In the very earliest years of Yorkton in the 1880s, the pioneer residents in the village and on the farms either had their own cows for milk, or bought it from farmers.

By 1891, a group of residents saw the possibility of establishing a dairy to distribute milk, but that only lasted a couple of years because some of the shareholders did not come up with funds when needed to continue the operation. In 1895, local businessman James Crerar had another go at setting up a creamery, but he went out of business in 1902.

After that, it is said, as many as 14 farmers made their way into the village to sell their milk, butter and whatever other dairy products they produced on the farm.

This is the story of milk processing in Yorkton, which went from farmers selling their milk to -- at one time -- five or more creameries and dairies processing milk locally (and more than 40 dairies in the province), to today, when there is only one plant in Saskatchewan processing milk.

On our website you will find a detailed timeline of dairy production in Yorkton, and a wide range of photos from the earlier days.

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If you want to explore this topic in more depth than what is included in the podcast, go to www.yorktonstories.ca, where you will find links to documents and other sources related to this podcast, as well as photos if available.