy cows has fluctuated between 5.4 and 8 in the 45 year
period between 1916 and 1961. Before 1916 the number of farms
with milk cows is not reported in the census of Canada, and

•

62

therefore no direct comparisons can be made between herd sizes
before and after 1916. The largest herds appear to have been
maintained during the depression and the smallest quite recent
ly in 1956. If the figure for herd size is refined by consid¬
ering only those animals actually milked per-f arm-report ing-
cows then Table X indicates that the effective herd size has
been increasing throughout Alberta Ts short history, since the
largest herds occurred in 1946 and 1961, rather than in 1936.
The trend is indicated more clearly with the use of a floating
mean (using three census years) of the average number of cows
actually milked from 1921 to 1961. There is a consistent rise
from 3.7 cows per herd in 1926 to 4.8 cows in 1956.

The largest dairy herds in 1961 were located in those
census divisions which contained the major cities in Alberta
(see Table XI). Size of dairy herd also appears to correlate
with the amount of irrigated farmland in census divisions 1 to

g

5 which were established in 1956. There are 443,769 acres
irrigated in division 2, roughly 52,000 people in urban places
and an average herd size of 4.8.^ The other census divisions
have less irrigated land, fewer urban people comprising the
local market and on the average fewer cows per herd. For ex¬
ample, in division 1 there are 54,645 acres irrigated, an
urban population of approximately 29,000 people and herds

8. See footnote below Table IX, p. 56.

9. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada,
1961 , Ottawa .

63

Table XI Herd Size by Census Division in 1961

Division

Herd Size

Division

Herd Size

1

4.0

9

5.2

2

4.8

10

5.5

3

3.9

11

8.1

4

3.2

12

5.2

5

4.0

13

5.5

6

7.1

14

5.1

7

5.0

15

3.1

8

6.2

Provincia 1

Average

5.4

Source : Computed
Census of

from Canada.
Canada, 1961

Dominion Bureau of
, v. 5, tables 19

St a t ist ics ,
and 27 .

averaging 4.0 animals in size whereas just over 25,000 irrigat¬
ed acres are located in division 3, roughly 13,000 urban people
and slightly smaller herd sizes approximating 3.9 animals. It
may be argued that the larger herds are merely indicative of
specialization in response to nearby urban market opportunities
because these herds are located on irrigated farms close to the
largest southern city, Lethbridge. There seems to be a tendency
however, for milk production in this locality to outrun demand.
This was demonstrated recently when a Lethbridge milk processor
challenged local municipal bylaws by selling milk outside of
his allotted sales area. Dairymen in the Lethbridge area were
able to supply him with all the milk he needed so that they
were, in effect, "exporting”

milk as far north as Red Deer.

•

64

Northern dairy herds in division 12 to 15 are larger on
the average than those in the southern parts of Alberta. Aver
age herd size for the north is 4.8 whereas the average for the
aforementioned divisions in the south is 4,0.

Comparisons between herd size in 1921 and 1961 are diffi¬
cult because the boundaries and numbers of census divisions
were revised by 1956. There is marginal evidence that today’s
distribution of the size of dairy herds was fairly well estab¬
lished prior to 1921.^ Those changes that have taken place
indicate a slight shift northward in the location of a major¬
ity of the larger dairy herds. In 1921 the largest herds were
located near Red Deer in division 8 followed by herds in div¬
isions 11 and 6 which were situated in proximity to Edmonton
and Calgary. By 1961 the largest were in proximity to Edmon¬
ton in division 11 followed by those near Calgary and Red Deer
At the same time dairy herds in the northern parts of the
province increased in size by 71 per cent from 2.8 animals in
1921 to 4.8 in 1961. Southern herds have grown from 2.4 ani¬
mals to 4.0 in the same period, a smaller increase of 66 per
cent .

10. The Census of Population and Agriculture of the North¬
west Provinces 1906 (Ottawa, King's Printer, 1907) indi-
cates that southern herds were comprised of 2.8 animals
a nd that larger ones of 4 <> 2 and 3 . 7 c ow s were located
near Calgary and Edmonton. The 42 farms in the Peace
River district reported over 14 cows per herd.

I

6.5

SUMMARY

Increased competition has led many farmers to specialize in
specific agricultural pursuits in order that they may realize
the economies of large scale operations. Improvement in cow
breeding and herd management, and increases in the size of
dairy herd and production per cow indicate that specialization
is most noticeable in the fluid milksheds surrounding the major
cities of the province and in the more northerly sections of
Alberta .

66

CHAPTER IV

THE DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTER OF
DAIRYING IN ALBERTA

The past and present distribution and character of agri¬
cultural activity in Alberta has been shaped by events in the
history of settlement, the physical environment, economic dev¬
elopments, and individual preferences of farmers. An analysis
of some of these factors and the way in which they have influ¬
enced the dairy industry may indicate both the relative import
ance of each, and why dairying varies in its degree of import¬
ance in the divers parts of the province.

The current distribution of dairy farming was established
in the early stages of settlement in Alberta. A brief examina
tion of some of the events in the history of settlement before
discussing the present distribution of dairy cattle and milk
production may increase our comprehension of these patterns.

EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT

Prior to the acquisition of Rupert’s Land by Canada, in
1870, agricultural settlement there was generally an extension
of the fur trade and was situated near trading posts. After
1871 the Homestead Act made it possible for anyone to settle
almost anywhere with the exception of certain reserves set
aside for Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company and in school
and railway grants. Settlers tended to farm near the Canadian

67

Pacific Railway line which for numerous reasons, mostly of a
political nature, was built in the more arid parts of the
prairie. Settlement spread outwards from the railway and in
southern Alberta homesteaders began to compete with ranchers
r or what was essentially rangeland. This brought about an
incipient overpopulation which was corrected later with a re¬
distribution of population and expansion of irrigation. Be¬
cause there were few barriers to northward expansion, settlers
began to move in that direction very early in the history of
the province. One of the most frequently used routes into the
central and northern part of Alberta was the Ca lgar y-Edmonton
trail. In 1891 an extension of the Canadian Pacific Railway
built parallel to this trail opened new markets in the south of
the province and in British Columbia for farmers in these more
northerly districts.

J. P. Sackville noted that the cattle associated with the

2

initial settlement of Alberta were dual purpose." Settlers
likely had every intention of engaging in commercial agricul¬
ture but in the absence of adequate techniques for distribut¬
ing milk they were forced instead to supply their own needs
and possibly those of others within the immediate vicinity.
Therefore many farmers needed and in fact, possessed dairy

1. H. A. L. Strange, A Short History of Prairie Agriculture ,
Winnipeg, 1954, p. 14.

2. J. P. Sackville, Dual Purpose Cattle, Bulletins of the
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Alberta, No. 47,
Edmonton, 1947, p. 1.

68

cattle. Dual purpose animals suited their purposes admirably
because they provided both sufficient quantities of milk and
beef calves of fairly high quality each year.

In many years a surplus of dairy or farm butter was manu¬
factured on the farm and sold in local urban places. This was
likely the forerunner of commercial dairying in Alberta. The
first two dairy factories, which were established in 1888 and
1889, were located not far from Calgary, to take advantage of
surplus milk production on farms in the area and the potential
market offered by this city. Calgary was a rail centre by this
date and dairy products which could not be sold in the city
could be sent to markets in British Columbia. Both dairy con¬
cerns failed because they were unable to achieve a sufficient

3

volume of raw product, but they likely encouraged local farm¬
ers to seriously consider dairying as a profitable agricultural
enterprise. (It is interesting to note that manufacturers often
built dairy processing plants in Alberta in anticipation of
increased milk production, not because of it.)

At the same time n ...In the Edmonton area... the first
attempts at farming had been confined largely to grain grow¬
ing....,, But surplus butter production was soon in excess of
that required by the small Edmonton community and the local

3. C. F. Prevey, The Development of the Dairy Industry in
Alberta , Unpublished M.A. Thesis, 1950, University of
T6r onto , p . 20 .

4. The Alberta Dairymen*s Association, Coming of Age, 1940
Edmonton, p. 32.

'

.

69

newspaper, the Edmonton Bulletin, began agitating for the con¬
struction of a creamery to produce butter for the market in
British Columbia . The lack of a rail connection with Calgary
until 1891 was possibly the prime reason that this proposed
creamery was not built, because Edmonton processors would have
been burdened with slow and expensive modes of transportation.
Cochrane, however, was located on the Canadian Pacific Railway
line just west of Calgary, in the Bow River valley, and it was
here that Alberta’s first creamery was built in 1891. Three
creameries were built in the Edmonton area in the next year,
just one year after the Edmonton-Calgar y railway line was built
by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Most of these events initially favoured dairy producers
and processors in the more southerly portions of the province,
but as settlement proceeded and transportation facilities in¬
creased, dairying quickly became more important farther north.
The difference between these two areas became especially notice¬
able during the latter part of the thirties when both dairy
cattle numbers and milk production declined in the south be¬
cause of economic depression coupled with drought (Maps 4 and
5). Under these difficult conditions farmers accepted free
transportation provided by the federal government both for
themselves and their cattle, and left the area. Often half-
starved livestock were sold to the provincial and federal

5.

Loc . ci t .

,

70

governments under the Optional Marketing Policy6 and the gov¬
ernment in turn, moved these animals farther north into central
Alberta where there were feed surpluses. The fact that farmers
in central Alberta were able to absorb these additional animals
is noteworthy because it is an indication that this area is
physically better suited to dairying than most areas farther
south. Although the cow population declined everywhere in the
province as a result of increasing specialization it dropped
precipitously in most southern census divisions because of an

abs

olute decline

in dairyi

ng. This i

ndus tr y

neve

r regained

its

former promi

nance in s

outhern Alberta bee

ause

loca

1 popu-

lat

ion losses re

suited in

smaller urb

an marke

t s f

or mi

lk and

the

re were fewer

farmers maintaining

a subsis

tent

type

of

dai

ry production

involving

one or two

cows .

Da ir

ying,

how-

eve

r, did remain

fairly important in

the irri

gat i

on di

strict s

be c

ause legumes

are import

ant in the

crop rot

a t io

n and

they

can

be marketed

through da

iry cattle

as milk

or c

ream .

Rural population did

not decline

farther

nor

t h in

Al-

ber

ta until the

second wor

Id war when

increas

i ng

mecha

niza-

t io

n made farm amalgamatio

n possible

and enco

uraged ag

r icul-

t ur

al specializa

tion. Dai

rying never

the less

rema

ined

an

int

egral part of

the mixed

farming ec

onomy th

roughout

this

pe r

iod of consol

ida t ion .

As the tempo of specialization increased after the war,

6. Alberta. Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1937,
Edmonton, pp . 30-31.

-

Map 4

71

72

the total number of dairy cattle dropped but milk output has

continued to expand. Milk production is important in central

and northern Alberta not just because there are large urban

markets here but because many parts of this area are physically

suited to dairying. For example, 85 per cent of the 14 million

pounds of butter sold outside of Alberta in 1962 originated in

7

the central and northern parts of the province.

Continued depopulation of rural areas and a tendency to¬
ward an accelerated urbanization of population,' often at the

g

expense of minor urban centres is currently in progress.

Major urban concentrations have grown rapidly in the last 15
years but at differing rates, so that, areas with the greatest
population at the beginning of the period often grew more rap¬
idly than other areas with smaller population concentrations.
For example, the 1951 populations of Edmonton and Calgary were
approximately 170 thousand and 129 thousand respectively. In
1961 the population had increased in these two cities by ap¬
proximately 88 and 93 per cent respectively. Farther south,
in the smaller cities of Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, popula¬
tion increases between 1951 and 1961 were 50 and 55 per cent
resulting in populations of approximately 24 thousand and 35
thousand respectively. Initial size has not been the only

7. Pers. comm., D. H. McCallum, Dairy Commissioner, Alberta
Dept, of Agriculture, Dairy Branch.

Over 51 per cent of the total population in Alberta li^ed
on farms in 1931. By 1961 the rural farm population had
declined to 21.6 per cent.

