This is surely a scene of rural milk production being delivered by farmers to a processor of some kind, whether for distribution of raw milk and cream or for the manufacture of cheese or other milk-based product; my guess is late 1870s to 1890s. Pasteurization of milk began to come into common use in the 1870s in an effort to reduce disease, refrigerated railroad boxcars came into use in the 1880s, so there is at least a chance that such a daily delivery of raw milk as seen here could have been for a wider market though you might think the facility would have been located on a rail line so that it would not need to be transported a second time (cheese would be a good guess except the facility seems small for such a volume). There are signs nailed to the building that indicate sale of supplies needed by farmers: Kow Kud, Magic Yeast, and what may be bottles for feeding calves and products for horses. There is no signboard on the building, so these are all questions that will go unanswered because the photo came without information.
Certainly there were women involved on family dairy farms (some may even have been owned and operated by women) but the transport we see recorded here is strictly a male endeavor. Men and boys of all ages are looking directly at the camera, as are the factory workers, two of whom are wearing neckties and the one on the right may be smoking. There is a smoke stack indicating heating is employed here – more than for warmth in cold weather. Many of the wagons have quite large metal cans that are made to be lifted by the apparatus you see on the platform.
The plowing and the presence of flowers in the field indicate late Spring or early Summer.
