October 10th was W.D. Hoard Day
Pay tribute to the man who helped define the dairy industry by learning more of his story.
William D. Hoard
Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery’s own W.D. Hoard was born on October 10, 1836. With this accordingly dubbed “W.D. Hoard Day” in our recent past, the time is right to take another look at the legendary leader who set the groundwork for the vision behind Hoard’s Dairyman Farm, Hoard’s Dairyman magazine, and the agricultural philosophies that define dairying today.
Even if you are in-and-out of the dairy world (in it just for the cheese – no shame), there’s a good chance you experience Hoard’s impact regularly. Any time you choose to consume a dairy product, you are interacting with the precedent for quality dairy farming that this man set over a century ago. His commitment to championing sustainable land, animal, and farmer practices permeates even the smallest bit of dairy consumption.
That basket of Wisconsin cheese curds? It was made possible by Hoard, who encouraged Wisconsin farmers to give up on wheat crops (failing year after year due to the area’s glaciated soil) and start investing in dairy cattle instead – a transition he’d seen succeed in his home state of New York. Every glass of milk, each bowl of ice cream, can be traced back to Hoard and his fellow early dairy visionaries.
Hoard was a musician, a politician, a war veteran, and a journalist all before becoming a farmer, but the agricultural wisdom instilled in him by his early employer and his friend Oneida Chief Thomas Cornelius remained a part of him all the while. His views on land management and cow care are the foundation for how dairy farmers in Wisconsin and beyond conduct their work today. Hoards’ Dairyman magazine – which Hoard himself began publishing as a supplemental reader to the Daily Jefferson County Union) — is sent to thousands of subscribers around the nation and world.
It’s worth noting that while William Dempster Hoard holds accolades untested for his work in the industry, he is not its progress’s sole proprietor. The Wisconsin Dairymen Association (of which Hoard was a member), Charles Rockwell, Anna Baldwin, Gail Borden, and many others also played a valuable role in America’s dairy development.
But by virtue of Hoard being a proponent of a kind of agriculture that preserved the land and the agricultural economy for years to come, he is ever-present in the high-quality dairying we see today.
Read a brief biography of W.D. Hoard here, and find your Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery cheese favorites at www.hoardscreamery.com.