8.

Map 5

7

74

factor influencing growth. In 1951 the population of Red Deer

was only 7,575 but it increased 259 per cent in the next dec¬
ade. Changes in population numbers and distribution appear
to favour the dairy industry in central and northern Alberta
because local markets are increasing for the most part, at a
greater rate here, than in southern Alberta. Locally there is
some indication that dairying is again increasing in importance
on irrigated land in the south (see Map 5, Table XII). It is

Table XII Milk Production in T000,000 Pounds for the

Month of May 1961 for 15 Census Divisions.

Division

Milk

Product ion

Divis ion

Milk

Production

1

2.9

9

0.2

2

8.7

10

23.5

3

3.6

11

36.7

4

2.0

12

8.6

5

5.5

13

16.0

6

14.0

14

1 . 6

7

10.0

15

6.7

8

22.0

Province

162.6

Source: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of
Canada, 1961, Ot t awa .

difficult, however, to discern whether the apparent increases
in milk production are in fact real or are linked to changes
in the boundaries and numbers of census divisions after 1951.

75

Comparing divisions 1 to 6 on the map as a unit with the same
divisions in Table XII suggests the increases are real. The
northern boundary of this group of divisions is approximately
the same before and after 1951, therefore the area is also
similar. Milk production in these six divisions has risen
from almost 29 million pounds in 1951 to 36.7 million in 1961.
Field checks suggest that most of this increase was experienced
within the boundaries of the current limits of division 2 where
a major proportion of the St. Mary-Milk Rivers and Eastern ir¬
rigation districts are located.

Summary of the Historical Development

In the early stages of development dairying was likely a
common feature of most agricultural enterprises throughout Al¬
berta because farmers tended to be self sufficient in many
agricultural commodities. J/i the absence of rapid communica¬
tions dairy products often were not available through regular
commercial channels so settlers often supplied their own needs.
In 1916, the first year in which the number of farms with milk
cows was reported, 74 per cent of all census farms reported
cows kept for milk. As communications improved and changes
in agricultural technology resulted in increased specializa¬
tion, this figure declined consistently, except during the
thirties, to 61 per cent in 1961.

Some of the first examples of commercial dairying and
dairy processing were to be found in southern Alberta because
in many cases they were favoured by railway connections to

i r i g i .1

to markets. This advantage over the rest of Alberta was short¬
lived and with increased population and improved transportation
facilities farmers in the central and northern parts of the
province took precedence in commercial dairying.

Cost of production is becoming a major factor in the loca¬
tion of the dairy industry because improvement in transporta¬
tion facilities and bulk milk shipments tend to reduce the ef¬
fect of distance to market. Therefore milk production in areas
which are suited to dairying in terms of physiography and cli¬
mate will likely increase in volume. Although the distribution
of milk production for manufactured dairy products is fairly
rational in that it coincides with conditions more conducive
to dairying than to many other agricultural pursuits, special¬
ized production of fluid milk for human consumption is more
closely allied with markets, often in spite of physical con¬
ditions. As was stated previously the location of fluid milk
producers in proximity to the rapidly growing urban centres of
Alberta is not a reflection of economic conditions alone be¬
cause there are provincial laws restricting unlimited move¬
ment of milk destined for human consumption.

PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF DAIRY CATTLS - 1961

The distribution of dairy cattle is shown on Map 6. In
an attempt to show this distribution with reasonable accuracy
each dot represents a relatively small number of cattle. The
map was based on 1961 census data supplied by the Dominion
Bureau of Statistics. The number of census reporting units

H

Map 6

GREY W-

GREY AND
GREY WOODE

DARK

DARK

GREY WOOD!

JASPER

DAfitt BROWN

D/&K GREY
J- AND
XTar* GREY
\\W0QD^G

PAFJK

ROWN

*i*ook*'
• • •

DISTRIBUTION OF DAIRY CATTLE IN ALBERTA

SOIL ZONES|^ ALBERTA

ONE DOT REPRESENTS 200 COWS

S

SOURCE BASED ON P^RS COMM

SOURCE:

SECTION.

FIELD WORK 1963

SCALE'-

SCALE

MILES

Map 6

77

120°

110°

60°

DISTRIBUTION OF DAIRY CATTLE IN ALBERTA

1961

55°

55°

ONE DOT REPRESENTS 200 COWS

SOURCE: BASED ON PERS. COMM.

R.S. ELLIS, D.B.S CENSUS
DIVISION, AGRICULTURE
SECTION.

FIELD WORK 1963

SCALE

MILES

110°

78

was 94 in 1961, but by grouping specific enumeration districts,
the number of reporting areas was increased to 152. The au¬
thor was able to subdivide larger census units, such as,
counties, improvement districts etc. and thus increase the
number of reporting areas to 152. This resulted in a more pre¬
cise positioning of the dots within the larger census units.

The geographic locations of these data were refined further
with the aid of maps depicting population concentrations, ir¬
rigation districts, and the milksheds of all milk or cream pro¬
cessing plants in Alberta. The information for this latter
series of maps was collected and mapped in the summer of 1962.

Dairying is most prevalent in an arc from Nanton, approxi¬
mately fifty miles south of Calgary, north to Edmonton then
roughly east to the Saskatchewan border. This concentration of
dairy cattle is coincident for the most part with the extreme¬
ly fertile black soils and the most densely settled part of
Alberta. Markets for dairy produce are largest here and the
area is served with a fine network of roads. Physical and
economic conditions are such that mixed farming has proven
to be profitable and therefore there is a larger rural popu¬
lation density here than in most other parts of Alberta.

Service centres which have been developed to satisfy the needs
of these people and to process and distribute milk and milk
products provide in turn a market for the produce of the sur¬
rounding farms. The two largest urban concentrations, Cal¬
gary and Edmonton, occur in this arc and have surrounding

I

79

them, strong concentrations of specialized dairy farms produc¬
ing fluid milk. The distribution of dairy cows outside the
major concentrations is arrested abruptly to the west because
of the less favourable conditions for agricultural settlement.
This rolling, forested area is more humid because elevation and
rainfall increase to the west. The resultant climate and biot¬
ic factors have led to the development of largely infertile
grey wooded soils. Settlement has lagged in the more suitable
areas due to the problems of land clearing and the less than
optimum fertility of the soils, but once populated this area
will likely gain increasing importance as a dairying and beef
region, since grass and legumes are necessary in the crop ro¬
tation to maintain the limited fertility of the soil. The
same general soil characteristics are encountered in divisions
12, 13, and 14 to the north of the major concentration, of cows,
but drier climatic conditions and slightly longer growing and
frost free periods prevail on the average because of lower el¬
evations .

The Peace River district has a broad scattering of mixed
breed cows, interspersed with small areas which contain a
higher percentage of grade Holsteins. The mixed breed cows
are kept to supply home milk needs with surplus cream going to
local creameries, while the well bred Holsteins are used to a
large extent for fluid milk sales in the urban settlements.

There are other, minor, concentrations of dairy cows lo¬
cated for the most part in southern irrigation districts (see

*

-

80

Map 6). The most important of these is located near Lethbridge
in the Magrath, Raymond, Western St. Mary and Milk Rivers and
Lethbridge Northern irrigation districts. The other areas in
descending order of importance are the Eastern Irrigation dis¬
trict surrounding the town of Brooks, the United, Mountain
View, and Aetna irrigation districts around Glenwoodvi 1 le and
Cardston, and the eastern part of the St. Mary and Milk Rivers
projects and the Ross Creek irrigation district which are sit¬
uated close to Medicine Hat. Farmers in these districts supply
southern markets, and small surpluses of butter are sold out¬
side of the area.

PHYSICAL VARIABLES AND THE INCIDENCE OF DAIRYING

At any particular stage in the evolution of agricultural
technology the physical environment appears to place some re¬
striction upon the number of ways that a farmer may choose to
utilize his land. In some limited instances, however, it may
be economic to modify the physical environment because trans¬
portation costs are prohibitive for a specific commodity which
is in great demand. The forms that this modification takes
are varied but two examples might be land levelling for irri¬
gation and the construction of hothouses on the peripheries
of major urban markets. Milk production for direct human con¬
sumption has traditionally taken place in the immediate vicin¬
ity of urban markets, not because of the physical environment
but rather because of the high cost of transporting 1 luid
milk. Nevertheless, the location of dai lying in Alberta,

-

81

with the exception of fluid milk production for human consump¬
tion, reflects to a large degree the influence of the physical
environment. As transportation costs for milk continue to de¬
cline, as they have done in the past few years, the future ex¬
pansion of dairying will perhaps be even more rational with
reference to the physical environment

Perhaps one of the most striking features of the distri¬
bution of dairying is that the intensity of dairy production
varies considerably in the various generalized soil zones of
Alberta (see overlay on Map 6). Although the area of the
black soil zone is only 18 per cent, or 8 million acres^ of
total occupied farm land in all soil zones in Alberta, 50 per
cent of all cows kept for milk in 1961 are situated here (Table
XIII). If cows located on thin black soils are added to those
situated on the chernozem or black soils then the number of cows
as a percentage of the total cow population in Alberta increases
to 70 per cent. The larger zones of dark brown and brown soil

9. Pers. comm., W. Magrath, Alberta, Dept, of Agriculture,
Dairy Branch. A recent study carried out by the Dairy
Branch of the provincial Dept, of Agriculture indicates
that transportation costs for industrial milk for cheese
have declined 60 per cent in the last ten years. One
major dairy company reports a substantial decrease in
transportation rates for fluid milk for human consumption
in the last six or seven years because bulk milk tanks
have reduced handling costs and allow larger consignments
of milk to be shipped less often. Freight rates between
Edmonton and Vancouver for finished dairy products have
declined over 60 per cent in the last 15 years, in part
because of the increased competition between railroads
and trucking firms.

10. W. Odynsky, Soil Zones of Alberta, 3rd ed . rev., Edmonton,
19 62.

Table XIII

82

Dairy Cows Expressed as a Percentage of
Total Cow Numbers for Five Soil Zones - 1961.

Soil Zones Black Thin Black Dark Brown Brown Grey Wooded
Cows 50 20 10 5 15

Source: Based on statistics from: Pers. comm., R. Ellis, Chief

of Agricultural Section, Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

account for only 15 per cent of the total number of cows and,
as stated previously, most of these animals are found in the
irrigation districts where the physical environment has under¬
gone fairly intensive modification. The last major soil zone,
the grey wooded soils, is potentially the largest agricultural
area of the province but due to its special character which
renders it marginal for many agricultural enterprises settle¬
ment has proceeded slowly. Therefore only approximately 8 mil¬
lion acres of the total 15 million acres of potentially arable
land are settled. Farmers in this area maintain only 15 per
cent of total provincial dairy cow numbers. These generalized
soil zones are among other things soil moisture zones. They
reflect the thermal and moisture regimen and indicate those
areas best suited to the production of specific crops.

There appear to be few physical factors limiting the dis¬
tribution of dairy cows in Alberta, other than the distribu¬
tion of moisture. Fielding suggested that a mean monthly

11. H. L. Patterson, Dairy Farm Business in Alberta, 1939
1943, Bulletins of the Canada Dept, of Agriculture,
No. 812, Ottawa, 1948, p. 72.

.

83

maximum temperature of 90°F is
utilizing temperate breeds can

the maximum at which dairying

12

operate efficiently. Tempera¬

tures above this figure result in reduced yields per cow. The
highest monthly maximum 20 years mean temperature reported in Al¬
berta is 83 °F at Medicine Hat in southern Alberta. It might be
expected that winter temperatures affect the physical well being
of dairy cattle and thus limit their distribution. The average
January minimum and maximum temperatures, expressed in Farenheit
degress , toi Me dicine Hat , Le thbridge, Edmon t on a nd Be aver 1 od ge
are 1.8 and 22.4, 7.2 and 27.3, -2,0 and 15.2, and -1.2 and 15 . 9 ^
But the number of cows per acre of farmland is highest in central
and northern Alberta where the lower temperatures are experienced,
and the use of open or loose housing, in which decomposing manure
provides the only outside source of heat, appears to be just as
common in the northernmost settled parts of the Peace River dis¬
trict as in dairy districts much farther south.

