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Not the butter sculpture: milk draws fairgoers

Not the butter sculpture: milk draws fairgoers

The 800 pound butter sculpture of a scene off the farm (seen here on the World Dairy Business Blog) is usually the headliner at the Dairy Building of the New York State Fair.

But people wait in a long line for another hot item being used to promote New York’s dairy industry: a cup of milk that costs a quarter at the dairy bar.

That includes a young James Moore, who says "It’s the best chocolate milk and white milk I’ve ever tasted in my life."

"The Chocolate is more chocolaty and it’s nice and cold."

The milk is all whole milk, which probably helps. Chocolate milk rules overall. The milk bar serves five cups of chocolate for every cup of plain milk.

Mary Ellen Chesbro, agricultural manager for the fair says the total cups served goes up every year. This year, she's hoping the milk bar will top 400,000 cups of milk out this year.

The whole operation is run by a task force of volunteers from the dairy industry, from farmers to distributors. The goal is to promote New York dairy – the state’s biggest  agricultural product.

Seventeen-year old Dale Durant, who serves milk to fairgoers says it can get pretty busy at the counter.

"Really nice days there’s a lot of people here. Weekends we get really busy."

So to get a taste, go when it’s raining.

And keep an eye out for the other smart entrepreneurial move in the Dairy building - the Syracuse bakery selling cookies next to the milk bar.

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