University Place

Wisconsin is home to about 15,000 beef producers, according to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, and the state is a leading exporter of bovine genetics.

Policies based on eugenics — the notion that humanity can essentially speed up its own evolution by weeding out people with "undesirable" traits — were once widespread in the United States.

Farms that raise animals — be they poultry, pigs, cows or other livestock — are growing. But whether smaller farms are simply updated with modern technologies or are concentrated animal feeding operations with hundreds or thousands of animals, they enable farmers to reduce costs and increase output.

Wisconsin's roots as a state are found in a patchwork of scrappy independent settlements, interspersed with the occasional fraudulent land scheme.