The effect of soil moisture on the distribution of dairy¬
ing is expressed to a large degree through vegetation. Dairy
cows utilize fairly high quality pasture which must be located
in close proximity to the milking facilities of the farm.

Patterson noted that cows are seldom grazed on land over three-

quarters of a mile from the barn because they must return to

14

be milked twice a day. Therefore where the carrying capacity

12. G.J. Fielding, Dairying in the Los Angeles Mi Iks hed ; Fact or s
Affecting Character and Location, unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
University of Ca lif or nia , (Los Angeles), Los Ange les , 1961 , p . 89 .

13. H. L. Patterson, op . cit . , p. 73.

14. Canada. Dept, of Transport, Climatology Division, Meteoro¬
logical Branch, Temperature Normals for Alberta, Tor ont o , 1964 .

n i * X

84

of any rangeland is low because of scant rainfall, then this
land will likely be used for beef production because it cannot
be profitably utilized by dairy cattle. Soil moisture also
influences the type of crop grown in the soil zones of Alberta.
Different plants utilize moisture with varying degrees of ef¬
ficiency so that different weights of dry matter are produced
for each pound of water consumed. Wheat and oats require on
the average 403 and 536 pounds of moisture for every pound of
dry matter produced whereas brome grass, alfalfa and crested
wheat grass need 784, 798 and 806 pounds of water per pound of
dry matter produced. This means that in areas with low rain¬
fall and a high incidence of drought (Maps 7A and 7B) wheat
and oats utilize available moisture more effectively than
forage crops and therefore are more likely to be grown than
other kinds of plants. Neatby and McCalla ^ have demonstrated
that there is an inverse relationship between effective pre¬
cipitation and quality of hard wheat. In a study carried
out in the period from 1931 to 1937 the protein content of
wheat, the best single measure of quality, varied consider-
abfy between each soil zone. Foi example, the best grades of
wheat with a protein content of more than 12 per cent are
grown in the drier southern brown soil zone whereas inferior
grades are grown under more humid conditions farther north in
the black and grey wooded soil zones. The protein content of

14. K. W. Neatby and A. G. McCalla, The Production and Quality
of Cereal Crops in the P ark and Wooded Areas of Alberta"
Bulletins of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Al-
berta, No. 30, Edmonton, 1938, p. 18.

85

wheat was less than 11 per cent on the grey wooded soils and
transitional black soils west of Red Deer and west and north of
Edmonton during half of the study period. Wheat was of higher
quality in the Peace River district but not as high as that pro¬
duced in the southern brown zone. For example, protein content
was more than 11 per cent in six years of the study period but
over 12 per cent only once. The same general result was obtain¬
ed by the federal Department of Trade and Commerce in 1956 and
is shown on /Map 7D. Although wheat yields per acre are often
higher in the more humid zones the lower quality of the grain
discourages wheat production on a scale comparable to that en¬
countered in the drier parts of the province. A more intensive
kind of farming, in which there is a crop livestock combination,
appears to be at an economic advantage. Dairy cattle are often
the choice of livestock because receipts per animal unit are
greater from dairy cows than beef15 and because dairy animals
provide a more stable income than do hogs.

Quality of the soil and topography also influence the
local distribution of dairying within the generalized soil
zones. It is difficult to demonstrate their effect with sta*-
tistical evidence collected on as broad a basis as a census
division but there is a general tendency for unimproved farm
land and an emphasis on livestock to occur together. For ex¬
ample, more than 65 per cent of land in farms was unimproved
in 1961 in census divisions 1 and 4, and the major agricultural

15. H. L. Patterson, op . ci t . p. 73.

Map 7 A

86

7 B

7 C 7 D

87

pursuit was beef production. However although some of the low
est figures for unimproved farmland are reported in the vicin¬
ity of Red Deer and Edmonton these areas are coincident with
the maximum densities of dairy cattle in Alberta (Map 6).

This phenomenon may be related both to the stage of agricultur
al development and to the type of milk production which takes
place here. Agriculture in these long established farming
districts has advanced from an early stage in which unimproved
land was used for milk production for cream sales and farm use
to a more advanced form in which intensive commercial fluid
milk production takes place on improved land. 1(3 Nevertheless,
local concentrations of dairying, especially if the cows are
kept for cream production, portray a distribution which close¬
ly parallels the distribution of land which, because of poor
quality soil or unfavourable drainage or topography, is un¬
suitable for intensive crop production. Patterson noted this
relationship in 1943. He stated that, ’’one of the factors

likely to affect concentration on dairying, is the amount of

17

land which is unsuitable for cultivation”.

The risk of frost also influences the local distribution
of dairying. Map 7C indicates the frost free period and pro¬
vides a guide as to which areas are in the greatest danger
from frost during the growing season.

16. Pers. comm., Questionnaire to all District Agriculturists
in Albert a , 1963 .

17. Ho L. Patterson, op.cit . , p. 75.

88

Production ol grains, such as malting barley, that do
well under humid conditions would likely be more prevalent in
the grey wooded soil zone and in the northern parts of the
black soil zone except for the danger of frost. Neatby and
McLalla indicated that four degrees of frost during the grow¬
ing season will reduce the milling qualities of wheat and low¬
er the germination rate of malting barley. ^ Grains ..exposed to
severe frost are graded lower or are accepted only as feed
grain commercially. Farmers faced with these conditions will
often elect to feed their own grains and market them as beef
or dairy produce. The production of legumes is favoured be¬
cause they are not as susceptible to frost damage as grain
crops. Many areas north of Edmonton in census division 13 lie
in the transition zone between the isorhythms depicting 60 and
80 frost free days. The protein content of wheat from this
division is low because of fairly abundant rainfall, and other
grains are often of poor quality because of their exposure to
frost. These conditions allow livestock production to compete
favourably with other kinds of farming. Examples of the ef¬
fect of frost are difficult to show statistically because of
its erratic nature and local occurrence. However district
agriculturists and dairy plant managers in this area and
farther east near Lac La Biche suggested, when interviewed,
that frost played a significant part in the location and
importance of dairying in their administrative or business

18. K. W. Neatby and A. G. McCalla, op » c i t . , pc 22.

89

districts .

Moisture condition appears to be the most important posi¬
tive physical variable affecting the distribution of dairying.
The other physical conditions are of a more negative character
in that other kinds of farming operate under some handicap thus
often making dairying a more attractive farming alternative.

But these variables still operate within the framework of the
history of settlement. If the location of dairying was based
upon physical factors alone then the major milk producing areas
would likely be located in the grey wooded soil zone. However
settlement proceeded most rapidly in the black soil zone be¬
cause precipitation is adequate for most crops and more import¬
antly there were large areas of open grassland which simplified
the preparation of the land for agriculture. Once commercial
dairying had become established a shift to areas of lower pro¬
duction costs became increasingly difficult because large
a'mounts of capital had been expended in the initial develop¬
ment and maintenance of the industry.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DAIRYING T&. THE. .GENERALIZED- SOIL ZONES

An examination of the various characteristics of dairying,
such as trends and seasonality of production and the way in
which milk output is utilized, offers some indication of the
role that milk production plays in the local farm economy.

Trends in Milk Production in Each Soil Zone

Farmers in central an northern Alberta are producing an
increasingly larger proportion of Alberta's total milk output

90

whereas milk production is growing at a slower pace in the
south. The shift in the relative importance of this commodity
in each area can be demonstrated by plotting milk production
for the three major soil zones in Alberta. Table XIN i 1 lus-
trates the trend in milk production from 1926 to 1961 for three
groups of census divisions which best depict the grey wooded,

19

black and thin black and the dark brown and brown soil zones.

Table XIV Milk Production Expressed as a Percentage of

Total Milk Production for Three Major Soil
Zones, 1926-61 *

1926 1931

1936

1941

1946

1951

1956

1961

Brown

29 29

27

23

20

18

19

18

Black

52 54

54

54

55

55

56

58

Grey Wooded

19 17

19

23

25

27

25

24

Source

: Based on Canada

. Domi

ni

on Bureau

of

St a t :

LS t icS ,

Cens us

of

Canada, 1921

-1961,

Ottawa

•

* The

data

has been smoothed

by t he

use

of

a

two

year

f loa t ing me

an.

These

census divisions

do not

coincide exac

t ly w j

l t h the

distri-

but ion

of t

he various s

oils a

nd

t her

ef ore

t

he trend for

each

zoi 1 z

one i

s not as acc

ur a te

as

it m

ight

be

if data wer

e avail-

able f

or a

smaller reporting

un

it .

Furthermore ,

the continu-

i ty of

each

trend was broken

in

1956

, espec

ially

for the black

19. Present day census divisions 6, 8, 10 and most of 11 are

accepted as representing the black soil zones, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, and 7 are roughly coincident with th brown soils and
the remaining divisions best depict the grey wooded soils.

91

and grey wooded soil zones, because all of the census divisions
in Alberta were shitted slightly in their geographic location
and reduced in number after 1951. However additional evidence
is offered later which may indicate that the change in trend
in 1956 is, in fact, attributable to factors other than the re¬
location of municipal boundaries alone.

Milk production has been slowly declining in the brown
soil zone (Map 5 and Tables XII and XIV) and it is only recently
that real increases in productivity have been experienced on
irrigated land in proximity to Calgary and Lethbridge. Dairy
producers on black soils have increased their milk output from
1921 to 1956 at the same rate at which total provincial milk
output has increased so that they have contributed a constant
proportion to the total provincial milk output. After 1956
however, increases in milk production in this area were more
rapid than for the province as a whole so that farmers in this
soil zone contributed a larger proportion of the total pro¬
vincial milk output than previously. Milk production has
generally increased from 1921 to 1961 in the grey wooded soil
zone (Map 5 and Table XII) but in only one period, 1941 to

1951 (Table XIV) did milk output increase at a rate greater

20

than the growth of provincial milk production. It was to

20. This is difficult to see on Map 5 because although there
was a general increase in milk production on the grey
wooded soils it occurred only in those divisions located
close to black soils. For example, milk production fig¬
ures, when totalled for divisions 9, 13, and 14 for the

years 1941 and 1951, indicate a slight increase although
total provincial milk output actually decreased in this

92

this period that Patterson referred when he stated that ’’...the
most rapid development in dairying in recent years has taken

place on the grey [woodedj soils, close to the black soil

21

zones”. Although milk production is still generally increas¬
ing in this soil zone it is now doing so at a declining rate,
even for those areas in proximity to black soils.

A Measure of the Importance of Dairying in Each Soil Zone
Although a distribution map of dairy cows may indicate
which parts of Alberta produce the largest proportion of the
province’s total milk production (see Map 6) there is no way
of ascertaining the importance of dairying to the total farm
economy within any specific part of Alberta. A low density of
dots in one part of the province might mean that there is a
lack of interest in dairying because farmers are engaged in
some other form of agricultural activity; on the other hand
it could mean that although milk production is one of the main
activities in a specific area farming generally is unimportant.
Another measure which overcomes this deficiency is the pro¬
portion of the farmers who produce milk and the proportion of
the farmers who produce milk and also sell it . The data con¬
tained rn Table XV indicate that 63 per cent of all farmers
located on the black soils reported milk production in 1961.

period (Figure 1). This observation is reinforced by
the increase in milk production reported for division
11 (Map 5). Most of this indicated increase likely
occurred east of Edmonton on the grey wooded soils
(overlay on Map 6).

