Femco Farm No. 2

Femco Farm named for F. E. Murphy, president and publisher of the Minneapolis Tribune was actually six farms owned by Murphy in Wilkin County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. He used these farms, totaling 5000-6000 acres, to demonstrate breeding techniques and diversified farming in the 1920s and 1930s. He raised McKarrow Shropshire sheep, Holstein cows, white Orphington chickens, Duroc Jersey hogs, and Percheron horses and grew oats, barley, corn, alfalfa, sweet clover, rye and flax, in the belief that diversification would help farmers prosper. He bred a Holstein, Lady Pride, who was showcased at the 1932 State Fair. At the time she produced more butter than any other cow, yielding 35,626 pounds of milk and 1,483 pounds of butter in one year; at the time, the average cow yielded 4000 pounds of milk and 170 pounds of butter. He claimed that the yields his animals achieved could be reproduced by typical farmers using his techniques.^[2][3][4][5]

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