Turn-of-the-century farming was a real splinter and blister existence. As the century marched on, electrical service to rural America lagged way behind service within city limits. Farm homes didn't have radios, washers, waffle irons, or refrigerators. The daily grind in the shop and barn was just that - grinding, picking, cranking, lifting, milking, and pounding - all by hand or animal power.

Prior to electrification, even simple tasks were time consuming and, in some cases, dangerous. Dim kerosene lamps and lanterns provided light, and wood and corncobs were used for cooking fuel. Cream separators and corn-shelling devices were hand-cranked.

By the early 1920s, many farmers installed banks of batteries in their homes to run a few lights and maybe a radio. The batteries were recharged by kerosene motors. Many farms also installed small wind turbine generators with a capacity range of 200 watts to three kilowatts.

Otter Tail Power Company began connecting farmsteads to electrical service shortly after it began business. For the most part, the farms that became part of our system were ones close to town or close to the company's transmission lines.

Because of the large initial capital outlay required to serve a farm, early electric companies had just two choices in recovering their investment. They could roll the connection costs into their rate base and spread those costs to all kilowatt hour sales. Or, they could require the individual farm owners to make an up-front monetary contribution. Today, this method is known as an "aid to construction."

Otter Tail used the second method of recovering its costs. The company's policy was to contribute up to three times the expected annual revenue from a farm - the farmer provided the additional finances needed to complete the hook-up.

With electrification, farm homes became virtually identical with the homes Otter Tail served in town. Farm families bought electric stoves, washers, refrigerators, mixers, and all the other appliances that made life safer and easier. Catalog sales were a popular means of purchasing appliances.

The farm shop and barn were transformed too. As soon as a farmstead was wired, farmers began replacing manual tools with power tools. Saws, drills, welders, and other tools were much faster and safer. Milking machines and cream separators allowed farmers to run larger dairy herds. Electric lighting made it possible to heat larger chicken coops and increase egg production.

Electricity has been a prerequisite to the revolutionary change in how most farms now operate.  As farms were electrified, farmers had more time to spend improving the management of the various activities on the farm and could run larger operations with the same or better results.  As agriculture's technological base increased, farmers began to specialize in one or two enterprises and move away from general farming where an array of farm products were produced.  This shift was mainly due to the need to be competitive and to apply all of the technologies available to them in the most effective manner. They became more efficient at producing milk, a market-ready hog or beef cow, or maximizing the yield of any crops grown. 

Today, farmers have electrified the farming operation as much as possible and have fully mechanized most other operations on the farm as well.  Electrification and mechanization work hand-in-hand to allow farmers to produce more food, fiber, and fuel than ever before while using less acreage, with less waste, while needing only 1 to 2 percent of the population to do the work. 

Made possible by electricity, today's farmers use computers to run milking operations, determine the amount of feed their animals need, control drying agricultural products so they can be stored until needed by the marketplace, and many other uses too numerous to mention.  Of special note, electricity has allowed farmers to maintain herds in top condition to maximize their productive capacity.  

Dairy farms, for instance, are becoming 24/7 operations where cows are being milked every hour of the day except for the time the facility is being sanitized to control pathogens.  Milk is cooled immediately, piped directly to a tanker truck, and sent to the dairy processing plant where it is turned into the various milk based products we use every day.  Every segment of the operation needs reliable electrical service to maintain production, quality, and food safety.

As the 1920s ended, Otter Tail was serving more than 500 farms. By 1985, the company served 3,182 farms and 3,403 rural residences. Today, Otter Tail serves 2,862 farms and continues to add a few farm accounts each year. The economic well being of the farmers', the communities', and the nations' food and fiber production can be traced through the history of farm electrification by utilities like Otter Tail Power Company.