21. H. L. Patterson, op.cit . , P- 72 •

93

Table XV Thh Number of Farms with Milk Production Expressed
as a Percentage of Total Farms - and - The Number
of Farms Reporting Milk or Cream Sales Expressed as
a Percentage of the Number of Farms with Milk Pro¬
duction in each Census Division and in Three
Generalized Soil Zones - 1961

Soil Zone

Divis ion

Percentage of

Farms with

Milk Production

Percentage of
Farms with

Milk Sales

Brown

1

48

62

2

50

62

3

49

65

4

44

54

5

41

63

7

57

78

Per cent

48

66

Black

6

53

74

8

64

87

10

66

80

11

65

87

Per cent

63

83

Grey Wooded 9

45

62

12

67

73

13

64

83

14

55

75

15

38

49

Per cent

53

69

Source :

Based on:
Census of

Canada. Dominion Bureau of
Canada, 1961, Ottawa.

Statistics ,

94

The figures for the brown and grey wooded soil zones are rough¬
ly 48 and 5o per cent. The percentage of farmers reporting
both milk production and sales of milk or cream is lower in all
census divisions than the percentage of farmers reporting only
milk output because many farmers produce milk solely for their
own use on the farm.

Milk producers appear most commercial in the black soil
zone with 83 per cent of all farmers who reported milk produc¬
tion also reporting sales of dairy products. Sales are less
important for farmers in the brown and grey wooded soils with
66 and 69 per cent of the farmers who produced milk also re¬
porting sales. It appears therefore, that the zone in which
the largest volume of milk is produced is also the zone in
which the greatest amount of commercial dairying takes place.
Commercial dairying is not as important in the other two gen¬
eralized soil zones because markets are not as readily avail¬
able. This type of dairying is beginning to increase in im¬
portance, however, especially within the last 15 years.

Uses of Milk in Each Soil Zone

Much of the milk produced in the brown soil zone is re¬
tained on the farm (Map 8) and divided almost equally between
household uses and animal feed. The second major portion of
the milk is sold as butterfat. Milk for this use is usually
separated on the farm rather than at the local creamery and
the residue, or skim milk, is most probably used as animal
feed. This suggests that even more milk than is reported in

-

95

the censuses or shown on Map 8 is used as animal feed so that
this use absorbs the largest proportion of all milk produced
in the brown soil zone. Fluid milk sales are becoming more
important in much of the area however, (see Table XVI. and
Map 8) because the major cities in this zone are increasing
substantially in size. The pattern of milk use is different in
census division 7 from that encountered in the southern brown:
Soil areas and more 'closely approximates the pattern displayed
on the more fertile soils in central and northern Alberta.

Almost all of the total milk output of farms in the black
soil zone is sold. Census division 10 is the only area in
this zone in which fairly large amounts of milk are retained
for use on the farm. Sales of fluid milk are highest, of
course, in those census divisions (6 and 11) in which Calgary
and Edmonton are located. Fluid milk sales also have expanded
appreciably in census division 8 (Table XVI.) because the manu¬
facture of dried and condensed milk is becoming increasingly
important in Red Deer which is situated in this division.

The location of individual milk producing areas, with
respect to markets affects the way in which farmers in the
grey wooded soil zone dispose of their milk. Milk uses in
division 9 are similar to those of division 8 because much
of this area is within reach of the milk industries in Red
Deer. For example, a large proportion of the total milk pro¬
duction is sold to local creameries and in Red Deer for the
manufacture of butter and milk products. Only a veiy small

Map 8

96

60 <

120°

t

USES OF MILK IN ALBERTA EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTAGE OF
TOTAL MILK PRODUCTION 1921 - 1951

TOTAL MILK PRODUCTION

- RETAINED ON THE FARM

FLUID MILK SALES

WHOLEMILK USED FOR
BUTTERFAT SALES

1921 1926

5 YEAR INTERVALS

SOURCE BASED ON DOMINION BUREAU OF STATISTICS
CENSUS OF CANADA 1921-1961

DATA NOT AVAILABLE FOR 17 CENSUS DIVISIONS

97

Table XVI Fluid Milk Sales Expressed as a Percentage

of Total Milk Produced in Each Census
Division - 1961

Division

Fluid Milk
Sales

Division

Fluid Milk

Sales

1

20

9

21

2

37

10

13

3

16

11

42

4

4

12

4

5

25

13

3

6

55

14

15

7

8

15

14

8

33

Source: Based on:

Census of

Canada. Dominion Bureau of
Canada, 1961, Ottawa.

Statistics,

proportion of the total milk output is retained on the farm.
Farmers in division 9, like those in division 8, are channel¬
ling an increasing percentage of their milk into fluid milk
sales. This use absorbed 16 per cent of the total milk output
in 1951 and 21 per cent in 1961. Farther north in census div¬
isions 13, 14, and after 1941, division 12, the pattern of milk
utilization closely parallels that displayed for division 10.
More milk is retained on the farm than is the case for division
9 and cream sales, primarily for the manufacture of butter, are
the most important commercial use of milk. Milk production is
largely unimportant in the remaining parts of the grey wooded

98

soil zone and most of the milk that is produced is retained on
the farm. However, sales of milk and cream have accelerated
in the Peace River district since 1946 as urbanization and
agricultural specialization continue.

Seasonal Variation of Butter Production in Each Soil Zone

The seasonal variation of butter production provides both
a rough guide to the importance of dairying to the local rural
economy and some indication of the stage of development of
dairy techniques . in the various soil zones.

Winter butter production per processing plant, expressed
as a percentage of summer butter production, is largest in the
black soil zone and in the southern irrigation districts and
declines in all directions from this core area for the follow¬
ing reasons (Map 9). The length of the stall feeding period
in the north on the grey wooded soils discourages milk produc¬
tion for cream sales because winter feeding costs are too high.
This renders the operation uneconomic. Winter butter produc¬
tion of creameries in the south of the province on the brown
soils, exclusive of the irrigation districts, is similar in
character to that of creameries situated in the northern grey
wooded soil zone for roughly the same reason. In the southern
irrigation districts, near Lethbridge and Brooks, winter but¬
ter production is higher for at least two reasons, large
amounts of fodder are available for winter feeding because
hay production is necessary in crop rotations to maintain the
tilth and fertility of the soil, and because a large propor-

I

Map 9

99

100

tion of the milk production is controlled by a quota policy.
This means that milk output must be maintained in all seasons.
Surplus milk produced under this system is normally utilized .
for dairy products, such as butter. The volume of winter but¬
ter production does not decline to the same degree in the cen¬
tral black soil zone because dairying is an important source of
income in this mixed farming area and because dairy farmers in
the immediate vicinity of the major towns and cities are com¬
mitted to quotas which again often result in surplus milk pro¬
duction.

It is perhaps of interest to note that this phenomenon
is also evident to a minor degree in census divisions 12, 13,
and 15 in the vicinity of St. Paul, Barrhead, and High Prairie.
The first two urban places have milk shippers under quota con¬
trols. The third example is difficult to explain because the
fluid milk market for this settlement is served by Central
Peace Dairy which is located in Rycroft.

In summary, milk output in the black soil zone in central
and northern Alberta is increasing because it is an important
part of a commercial dairy and mixed farming economy. As a
result, butter production fluctuates least with the season.

Milk is produced mainly for farm use in many parts of the
brown and grey wooded soil zones but the largest proportion
of the cream sales take place in the summer when feeding costs
are lowest. At best, milk production in the grey wooded soil
zone is increasing at a rate comparable with total provincial

101

increases. In the brown soil zone it has been declining until
recent ly .

CASE STUDIES DEPICTING THE IMPORTANCE OF DAIRYING TO THE
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIES OF VARIOUS PARTS OF ALBERTA

The foregoing historical, physical and economic factors
have had some effect on the distribution, type, and importance
of dairying in all parts of Alberta. The origin of the pres¬
ent characteristics of dairying in each census division can
be at least partially explained by reference to these factors.
If income obtained from the sale of specific classes of agri¬
cultural commodities (see Table XYXI) ) is also considered then
the relative importance of dairying in any specific area can
be examined.

Most evidence seems to indicate that milk production is
generally not important in the Peace River district (division
15). Income from dairying in 1960 was only three per cent of
the total cash income received from the sale of all agricult¬
ural products. The main agricultural activity is the produc¬
tion of cash grains with wheat as the single most important
crop. It might be expected that, in an area in which new land
is being continually homesteaded, farmers would tend to be
more self sufficient in food stuffs and so produce surplus
cream for commercial butter production. This appears to be
the case only to a minor degree. Dairy plant managers who
are located close to places which are in the process of be¬
ing developed for agriculture report that these areas are the

.

102

Table XVII Value of Agricultural Products Sold by 15

Census Divisions Expressed as a Percentage
of Total Income Received From the Sale of
Farm Products - 1960.

Dairy Other

Div is ion

Crops

Live s to ck

Products

Pr oduc

1

53

40

2

5

2

53

44

3

-

3

32

64

2

2

4

49

49

2

-

5

57

40

2

1

6

23

66

9

2

7

45

51

4

-

8

23

65

11

1

9

4

89

4

3

10

43

49

7

1

11

23

49

23

5

12

33

58

8

1

13

33

55

10

2

14

25

55

13

7

15

68

26

3

3

Province

38

53

7

2

Source :

Based on:
Census of

Canada .
Canada ,

Dominion Bureau of
1961, Ottawa.

Statistics ,

point of origin for a substantial proportion of their raw pro¬
duct. However district agriculturists are dubious that dairy¬
ing plays an important role in newly settled areas because

•

103

they are too far removed from processing plants and therefore
shipping costs are too high to make cream production economic¬
ally feasible. A more plausible reason for the location of
dairying in the Peace River block is the amount of unimproved
or low quality land. Acton and Spence wrote in 1947 that,
’’Grain production was associated with good cultivable land;

while livestock production was usually associated with poorer

22

land, better suited to pastures”. Mixed farming predominates
in the Peace River district except for the older, flatter,
better established agricultural districts which normally spe¬
cialize in cash grains. Dairying occurs in conjunction with
this mixed farming and it appears to be a way in which the
poorest land on the farm can be utilized. All district agri¬
culturists report that, except for well bred dairy cows main¬
tained for market milk production, all cows are kept on unim¬
proved pastures. As mentioned previously cows generally are
poorly bred and yield low volumes of milk. Their major com¬
mercial use is for cream production which is highly seasonal
because it appears uneconomic to grow fodder for a long
winter feeding period. Dairying in this area might best be
described as economically marginal; reliability of income
rather than the amount appears to be the major factor in ex¬
plaining the incidence of dairying.

22. B. K. Acton and C. C. Spence, A Study of Pioneer Farming
in the Fringe Areas of the Peace River, Alberta, Publi-
cations of the Dept, of" Agriculture, Canada, No. 792,
Ottawa, 1942, p. 29.

104

Dairying on the grey wooded soils in census divisions 12,
13, and 14 has many of the characteristics displayed by the
enterprise in the Peace River area, with one notable exception;
it is more important in terms of the percentage of farmers who
maintain dairy cows and the percentage of total cash income
achieved from the sale of dairy products (see Table XVII).

This increased importance is most likely attributable to the
physical characteristics of these divisions. Topography, soils
and climate favour a livestock economy and the stage of agri¬
cultural development appears conducive to dairying. District
agriculturists suggest that much of the area, especially in
the northeast, has just emerged from the pioneering stage in
which self sufficiency has been emphasized. They point out
further, that farms are too small for extensive cash grain
farming, in part because a substantial proportion of the land
is covered with trees or bush. Therefore dairying remains an
important media by which low grade land may be utilized. How¬
ever many agriculturists foresee an increase in the importance
of beef cattle especially in the outer reaches of this soil
zone at some distance from major urban markets.

Elgaard suggested that dairying was becoming less import¬
ant in some parts of division 13 in the late 1940*s because
farmers were emphasizing the production of forage seeds such

as alsike and clover. He suggests further that fodder seed

23

production is not compatible with a livestock enterprise.

23. K. Elgaard, A Study of Changes in the Farm Business in the
Athabaska Area of Northern Alberta, 194 5-19.51 , Ot tawa, 1C) 33.

