The first dairy school in the U.S. was established at UW-Madison in 1890.
At first, only two students attended the first class, before the program’s enrollment jumped to 75. The enrollment jump was around a year after Prof. Stephen Babcock developed an inexpensive and practical test that measured the butterfat content of milk. The “Babcock test” provided an incentive to produce high-quality milk and allowed farmers to be paid accordingly.