Ira Inman became interested in the Brown Swiss breed of cattle in 1886 when his brother Tom bought four cows and a bull. Ira served many years as executive secretary of the National Brown Swiss Association and has been honored by the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Hall of Fame. The year he became secretary of the Brown Swiss Association, the organization registered 574 animals and transferred 413. During his last year before retiring on January 1, 1942, the institution registered 12, 819 animals and transferred another 10, 048.

He assisted in developing and promoting the Brown Swiss breed of dairy cattle and was instrumental in exporting Brown Swiss to Japan, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, South Africa, Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands. When Mr. Inman took over as secretary in 1911, the Brown Swiss Association occupied a basement room in his home on Riverside Drive and has grown to become world famous with headquarters on Pleasant Street. Mr. Inman adopted a Register of Production Testing Program for the breed in May of 1911 and issued the first “Brown Swiss Bulletin” in 1922. The association was incorporated in 1925 and in 1923 the Herd Testing Program was begun.

In addition to his farming and Brown Swiss Association activities, Mr. Inman found time to serve the Beloit district as Assemblyman in the Wisconsin State Legislature from 1932 to 1936. He was appointed to the State Board of Agriculture by Governor Heil in 1938, becoming chairman in 1942 and serving until 1951. Mr. Inman died on December 1, 1954. He had served the association for 31 years and was enshrined by the National Dairy Shrine Club in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1955.