-

105

In 1961 farmers in this census division still ranked second and
produced over 11 per cent of the province's total output of
forage seed (census division 15 ranked first with 82 per cent
of total production) but milk production began to increase again
after 1951 most likely in response to increased demand for dairy
products in nearby Edmonton.

Although dairying is more important in this part of Alberta
than in the Peace River district, in terms of the percentage of
income contributed to total farm income by the sale of dairy
products, it still might be considered a marginal occupation
because cows of questionable breeding fed on low quality pas¬
ture produce milk which varies considerably in volume depending
upon the season. This generalization is not applicable, of
course, to the more specialized dairymen in the vicinity of
local urban markets. But the importance of milk production is
also expressed in other less obvious ways. For example, the
proportion of income derived from the sale of livestock is
appreciably higher than that received from either crops or
dairy products, but over 51 per cent of the money received
from the sale of livestock in 1961 was derived from pigs which
were fed, in part, skim milk from cream producers.

Farming is generally of a less intensive nature in the
brown soil zone. Climate and fairly flat topography favour
wheat and beef production on a large scale and preclude a
more intensive crop- livestock combination except in small
areas with more favourable agricultural conditions or in

106

irrigation districts. This area is in a more mature stage of
agricultural development than that encountered in northern Al¬
berta and specialization has occurred to a large degree. Rural

depopulation occurred here early in the history of settlement

24

m response to drought and government policies and farms were
amalgamated to form units which could be farmed extensively and
economically. Dairying plays a very minor role in the economy
of this district and it is often necessary to bring milk from
outside areas to satisfy local demand. Many of the cows in the
dry farming areas are mixed breeds and they are kept with beef
herds. Their major role is to supply home milk needs, as shown
in Map 8 but a small amount of surplus cream is sold for the
manufacture of butter. Milk production, as expected, is highly
seasonal and in fact virtually ceases in winter because this un¬
important agricultural activity does not warrant more than a
minimum of winter fodder production.

Table XVI indicates that a large proportion of total milk
output was sold in 1961 for human consumption in census divi¬
sions 1, 2, 3, and 5. The fluid milk producers in these divi¬
sions are located to a large degree on irrigated land in prox¬
imity to the southern cities. Few, if any, of the 78 commer¬
cial dairy farmers in divisions 4 and ' produce milk on irri¬
gated pastures and their operation appears quite different
from the smaller more intensely worked farms in the southern
irrigation districts. One dairyman in division 4, who supplied

24. O. S. Longman, Report : Be r r y Creek _ A rea , Edmonton, 193 2 .

-

107

fluid milk to the town of Hanna, was interviewed by the author
in 1962 as to the size and nature of his operation. The inter¬
viewee reported that his dairy farm was 2,280 acres in area;
just 20 acres smaller than the average farm in division 4 in
1961, and that roughly half of his land was used for the pro¬
duction of feed and cash grains. The remaining area was in
summer fallow or used as pasture. His mixed breeds dairy herd
consisted of 26 cows which were primarily crosses between Hol-
steins and Herefords. The farmstead displayed none of the
accoutrements normally associated with commercial dairying,
such as specialized milking areas, or milking parlours, bulk
tanks, and so forth. Although this particular farmer derived
more than 50 per cent of his gross income from dairying he
seemed bent on developing alternative agricultural pursuits.

He was retaining his calves for example, and developing a beef
herd. Therefore, although there was a fairly heavy demand for
fluid milk in this vicinity which could not be met locally,
this dairyman chose to become engaged in beef production rather
than increase his milk output. It is perhaps unwise to gener¬
alize but this may be one example of why milk production is
decreasing in the brown soil zone relative to the remainder
of the province (Table XIV).

Farm characteristics in the irrigation districts are more
comparable with those of farms farther north in the black soil
zone than dry farms in the brown soil area. The average irri¬
gated area per farm was almost 130 acres in 1960 and although

108

this need not be the exact farm size because many farmers have
additional holdings ol dry land, it is a good indication of
size for a large number of farms. Cash grains are still the
most important crop, with 44 per cent of the irrigated area
utilized for their production; nevertheless dairying is also
important and 36 per cent of the irrigated farmland is devoted
to tame hay and improved and unimproved pasture. ~ The East¬
ern irrigation district, near Brooks, is the most important
dairying area in a relative sense with roughly 70 per cent of
all farmers engaged in this enterprise to some degree, but the
irrigation districts in the vicinity of Lethbridge are the
most important in terms of the amount of milk produced, al¬
though only approximately 30 per cent of the farmers produce
26

milk. A fairly large percentage of milk output is sold

for human consumption (Table XVI .) but cream and hog produc¬
tion are other important aspects of dairy farming on irrigated
land .

In summary, there are two distinct types of dairying in
the brown soil zone; a marginal operation on dry land in which
milk is produced largely for home use, likely because service
centres, where milk might be purchased, are widely scattered
and, a more commercial type of dairying on irrigated land for
the mos t part which invo lve s sales of large v o lume s of milk

25. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada,
1961 , Ottawa.

26. Pers. comm., Questionnaire to all District Agriculturists
in Alberta, 1963.

.

109

and cream to major urban markets or local manufacturing plants.

Many of the indices and the characteristics of farms
which were examined earlier indicate that dairying in the
black soil zone is more commercial than in most other parts of
the province. As stated previously, over 63 per cent of all
farmers in this zone reported milk production in 1961 and in
every census division over 70 per cent of those reporting milk
production also reported sales of milk or cream. The manu¬
facture of butter, when compared with the remainder of Alberta,
fluctuates least with the season. Winter output is at least
50 per cent of summer production for most of the district.

Only a small percentage of whole milk production is retained
on the farm for household use because many farmers buy their
dairy requirements rather than produce them on the farm. This
zone also has the greatest number of farmers who achieve at
least 51 per cent of their gross income from the sale of dairy
products. The distribution of these commercial dairy farmers
(Map 10) reflects urban milksheds for the most part but in
census division 8 the distribution is also related to the pro¬
duction of industrial milk.

The major source of income for the entire black soil zone
is from the sale of livestock. Beef cattle contribute the
largest percentage to this source of income but pig sales rank
next in importance. Pigs are most important in those divisions
in which revenue from the sale of dairy products is highest.

The correlation between the incidence of dairying and hog pro-

Map 10

110

ONE DOT REPRESENTS 5 FARMS

SOURCE: BASED ON PERS. COMM.

R.S. ELLIS , D.B.S. CENSUS
DIVISION, AGRICULTURE
SECTION.

FIELD WORK 1963

SCALE.

MILES

Ill

duction has been cited earlier and a study of farms in the

Westaskiwin-Red Deer area appears to further substantiate this

27

relationship. Roughly 80 per cent of all farms sampled re¬
ported a combination of grain, beef, hog, dairy and poultry
production from which over 43 per cent of gross farm income was
derived from hog and dairy sales.

The reasons for the character of dairying in this area are
varied: it was one of the first areas to be settled in Alberta
because of the nature of the soil, topography, and natural
vegetation and perhaps in the absence of mechanical power farms
were of necessity small and intensively worked. Dairying fit¬
ted well with a mixed farm economy especially as urban markets
increased in size. Even with the advances in transportation
and dairy technology, which give farmers in potentially better
dairying areas in the grey wooded soil zone easier access to
urban markets, dairying, nevertheless, will remain important
in this soil zone because large capital investments have been
expended in the course of developing the industry on struc¬
tures and equipment not easily moved.

27. H. E. Abell, Proposed Changes in Farming Enterprises,
Ottawa, 1953, p. 9.

112

CHAPTER V

MILKSHEDS

Dairying appears to be a secondary and not necessarily
preferred source of income for many farmers engaged in mixed
farming in Alberta. If farms are marginal for cash crops be¬
cause of climatic limitations, infertile soil or inadequate
size then farmers, in many instances, include dairying as whole
or part of their enterprise. Dairying, however, is a deliber¬
ate choice in the major milksheds because it has proven to be
a more reliable source of income and is at least as profitable
as other types of farming in terms of total net income, al¬
though perhaps not as profitable when labour inputs are consid¬
ered. This interest in dairying is reflected in the measures
of specialization cited earlier and in the fact that the con¬
tractual agreement between the dairy producer and dairy proces¬
sor has, in itself, become a saleable commodity. The agree¬
ment, or quota allotment, appears in fact to have changed in
meaning from an obligation to supply a fixed amount of milk to
a right to ship this commodity. The most recent entrant into
the processing sector of the dairy industry in the Edmonton
milkshed has capitalized upon this increased interest in
dairying by selling quota contracts (during the course of est¬
ablishing a milk supply) although it is unlikely that they
represent any cost to the vendor.

Intensive milk production under both health regulations

113

and quota restrictions takes place in areas adjacent to most
urban centres in the province. The milksheds surrounding the ■..*
two major cities of Alberta are, however, perhaps the best areas
of study because a wide array of factors are portrayed which,
at least partially, increase our understanding of the character¬
istics of most milksheds and their associated patterns of dev-
e lopment .

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the limits of
the Edmonton and Calgary milksheds and to examine the distri¬
bution of milk production within each. An attempt is made to
relate production to physiographic patterns and historic events.
These two variables are stressed because information pertaining
to them is more readily available than that with respect to pro¬
duction costs. Had this latter type of information been avail¬
able then the influence of the economic factors which affect
the production of milk might have been studied more closely.
Lastly, the main farm characteristics and the general shape of
the milksheds are compared and suggestions are made as to where
future growth may take place.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE EDMONTON MILKSHED

The first zone of agriculture surrounding urban centres
in the western, or occidental world, is traditionally occupied
by an intensive form of agriculture which produces a bulky
and perishable product. Dairy products are of this type and
dairying is found throughout this zone. It is, however, rare
for dairy farms to be distributed evenly throughout, rather

114

they tend to occur in local concentrations. This generaliza¬
tion holds true for the Edmonton milkshed, because fluid milk
producers are located in all directions from the edge of the
city but the bulk of the city’s milk requirements are met by a
concenti a t ion of milk shippers in the eastern and southeastern
portions of the milkshed (Maps 11 and 12).

The use of the term milkshed appears restricted to the
twentieth century although the practise of keeping dairy cows
to urban centres dates back to 4000 B.C. , in Mesopo¬
tamia. The similarity of the term milkshed to watershed is
indicative of its character. It is an area in which all milk
produced for human consumption gravitates to a centrally loca¬
ted market. This differs from the general movement of other
agricultural commodities in this province because producers in
one milkshed are prohibited by law from selling milk elsewhere.
Markets for processed dairy products are also restricted, al¬
though this latter ruling is presently being challenged in
2

Alberta. The area of retail milk sales does not necessarily
coincide with the milkshed, or supply area, however, and regu¬
lations affecting milk distribution in the former area have
little bearing for the most part, on the locus of the latter.

1. G. Fielding, Dairying in the Los Angeles Milkshed: Factors
Affecting Character and Location, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1961, p. 4.

2. In 1963 Purity Dairy sold bottled, pasturized milk in
Red Deer although it has been produced and processed in
Lethbridge .

■

115

However, a study of the Calgary milkshed revealed that former¬
ly, economics, and more recently, the maintenance of good will
occasionally resulted in a dairy firm extending the milkshed
to the farthest limit of its retail sales.

In addition to the milkshed, which is delineated fairly
concisely, there is a broad, shifting, rather amorphous zone
surrounding Edmonton from which substantial amounts of cream
are obtained. Farmers in this zone are not affected by muni¬
cipal health regulations or legislation enacted by the pro¬
vincial government and many of the variables associated with
commercial dairying have a negligible effect on cream produc¬
tion. This area, or "creamshed”, constitutes a study in it¬
self and will not be fully dealt with in this discussion.

The Edmonton fluid milk market was served by five dairies
in 1964 which obtained approximately 302 thousand pounds of
milk daily for this purpose from 441 milk producers. These
shippers were rarely more than forty miles from the present
day boundaries of the city. Most dairy farmers shipped more
milk than required by their quota agreements in order that
they might qualify for increases in quota, allotted from time
to time by the Milk Control Section of the Board of Public
Utilities. It was from this surplus milk that a major por¬
tion of the city’s industrial milk requirements were met.

