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Everything has a story and every story has a beginning, which is also true for milk and the dairy industry.
Did you know that milk is over 125 million years old? Not the one you drink (we hope). It all started with a now extinct animal which looked much like a rat or possum. That animal was named "Eomaia" which is Greek and means "ancient mother." It is said to have been the first mammal, i.e. milk-producing animal.
It took more than a hundred million years before bovid animals (cloven hoofed mammals) evolved, and another ten million years or more before the first humans evolved.
At first humans loved to chase those wild ox or yaks or buffaloes for their meat and hides which provided robust and warm leather clothing. Eventually, however, humans got tired of hunting and gathering. Around 8000 B.C in the Middle East, bovine animals (cows, sheep, goats etc.) were domesticated, i.e. tamed and trained to pull farming equipment and to provide a steady supply of meat and ... milk.
As you know, great discoveries usually don't stay secret for very long. And so the use of milk spread quickly in 7000 B.C. from Turkey to the British Isles. Soon the making of cheese and butter caught on in many parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. And finally, during the Age of Exploration, domestic cows which previously had only been found in parts of Eurasia were imported to the "New World". Today North America is the largest cattle farming region on the globe.
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