Cattle were the economically most important livestock in East Prussia. In 1938, at just under 3,100 kg per cow per year, their milk yields were above the average of just under 2,500 kg per year in the rest of Germany. The East Prussian breed registry organisation, founded in 1882, played a major role in this. It encouraged the use of black and white lowland cattle and relied more on milk than meat production. It was the largest cattle breeding association in Europe. In the 1930s East Prussian record cows repeatedly achieved the highest milk yields in Germany: "Coralle" and "Fee" with over 10,000 kg of milk per year – still a considerable quantity today – were celebrities.
The milk was processed in over 500 dairies, which marketed almost all their products, especially butter and cheese, to the German Reich. Tilsit cheese is famous. It goes back to Mennonites and Swiss people who came to the country as milkers and founded the first cheese dairies in northern East Prussia in the 1840s.
Illustration:
Tilsit cheese production in Tilsit in the 1930s
Photo: German Federal Archive, B 145 Picture-P016202 / Frankl, A. / CC-BY-SA 3.0