Each dairy manufactured milk products in addition to the main
enterprise of selling fluid milk, but there weie two establish¬
ments whose sole function was to process cheese, in one case

116

and ice cream in the other. Both of these plants obtained
their raw materials from the other major dairies and had lit¬
tle, if any, effect on the character of the milkshed. There¬
fore their activities will be largely ignored for the purpose
of this study.

History and Growth of the Edmonton Milkshed to 1964

The early history of dairying in the Edmonton area prior
to the institution of control of the fluid milk industry in
1933 by the Board of Public Utilities has been discussed prev¬
iously (Chapter II).

Shortly after the creation of the Milk Control Section of
the Board of Public Utilities, the dairy industry in Edmonton
underwent some noticeable changes. There was, for example, a
rapid reduction in the number of producer-distributors and the
radius of the Edmonton milkshed contracted to a fifteen mile
limit. The decline of producer-distributors was likely hast¬
ened by price reductions for retail milk instituted by the
provincial government. Smaller profit margins apparently
discouraged the fully integrated producer-distributor from
expanding his operation. Dairy processors in Edmonton were
not affected to the same degree because of their larger vol¬
ume of production. It should not be inferred that price re¬
ductions were the sole reason for the demise of producer-
distributors. Their operations were too small to warrant

3.

Pers. comm., J. B. Moore
Section, Board of Public

Administrator of Milk Control
Utilities, Edmonton.

-

117

purchases of equipment to pasturize milk and a growing aware¬
ness of the potential health hazard posed by unpasturized milk
certainly diminished the attractiveness of their product to
the public .

It is difficult to ascertain the mechanism by which the
Edmonton milkshed was controlled in areal extent because the
directorates of various municipal and provincial departments
are reluctant to discuss this stage in the history of the dev¬
elopment of the Edmonton milkshed. They do, however, suggest

why such control was necessary. In order to qualify as a milk
shipper in milksheds under the jurisdiction of the Board of
Public Utilities a farmer needed two licenses, one issued by

the provincial government establishing his quota and the other
from the Board of Health in the municipality in which he ex¬
pected to sell his milk. There is some suggestion that the
latter license was not issued to farmers beyond the fifteen
mile limit and therefore they were denied access to the Edmon¬
ton market. Although farmers, who wished to sell milk at this

time but resided outside of the fifteen mile boundary, may
have argued differently, there was no manifest ulterior mot¬
ive for this procedure; in fact the opposite appears to be
more nearly the truth. Reasons suggested for this limit seem¬
ingly reflect concern on the part of city health officials for

4

an assured supply of milk free from contamination. Daily
farm technology did not involve refrigeration in the decade
of the thirties and the danger of milk spoilage was increased

4 . Pers . comm . ,
Edmont on .

J. Merideth, Milk Inspector, Board of Health,

*

118

by delivery problems associated with poor roads. Edmonton's
milk requirements could be supplied adequately from this re¬
duced area and therefore transportation problems were mini¬
mized. This areal limitation had the welcome side effect of
protecting fluid milk shippers in a difficult economic period
from excessively severe competition from those farmers resid¬
ing outside of the milkshed. (It will be recalled that the
Board of Public Utilities established a Milk Control Section
to stabilize the dairy industry.) It is highly likely that
this concern for uncontaminated milk was legitimate but there
is also the hint that fluid milk control in the major milksheds
may have been achieved under the guise of health regulations.

In 1937 more than fifty per cent of the dairy farms in the
Edmonton milkshed were located immediately to the southeast of
the city (Map 11) . Minor concentrations also existed east and
north of Edmonton along Highway 16 and between Highways 15 and
28. The reasons for this distribution seem linked, at least
partially with transportation facilities and with topography.

Truck service for hauling milk had developed prior to
1937 with the growth of gravelled highways and this resulted
in lessened use of the railway for the delivery of farm prod¬
ucts within a relatively short distance of urban markets.
Railway transportation had been important nevertheless in
the initial establishment of dairying prior to the widespread

5. G. H. Craig et.al., nThe Production of Fluid Milk in the
Edmonton and Calgary Milksheds”, Scientific Agriculture,

Vol . 17, No. 7, 1937, p. 403.

i

Map 11

119

120

use of trucks. Southeast of the city it continued to be a
suitable alternative to Highway 14 which, although gravelled
before 1937, was not paved until 1952.^ The other minor con¬
centrations of dairy farms were situated in proximity to more
serviceable roads; for example, near Highways 15 and 16, both
of which were major traffic arteries during the thirties,
(Highway 15 having been paved north of the city as early as
1930 and Highway 16 as early as 1938). Both of these areas
were also serviced by railway lines. But dairying did not
develop in response to this factor alone because these and
other areas in the environs of Edmonton had excellent rail
and paved road connections with the city yet dairying has
failed to develop to any great extent. Therefore adequate
transportation appears to have been more of a limiting than
causal factor.

Not all farmers who settled in this region were aware of
the methods and possibilities of dairy farming because they
were not known in the county or district from which they came.
Conversely, farmers coming with this knowledge might easily
try dairying even if the operation was not particularly fa¬
voured by other factors and a group of such farmers would be
hard to account for in an economic or environmental frame¬
work of explanation. Alternatively a single farmer making a
success of dairying because of unusual skill in management
might lead his neighbours to imitate him with similai conse-

6 . Pers . comm . ,

K. T. Dawson

Dept, of Highways, Alberta.

121

quences for the student looking for explanations. This is
obviously an extremely difficult topic to study, especially
since census data have not been collected for political units
small enough to be useful in the examination of a single milk-
shed. It can only be assumed that there were farmers with
this information (a fact which may reflect their ethnic origin)
and that they may have chosen land well suited to this type of
agriculture .

Most dairy farms in 1937 were situated on land which is

rated in the soil survey of the Edmonton area as ”good to very

7

good arable”. Cash grains, coarse grains and fodder can be
grown with equal ease in terms of the inherent characteristics
of the soil, but the topography is further described as gently
rolling to rolling. This latter factor may have favoured dairy¬
ing rather than cash grain farming because of the difficulty
of tilling rolling land, especially when horses were the main
source of power. The roughest areas can be utilized as perma¬
nent pastures in a dairy economy whereas rough land would be
largely unproductive if cash grain farming were the main
enterprise .

B. J. McBain, Supervisor of Farm Cost Studies for the
Alberta Department of Agriculture, suggests that the original
average farm size was smaller in some sections ot the Edmonton
area than immediately to the south. Many of the first set-

7. W. E. Bowser et.al., Soil Survey of Edmonton Sheet (So-H),
Alberta Soil Survey Reports, No. 21, Edmonton, 1962.

122

tiers, of Slavic origin, arrived in this district with very

little capital and were unable to purchase or clear large tracts

of land. These people were largely unfamiliar with dairying

and it is unlikely that they engaged in it. Their small farms*

/

however, especially in the rolling area to the southeast of the
city, were best suited to dairying because they were too small
for many types of agriculture, and their topography often fa¬
voured fodder production. The most common use of the land
initially was a crop- livest ock combination, but later, this
proved unprofitable because neither enterprise could be made
large enough to maintain the higher standard of living desired
by subsequent owners. Dairying appeared to fit their needs
admirably. If this pattern of settlement did occur then the
next step involved the displacement of smaller dairy farmers
by their more successful neighbours because the average dairy

farm in the Edmonton milkshed was larger in 1961 than the av-
r 9

erage farm m the same general area. It is likely that dairy
farm size was modified by this method, particularly during the
thirties, a period characterized by economic setbacks and a
rapid turnover of dairy farmers in the Edmonton milkshed. The
instability of dairy farming is further demonstrated by the
fact that the total number of shippers increased by only 52

8. Pers. comm., B. J. McBain, Supervisor, Farm Cost Studies,
Farm Economics Branch, Dept, of Agriculture, Alberta.

The records of the dairy cost study, conducted by B. J.
McBain, indicate that the average dairy farm in 1961 was
439 acres in size. The average farm size in division 11
was 310 acres in 1961.

9.

123

from 1937 to 1950 although there were 214 new entries into the
milkshed in the same period.10

In spite of the incentives (cited in Chapter II) offered
by the War Time Prices and Trade Board, milk was in short sup¬
ply in Edmonton during the second world war. The influx of
military personnel created a demand which was not satisfied by
farmers within the fifteen mile limit. Officials of the City
Health Department granted licenses authorizing milk shipments
to almost any farmer who could meet their requirements and who
could obtain a quota license from the provincial Board of Pub¬
lic Utilities. Although one might expect that these condi¬
tions would result in more milk shipments from farmers located
on the gently rolling to rolling farm land to the southeast of
the city and a decline in milk output in areas where cash
grains could be produced for European markets, such was not
entirely the case. As previously stated, the policy of the
Milk Control Section of the Board of Public Utilities favours
those who have demonstrated an ability to fulfil the terms of
their quota contracts. Cream shippers who had been hitherto
licensed in Edmonton to sell cream for human consumption were
given the opportunity to enter the fluid milk market. Most of
these shippers were located south of the city in the vicinity
of Leduc and Millet. Climate, soils and topography in much
of this area are suited equally to cash grain or fodder pro-

10. Edmonton District Planning Commission. Map of the Milkshgd
of the Edmonton District , Edmonton, 1952.

-

124

duction. But farmers have rarely experienced difficulty in
selling cream or milk because this is the collection area for
many local plants. Demand was especially heavy from Camrose
and Wetaskiwin and prior to being licensed as Edmonton cream
shippers these dairymen shipped cream for butter production to
both centres. It was, perhaps, these many opportunities for
the disposal of milk that encouraged the growth of dairying
here. However, when given the opportunity to ship milk even
though they were fairly distant from the Edmonton market, they
did so partly because transportation costs did not appear pro¬
hibitive. Highway 2 had been a major route for some time and
its condition facilitated rapid communication with Edmonton,
partially negating the effect of distance.

The foregoing is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis
of all of the factors affecting the expansion or location of
Edmonton’s milkshed but it does, perhaps, increase our compre¬
hension of the origin of the present characteristics and pat¬
terns associated with dairying.

The Edmonton Milkshed - 1964

The 1964 Edmonton milkshed (Map 12) represents a more
attenuated pattern than that of 1937. These finger-like ex¬
tensions indicate that farmers who are located near major high¬
ways are favoured with reference to milk collection routes.

It is unlikely that haulage costs are responsible to any sig¬
nificant degree because they are assessed by zones which are
arranged in concentric rings around the city. Dairymen s

Map 12

125

NORTH

,'^SdBKATCHEWAN,
> RIVER .VALLEY/

MORAINE

MORAINE

\ / LACUSTRINE PLAIN

FITTED

^ELTA**

TOftUaiVfllRg

MORAINE

•DUNES

OKING

'LAKE

EVON

LACUy

[0LEDUC

GROUND MORAINE^

• MILLET

RANGE

THE tdi!fi§W^A|G*nHl6s ^NIT9964

Milk Production Per Township

0.0 - 1.9 Percent

STURGEON RIVER j

VALLEY"^/

X Early ttbrthotStdsfccftdtiet-ro'n

.ver 2ft©e-G4.9 Percent
5.0 ■ Plus Percent

LACUSTRINE .PLAIN ,

' 1 /

2 / JC

>OURCE; Bayrock and Hughes

^ r f i MM s&&i Yfhe

Edmonton District Alberta
5 0

GROUND

Scale

Miles

Source Board Of Public Utilities

L/ '

HUMMO

DEAD

MORA

CALMAR

HAY LAKES

BIG HAY

. \ L AKE

si

Map 12

125

THE EDMONTON MILKSHED - 1964

Milk Production Per Township

0. 0 - 1.9 Percent
Of total production
2.0 - 4 .9 Percent

5.0 ‘ Plus Percent

Milkshed Boundary

5 0 5

Scale

Miles

Source- Board Of Public Utilities

126

costs, no matter what the condition of the road, do not vary
within a specific ring even though some individuals may be a
greater distance from the processor than others who are situ¬
ated on a main thoroughfare leading directly to Edmonton.
However, collection is easier along the major routes and
these projections on the periphery of the milkshed likely
represent the vanguard of expansion. It is conceivable that
trucking concerns are willing to extend their operations into
these areas that are marginal both in an economic and geo¬
graphic sense as long as they are serviced with major thor¬
oughfares. The less accessible margins are then only gradu¬
ally incorporated into the milkshed.

