May 8, 2010

Wisconsin Watch: Milk Cows Peaked in WWII

From Kate Golden at Wisconsin Watch, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, we learn that milk cows in Wisconsin are producing 3 times as much milk per cow as they did in 1924. As interesting as the data itself is the very nice use of formatting and dual axes to tell the story:
Ellie Fields
From Kate Golden at Wisconsin Watch, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, we learn that milk cows in Wisconsin are producing 3 times as much milk per cow as they did in 1924. As interesting as the data itself is the very nice use of formatting and dual axes to tell the story:

Earlier, Kate had written to the Tableau Public team: "WCIJ is one of the many new experiments in modern journalism. We collaborate with other news outlets (e.g., the Center for Public Integrity, Wisconsin Public Broadcasting) so we can combine our reporting and distribution power -- and our M.O. is to give away our stories for free, mostly to the sorts of small news outlets that can't afford to do investigative reporting. We're based on donations and grants, with a budget this year of about $240k this year."

We're all for creative experiments in journalism that help support investigative reporting. Our M.O. is to provide Tableau Public to bloggers and journalists to support that.

Note: Mark Perry did a great riff on this viz by combining it with some milk price data. You can see the viz on his blog, Carpe Diem.