Dairy Draws Crowds at NYS Fair

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
New York Correspondent

SYRACUSE — Considering the importance of dairy to New York’s economy (it’s the top ag industry in the state), it’s little wonder that the New York State Fair’s Dairy Products Building is always packed during the fair.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Dairy Products Building.

Who can attend the fair without stopping by to view the annual butter sculpture? Sponsored by the American Dairy Association and the Dairy Council, hundreds of pounds of creamy, yellow butter are sculpted into a new display each year. And even if you see it on the news before you go, there’s nothing like seeing it in person.

The 41st annual sculpture features a “Cow Power Dairy” milk truck driven by a trio of zany bovines dressed as old-time milkmen. Jim Victor, a Pennsylvanian sculptor, created it from 800 pounds of butter. His previous sculptures for the fair include “Mixin’ It with Milk” (2003), “Love for the Land” (2004), “Milk, Moms and Morning” (2005), “Healthy Goals” (2006) “Dairy Farming Today” (2007) and “Cow Jumping Over the Moon” (2008).

Previous butter sculptors’ themes have included non-ag figures depicting sports legends, disco dancing, and “The Wizard of Oz.”

To prevent the dairy art from melting away in the heat (or being consumed by sneaky fair attendees using it to butter their muffin on the sly), the sculpture is housed in a rotating, refrigerated glass display case, which is located near the center of the building.

A small, non-butter model of the sculpture is also provided for visually impaired visitors.

Also housed in the Dairy Products Building, the Rainbow Milk Bar still offers $.25 cups of chocolate or white milk, fresh from the milkers housed on the fairgrounds during the week-and-a-half fair. At any given time, the line to buy tickets to redeem for milk stretches nearly the width of the building.

Flanking the milk bar, vendors selling cookies, brownies, doughnuts and other bakery items tempt milk purchasers to buy a treat to go along with their milk.

The NYS Cheese Country Store offers more cheese from the Empire State than you could count, along with information, samples and video presentations on cheese making.

Ice cream, frozen yogurt, cheese and other milk-based foods round out the dairy offerings.

Moo’s Place gives kids an interactive play area that teaches all about the dairy industry.

The building also offers the Dairy Go-round (free rides for the kids), dairy exhibits and demonstrations, live cheese sculpting by Sarah Kaufman, and the Dairy Princess’ booth. The stage features daily acts, including a magician and music from blues to polka.

Food, fun, entertainment and information: it’s easy to see why the Dairy Products Building represents one of the most popular venues of the New York State Fair.