Although the area of the milkshed is still expanding the
major change is consolidation within the confines of its pres¬
ent limits. For example, increasing herd size was alluded to
in Chapter III and, perhaps more important, the number of
licensed milk producers is declining in spite of annual in¬
creases in total milk sales in Edmonton (see Table XVIII).
Production per farmer generally has increased and is especi¬
ally noticeable for the last decade excepting 1964, the year
in which another processor entered the Edmonton market and
contracted new milk shippers.

Speculation, as to the focal point of consolidation, is
premature because the evidence for this process indicates
that it has occurred only recently. Consolidation takes at
least two forms : shippers close to Edmonton in the oldest

127

Table XVIII Annual Milk Production and the Number of

Licensed Milk Shippers in the Edmonton
Controlled Area - Selected Years.

Year

1953

195 6

1959

1962

1963

1964

Number of Licensed

Milk Producers

470

458

459

442

435

468

Total Milk Purchased
from Shippers in
’000,000’s of Pounds

71

101

134

145

148

156

Average Annual Milk
Production per Ship¬
per in T 000 ' s of

152

219

292

330

340

334

Pounds

Source: Milk Control Section, Board of Public Utilities.

part of the milkshed are increasing substantially the size of
their operations, and smaller shippers are concentrating in
specific areas within the shed. This latter phenomena ap¬
pears to relate partially to physical conditions encountered
in the vicinity of Edmonton and is worth further examination.
The Relationship of Dairying to Topography and Soils
The city of Edmonton is situated on a lacustrine plain
deposited in proglacial Lake Edmonton (overlay on Map 12).

The physical features to the west of the city are composed
mainly of braided alluvial material deposited by the early
North Saskatchewan River as it drained into proglacial Lake

11. L. A. Bayrock, and G. M. Hughes, SurficiaM, Geology, of
the Edmonton District, Alberta, Edmonton, 1962.

128

Edmonton. This district is covered by shallow braided chan¬
nels and in one section by dunes created from former delta de¬
posits by westerly winds in the immediate post glacial period.
The lacustrine plain is terminated by ground moraine at its
eastern boundary and a hummocky dead ice moraine, the Cooking
Lake moraine, is in turn located east of this feature. Pro¬
glacial Lake Edmonton drained to the south through the Gwynne
Outlet which is marked by more rolling topography than is en¬
countered on the lacustrine plain and enough stony material in
various parts to offer some obstruction to cultivation. The
soil characteristics vary in each physiographic unit and an
examination of aerial photographs reveal that specific land
use patterns also appear to be related to topography.

The coincidence of dairying and the aforementioned fea¬
tures is illustrated by the overlay on Map 12 for which milk
production in each township has been computed as a percentage
of the total milk output of the entire milkshed. The figures
have been grouped by physiographic unit in Table XIX to show
the relationship more clearly. The physical features vary
in extent, of course, and the area of that part of each fea¬
ture which falls within the confines of the milkshed has been
estimated in order to indicate its relative importance.

Fluid milk production is concentrated to a large degree
on the grey wooded soils of the ground moraine and the Cook¬
ing Lake moraine to the east of the city. Over a quarter of
Edmonton's milk is supplied by dairymen on the lacustrine

129

Table XIX Milk Production by Physiographic Unit - 1964

Unit

Approxi¬
mate Area in
Square Miles

Milk Production
per Unit as a Per¬
centage of Total
Milk Output

Milk Produc¬
tion per Square
Mile in OOO’s
of Pounds

Ground Moraine

54

10

290

Cooking Lake Moraine 144

33

364

Gwynne Outlet

126

13

166

Early North Sask¬
atchewan River
Deposits

180

18

153

Lacustrine Plain

504

26

80

Source: Based on statistics from the Milk Control Section of the
Board of Public Utilities.

plain but if milk production per unit of area is considered then
this is one of the least important parts of the milksiied. This
point is particularly striking since this physiographic unit
lies closest to the city. The early North Saskatchewan River
deposits west of the city are not intensively used for fluid
milk production either, although farmers in some sections sup¬
ply large volumes of cream for butter production. Dairymen in
the Gwynne Outlet area do not contribute much to Edmonton’s
total milk supply but in terms of output per unit area this

physiographic unit ranks third.

Examples of the effect of historic events and political

influence, previously described, indicate that the reasons toi

this pattern of dairying are diverse. Physiography does how¬
to be a factor in shaping a farmer’s decision as

ever appear

130

to how his land should be utilized. It is possible, therefore
that this broad correlation between dairying and topography re¬
flects the adaptations made by the farmer in response to physi¬
cal variables.

Some of the reasons for the prevalence of dairying in the
moraine to the east and southeast of the city have been pre¬
sented and the physical attributes of the district likely con¬
tinue to render it more suitable for dairying than for other
types of agriculture. The podzolic soils of the Cooking Lake
moraine are generally more suitable for growing fodder than
for sustained production of cash grains. Surface patterns are
quite irregular and many depressions are occupied by sloughs.
The rough terrain and infertile soils are best adapted to for¬
age crops and hence to a livestock economy. Perhaps one of the
most surprising features of dairying in the Edmonton milkshed
is that farmers skirt this part of the moraine when they are
displaced by urban expansion and relocate farther south in the

vicinity of Hay Lakes . on a less rugged part of the moraine

12

that has already been improved for agriculture.

High yields, of either cash grain or forage crops are
obtained from the extremely fertile chernozem soils of the
lacustrine plain. Farmers in this zone have a wide variety
of potential enterprises from which to choose and their se¬
lection is likely to be influenced by other factors. For ex¬
ample, if farm size is adequate for cash grain production then

12. P.ers.. comm.,. B. J. Me Bain, op . cit .

ski

131

dairying would likely be ignored because much more labour is
involved for approximately the same cash return. Further
studies may indicate that the ethnic origin of the farmer may
also influence his activities. Many settlers of Ukrainian
origin have located near Edmonton and a cursory examination sug¬
gests that these people favour grain farming. The Calmar dis¬
trict is noted for its concentrations of Ukrainian folk and
this area is not part of the Edmonton milkshed (Map 12) whereas
farther east, on the lacustrine plain near Leduc , farmers of
diverse ethnic origin do produce fluid milk for Edmonton.

The dunes and early North Saskatchewan alluvial deposits
vary in their suitability for farming. Soil ratings range

from very good for agriculture to recommendations that many

13

areas remain under native vegetative cover. Wind erosion is
a major problem that must be considered in any suggestion for
the utilization of the fine textured alluvial material. Pos¬
sible uses outlined in the Edmonton district soil report em¬
phasize coarse grains and forage crops. Extensive tracts of
organic soils in association with sand dunes have little use
in the foreseeable future other than for rough pasture, but
equally large proportions of this physiographic unit appear
adaptable for dairy farming especially in the vicinity of
Highway 16. In answer to the question of why this type of
agricultural enterprise is not well developed in this area
it is suggested that farmers wishing to dairy here would be

13. W . E. Bowser, et.al., op . ci t ,

132

faced with the same difficulties encountered on the Cooking
Lake moraine: much of the land is in the early stage of devel¬
opment and needs to be improved.

Lastly, soil conditions and topography are not favourable
for cash grains in many parts of the Gwynne Outlet and it is
recommended, in the Edmonton district soil report, that these
areas be given special care. This report also suggests that
the poorer sections remain as permanent pasture or at best be
used for coarse grains. Examination of aerial photographs in¬
dicates that land use in much of the area conforms with these
recommendations. Dairying then is suited to much of this zone.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE CALGARY MILKSHED - 1964

Many of the factors that have influenced dairying in the
Edmonton milkshed have similarly affected the dairy farmers
who service Calgary. The historic development of the Calgary
milkshed is therefore ignored and only the most recent pat¬
terns are discussed. Table XX is included to illustrate the
latest trends in total milk production, number of shippers and
production per shipper. The trends are much the same as those
displayed in Table XV.III for the Edmonton Controlled Area. The
increment in milk sales per shipper is more noticeable how¬
ever, because the introduction of bulk milk tanks in 19 59-
1960 hastened a reorganization of the industry which may have
been already underway.

In 1964, 261 fluid milk producers delivered a total of
approximately 216,000 pounds of milk daily to four processing

Table XX

133

Annual Milk Production and the Number of
Licensed Milk Shippers in the Calgary Con¬
trolled Area - Selected Years

1953

1956

Year

1959

1962

1963

1964

Number of Licensed

Milk Producers

268

320

347

277

264

261

Total Milk Purchased
from Shippers in
’0001, 000’s of Pounds

57

74

95

107

109

113

Average Annual Milk
Production per Ship¬
per in 000 ’ s of

Pounds

211

230

274

382

423

433

Source: Milk Control Section, Board of Public Utilities.

plants. There were two other factories, in addition to these
four, which produced butter and in one case processed cheese.
Both were primarily meat packing establishments and the manu¬
facture of butter and cheese appeared to be a residual func¬
tion emanating from an operation which was mold diversified
in the pas t .

Perhaps one of the most striking differences between the
Edmonton and Calgary milksheds is that milk producers in the
latter are distributed over a much broader area (Map 13).
However, as in the Edmonton milkshed, there are local concen¬
trations of shippers who supply a large part of the city's
milk needs. One such concentration is located immediately
west and north of Calgary in the thin black soil zone

This

Map 13

134

THE CALGARY MILKSHED - 1964

LACOMB

OLDS'

THREE

HILLS

piDSBURY

IRRICANA

STRATHMORE

CALGARY

GLE iCHEN#-

BLACK

DIAMOND

DRUMHELLER

HANNA

_

Milk Production Per Township As A
Percentoge Of Total Milkshed Production

0 0 - 0 9 PERCENT

0 - 39 PERCENT

4.0 - PLUS PERCENT

MILKSHED BOUNDARY

SCALE ■

MILES

source: board of public utilities

135

district is marked by broken topography and many sloughs. ^
These conditions perhaps render it marginal for extensive cash
grain production but dairying has flourished partly because of
them and partly in response to the demands of the nearby Cal¬
gary market. (It may also be recalled that this area was the
site of the first commercial dairy venture in Alberta, a cheese
factory.) Climatic conditions are more favourable for forage
production than for cash grain crops because it is slightly
wetter here, possibly a little cooler because of the increased
elevation and the frost free season is slightly shorter (Maps
7A and C, Chapter IV) than farther east on the prairie. Dairy¬
ing is also important near Didsbury and this area has supplied
milk to Calgary since the early thirties. McBain^ suggests
that climatic conditions have been largely responsible for the

fact that dairying is widespread here. Hail frequently destroy-

«

ed cash grain crops near Didsbury so the farmers petitioned the
city for licenses to ship milk. In this way they hoped to sal¬
vage damaged grain by using it as green feed. They also re*"
alised that hay was a more suitable crop under these condi¬
tions because it often recovers from the effects of hail storms.

