The Seventeenth State Legislature created the Department of Agriculture in 1923. As established by law, the department acted as both an information gathering and disseminating agency, and a regulatory and enforcement agency. This department took over the responsibilities of the State Board of Horticulture, the State Board of Immigration, and the State Dairy, Food and Oil Commissioner. The legislature created the position of Commissioner of Agriculture, who would have a number of deputies to assist him in his duties, and the State Board of Agriculture, a five member group appointed from set districts.

In 1925, the Eighteenth State Legislature enacted three laws which assigned new functions to the department: collection and dissemination of agriculture statistics; oversight of a potato program for carload lots; and control over the Office of State Entomologist. The department underwent internal organizational changes in the late 1920s, and the legislature created the State Real Estate Board and a commissioner of same.

During the 1930s, the department and commissioner continued to gain duties. The 1931 legislature created the Office of Grain and Seed Storage Commissioner. In the 1930s, the Diary, Food and Oil division undertook the greatest number of new responsibilities, including the regulation of oleomargarine. Over the decade, many new laws arose that affected the Weed and Pest Program.

The organization of the department remained constant during the 1940s, but enactments of the legislatures continued to add new functions for the commissioner and department. This decade saw the creation of the State Soil Conservation Committee, the process for regulating and selling vegetable seed, and the regulation of tractor fuel sales. Thirteen laws over the ten year period concerned the department, affecting the state fair, the weed and pest program, the bean storage regulatory program, the management of commercial feed stuffs, the apiary inspection program, and the sale of nursery stocks.

From 1950 to 1980 this pattern continued- the legislature enacting many laws to amend existing laws so as to change agricultural programs administered by the department and how the department should administer them. During these three decades, the legislature also enacted laws which placed new responsibilities on the department, such as the 1961 Wyoming Agricultural Marketing Act that established a control committee to provide cooperation between state and federal agencies to enforce marketing laws and regulations.