Jefferson County is well suited to dairy farming. Our climate, with ample rain and snow, cool summer temperatures, and good soils for growing forage for dairy cattle, provides us with just the right mix to make us one of the best counties in New York State for dairy farming. Farmers first came here when our County was settled. Farmers soon realized this was a great area for their type of farming. Many other types of agriculture did well here such as turkey farming in the 1950’s when we were the number one turkey producing county in NYS. But over time, our turkey farmers were not able to compete with other areas and so those farms died out. Dairy has remained the largest sector of our agricultural industry.

To learn more about the history of farming in Jefferson County visit http://www.comefarmwithus.com/AgMuseum.htm