In some cases dairying flourishes quite some distance from
the city near the site of a former dairy factory. For example,
a cheese factory and creamery were located at Black Diamond

14. F. A- Wyatt, et.al. , Soil Survey of Rosebud and Banff Sheets,
Edmonton, 1943.

15. Pers. comm., B. J. McBain, op . ci t ♦

136

and Drumheller respectively and during the course of the ex¬
pansion of the Calgary milkshed dairymen who shipped to these
plants were absorbed by Calgary processors. The advantage of
accepting a milk shipper sometimes 100 miles distant is not
immediately obvious unless the attitudes of the inhabitants of
these local towns are examined. The residents view the local
creamery or milk processing plant as a traffic generator.
Farmers delivering their produce here often use the other com¬
mercial services provided by the local merchants. If milk
processors in Calgary wish to buy out the local dairy and add
the town to their market area they are expected to accept milk
from former shippers in order to maintain the good will of the
business community. In this way the newly purchased plant
merely becomes a depot for the receipt of raw (unprocessed)
milk and a distributing centre for dairy products manufactured
in Calgary. Initially this may have made some economic sense
because trucks hauling finished milk products to these towns
did not return empty. Since the introduction of bulk tanks,
which require specialized vehicles to haul the milk, this ad¬
vantage has been lost.

A COMPARISON OF SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EDMONTON

AND CALGARY MILKSHEDS

Some aspects of the last discussion may suggest that
dairying near Calgary is not as specialized or intensive as
that practised around Edmonton. The milkshed of the former is
much larger than the latter and yet total milk output is de-

137

cidedly lower; the material in Chapter III, pertaining to de¬
gree of pure breeding, suggests that Calgary cows are not as
well bred as those closer to Bdmonton; and lastly, milk yields
per cow were indicated as being noticeably lower for Calgary.

A perusal of dairy farm characteristics and yield per farm sug¬
gest that conclusions based solely on these indicators may not
be entirely correct.

The average dairy farmer serving Calgary maintains a herd
comprised of approximately 39 anumals on a farm 505 acres in
size whereas his counterpart in the Edmonton milkshed has a
smaller enterprise measuring 439 acres with 34 dairy cows.16
It may be argued that there is no real difference in farm size
because long term yields are larger per acre in the vicinity of
Edmonton than those obtained near Calgary. Two indices sub-
stabtiate this claim: long term yields of feed crops and the
cost per acre of farmland. For example, the thirty-five year
average oat yield per acre is 37.2 bushels near Edmonton and
35.1 bushels reported for Calgary farms. This difference
appears negligible unless it is also realized that 50 per cent
of the Calgary production was grown on land which was in sum¬
mer fallow whereas only 37 per cent of the land used for oats

1 8

near Edmonton was rotated this way.

16. Pers. comm., B. J. McBain, op . cit .

17. Alberta. Dept, of Agriculture, Agricultural Extension
Service, Acreage Yields and Production of Wheat, Oats and
Barley by Census Divisions, 1921-1926, Edmonton, 1959.

18. Pers. comm., R. E. English, Agricultural Sta t ist ician ,

A 1 be r t a .

138

G- H. Craig discovered, in 1936, that land was evaluated much

higher in the Edmonton milkshed than in the vicinity of Cal-
19

gary. More recent data pertaining to these two areas appear

... 20

to substantiate this finding. The Calgary da^ry farmer still
manages however, to achieve higher yields of milk per acre of
land in farms in spite of its lower crop bearing potential (see
Table XXI ). This is achieved in part, by purchasing roughages

TABLE XXI Some Characteristics of Dairy Farms in

Two Milksheds

Edmonton

Ca lgary

Land Use in Acres

Cash crop

19

19

Hay crop

270

260

Rotation Pasture

53

61

Permanent Pasture

78

147

Nonproductive

17

17

Total farm size

437

504

Average herd size

34 .

39

Total Milk Production in Pounds per

Day

690

825

Milk Production in Pounds per Acre
per Day

1.57

1.63

Source: Pers. comm., B. J. McBain,
Farm Economics Branch, Dept

Supervisor, Farm
. of Agriculture,

Cost Studie;
Alberta .

19.

G. H.

Craig,

op ,

» cit • , p« 402 .

20.

Pers .

c omm <» ,

B.

T. McBain, op. cit

139

and feed concentrates which have been grown on irrigated farms

farther south

21

This practise is reflected in production

costs per hundred weight of milk which are higher than in the

22

Edmonton milkshed.

Land use is strikingly similar for farms in each milkshed.
The only major difference appears to be the percentage of the
farm used as permanent pasture. This may be additional evi¬
dence that dairying generally takes place on rough land in the
Calgary milkshed especially to the west and north of the city.

It is difficult to explain why dairy farms in the vicinity
of Calgary are larger both in area and productivity than those
near Edmonton. One reason that has been suggested is that the
introduction of bulk milk tanks in 1959 helped to eliminate
smaller milk producers because they were unable or unwilling
to invest additional capital into what already may have been a
marginal operation. This may partially explain the rapid in¬
crease in the size of dairy enterprises near Calgary after
1960, but it is unsatisfactory for the ten year period prior
to this when dairy herds were decidedly larger in the Calgary
milkshed than those supplying milk to Edmonton. In all prob¬
ability there were other factors which have encouraged the
elimination of dairy businesses with low milk production.

Many of the differences in size and shape of the two

21. B. J. McBain, Dairy Farm Business Summary, Edmonton,
1961, p. 7.

22. B. J. McBain, loc.cit., p. 1.

major urban milksheds are already apparent but these may be re¬
viewed and discussed in a brief summary. One of the most ob¬
vious differences is the degree of attenuation. The Calgary
milkshed extends along numerous major highways and encompasses
distant areas in which dairying takes place under diverse con¬
ditions. Tank trucks often pass through districts in which no
milk is produced while en route to more distant dairy farms.
Most of the evidence suggests that Calgary's milkshed is ram¬
bling and extensive because the city is situated in an area
unsuitable for dairying. Recent developments in the Calgary
milkshed appear to substantiate this observation. Milk pro¬
cessors are now engaging shippers as far north on Highway 2
as Lacombe. It is too early to suggest that this area will
supply a major proportion of Calgary's future milk needs but
officials in the dairy industry, when interviewed did not dis¬
count this possibility. The reduction in transportation rates
experienced with the introduction of bulk handling and shipping
facilities allow processors to range this far afield in search
of raw materials with no significant increase in cost.

The Edmonton milkshed also seems to be expanding into the
same general area but 40 miles farther north of Lacombe in the
Hay Lakes district. It is likely that processors in Edmonton
will experience increasing competition in this area from their
rivals in Wetaskiwin and Camrose . If this results in increas¬
ed prices for farms then the Cooking Lake moraine physiograph
ic unit immediately east of the city may become a suitable al-

141

ternative to the Hay Lakes district for future expansion.

Presently land plus tree clearing costs are higher on this

part of the moraine than the cost of cleared land farther
23

south. However, farmers are slowly improving their holdings
in the moraine area just east of Edmonton and are beginning to
ship increasing amounts of cream to local creameries. If given
the opportunity it is highly likely that they would be most
willing to become fluid milk shippers.

23. Pers. comm.,

B. J. McBain, op.cit .

142

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSIONS

Dairying has never been extremely important in Alberta in
terms of the percentage of the total gross farm income directly
derived from it, nor is it becoming any more important, in a
relative sense, even though urban markets have expanded notice¬
ably since the second world war. Regionally, however, dairying
plays an important part in the rural economy. In some in¬
stances, it appears to be a way in which poor land, or unim¬
proved land if the area in question is in an early stage of
development, may be used agriculturally. In other cases, it is
a highly commercial form of agriculture in which milk for hu¬
man consumption is produced for nearby urban markets.

An examination of the distribution of dairying revealed
that there is a relationship between this industry and the dis¬
tribution of the major soil groups. These major soil zones
often reflect other physical variables, such as variations in
local climatic patterns and surface configurations. In many
cases these factors in turn induce individual farmers to consid¬
er dairying as a means by which they can best utilize their
physical resources. For example, the soils of the black soil
zone are extremely fertile and mixed farming, in which dairying
plays an important role, has been a feature of this area since
its initial settlement. Dairying continues to be most important
here in terms of the volume of milk produced although it may have

143

been expected, before the execution of this study, that this
distinction belonged to the grey wooded soil zone. This latter
zone is not well suited to the long term production of cash
crops because soils here are generally infertile, but dairying
has failed to develop appreciably because farming generally has
not advanced. Dairying will likely increase in significance as
the agricultural economy of this area develops. Even now dairy¬
ing plays an important part in the local economy but only cream
sales are important commercially because fluid milk markets are
distant. Dairying was more important in the south in the early
history of settlement when most farmers attempted to be self
sufficient in many agricultural commodities. Milk production
has since declined because of the loss of milk producers and of
local markets during the economic depression of the 1930’s and
later because farming became highly commercial after the second
world war. Under these conditions the majority of the farmers
in southern Alberta have become increasingly specialized and
now produce crops which are best suited to the brown soils in
this sub-humid region.

Not only does the importance of dairying vary from place
to place in Alberta but there are areal difterences in the
character of dairying. Farmers who dairy in southern Albeita
are generally not interested in dairying as a commercial veil
ture in itself. Large proportions of their rather small out¬
put of milk are retained for farm use. The most important di-
rectly commercial aspect of their operation is the sale of

144

cream although this generalization is by no means correct for
farmers in the irrigation districts. Southern milk producers
are emulated to a large degree by their counterparts in the
Peace River district and in the northern parts of the grey
wooded soil zone. But closer to the black soil zone, where the
farming districts are older, more intensively farmed, and near¬
er to the major population concentrations of Alberta, sales of
milk and cream are much more important.

Dairy farming in both the grey and brown soil regions can
be described as marginal in terms of the amount of milk pro¬
duced and the percentage of the total farm income derived from
it. But if the commercial aspects of dairying are examined
alone then both of these areas are noted for the production of
cream for butter.

The character of dairying is different on the black soils
of the central and northern parts of Alberta. Sales of dairy
products are much more important in both an absolute and rela¬
tive sense. It is here that a large proportion of the commer¬
cial dairy farms are located. Market opportunities are excel¬
lent, not because large masses of people live here by sheer
chance alone, but, because this area possesses some of the
most fertile soils in Canada which in turn have made intensive
farming with its attendant service centres possible. Dairy¬
ing is an important part of a mixed farm economy in much ot
the area, with some noticeable exceptions, such as the grain
district surrounding the town of Calmar, but it reaches its

145

apex in urban milksheds, such as those surrounding Calgary and
Edmonton. All of the indices pertaining to milk production
indicate that milksheds are the most important diarying areas
in all of Alberta.

ac-

Economic and provincial legislation have been important f;
tors in the location of dairying in the milksheds. Transportation,
for example, has always been an important consideration in the
location of fluid milk production because milk is a bulky and
highly perishable commodity. But reduction in transportation
rates and a loosening of areal controls may have a profound
effect on the future location of this type of dairying. Dairy
officials suggest that southern irrigation districts have the
potential to one day provide all of Alberta’s milk needs. In¬
creased bulk handling facilities and improved highways make
this technically feasible but , if the shift in Calgary’s milk-
shed can be used as a guide to indicate future trends then
dairymen in central Alberta will likely satisfy a large pro¬
portion of the milk needs of the people of this province.
Specialization trends provide additional evidence for this
assumption. Numbers of cows per acre of farm land, quality
of breeding, yields per cow and the proportion of income de¬
rived from this enterprise all suggest that this area has been
noted for dairying throughout the history of the province and
that it is presently in an advanced stage of development.

In conclusion it should perhaps be re-emphasized that the
purpose of this st ud y was to survey t he distribution of dairying

in Alberta, How well it has succeeded is by now evident. But
in the course of the survey a number of intriguing problems be¬
came apparent: did mixed farming on the prairies pass through
a sequence of stages in which dairying initially played an im¬
portant role, no matter where the original settlement took
place or was dairy farming in this period a reflection of other
factors, such as the origin of the settler? Is dairying still
a way in which unimproved land in newly settled areas can be
utilized prior to the development of a more lucrative agricul¬
tural specialization which is best suited to the particular
conditions in the region? Will dairying continue to decline
in southern Alberta or does the rise in milk production in 1961,
as reported in the 1961 census of Canada, herald a renewed int¬
erest in dairying in the irrigation districts in Alberta:

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