milkshed

plural milksheds

1. agricultureA region producing milk that may be supplied to the area of demand with practical (competitively advantageous) speed and cost of transport; that is, the region that produces the milk that is consumed by a particular population or subpopulation.

   Counties adjoining a large city tended to supply most of its milk before highway and trucking improvements broadened the milkshed.

   3 more examples

   But the difficulty of retaining good farm hands has been working its own cure. American ingenuity has been stimulated, and machinery, with its many refinements, has been superseding skilled labour. Not only is the ground tilled and sown and reaped by machinery, but there are dairies with all manner of labour-saving devices which drain the milkshed of whole districts.

   1892 October 29, “American Life [book review of American Life, translated from the French of Paul de Rousiers, by A.J. Herbertson. Paris: Firmin Didot & Co. London: Cassell & Co. 1892]”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, volume 74, page 518

   Inspection and education, therefore, will accomplish much; but in the present state of the milk industry it can not protect against infection. The milk problem of a large community is precisely similar to the water problem. Sanitarians have now come to the sensible conclusion that the watershed should be protected, but nevertheless the water must be purified by filtration. Similarly the "milkshed" should be protected, but the milk can not be depended upon unless it is pasteurized.

   1908 February 28, M.J. Rosenau, “V. [5.] Pasteurization, its advantages and disadvantages”, in Circular, 153: The dissemination of disease by dairy products, and methods for prevention, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, pages 53-54

   The Milkshed of Boston [figure caption for a map of that milkshed] […]

   1911 December 28, Samuel C. Prescott, “The milk supply of Boston. Dangers of the milk supply and water supply compared—certified and pasteurized milk—rigid inspection by city authorities”, in Science Conspectus, page 24 ff.

plural milksheds

1. A shed in which animals (such as cows, sheep, or goats) are milked.

   1 more example

   That the milk became infected for a time is, I think, as nearly as possible proved; but that it became so through the water, I doubt. I may suggest that the boy who was staying in the house became directly infected by inhalation of the tainted air from the cesspit, and that the clothing of others using the privy carried the infected air thence into the milkshed. Clearing out the cesspit removed this source of infection. I am, &c., J. EDWARD SQUIRE, J.D. Lond. 6, Orchard-street, W., October 24.

   1883 October 27, Edward Squire, “The Camden Town epidemic. [General Correspondence column]”, in The Medical Times and Gazette. A Journal of Medical Science, Literature, Criticism, and News, page 501