COLUMBUS – For the first time in the history of one of the Ohio State Fair’s most popular traditions, the sculptors creating the butter cow have included a generous splash of color.
164th Ohio State Fair: July 26 – Aug. 6; Ohio Expo Center, 717 E. 17th Avenue: Gates open 9 am – 10 pm. Admission: Adults (13-59) $10, Seniors (60+) $8, Children 5-12 $8, Children under 5 are free; Ride-All-Day Wristband Vouchers $25
This year’s display is a salute to chocolate milk, the official beverage of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
It features the traditional butter cow and calf, a fair tradition since 1903, standing next to a larger-than-life bottle of chocolate milk and four student athletes playing football, tennis, softball and soccer.
Sculptors mixed just the right amount of cocoa powder into the butter to create a the right color for the milk bottle.
The American Dairy Association Mideast and the OHSAA have partnered for nearly a decade to encourage student athletes to fuel up with healthy foods and the dairy group recommends lowfat chocolate milk, which it says contains important protein, vitamins and minerals.
Made from about 2,000 pounds of butter donated in part by Dairy Farmers of America, the display was completed crafted by a group of five Ohio-based technical sculptors in about 500 hours inside a 46-degree cooler.
The 2017 display was crafted by lead sculptors Paul Brooke and Alex Balz of Cincinnati, Tammy Buerk of West Chester, Erin Swearingen of Columbus (pictured) and Matt Davidson, a dairy farmer from Sidney.
The butter display is in the Dairy Products Building, open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and this year the public can get an up-close 360-degree view via a virtual reality experience that enables them to “look around” from inside the cooler, where they can see details the sculptors carved into piece.
The new feature can be found on the American Dairy Association Mideast’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.