This Saturday is Dairy Day, the annual celebration of the history and continued importance of Chenango County’s largest industry: Agriculture.
This year’s Dairy Day promises to be “a ton of fun for everyone,” according to Janet Pfromm of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango County who helps coordinate the event.
Now in its ninth year, Dairy Day is sponsored annually by Chenango County Dairy Promotion. The event will feature a parade, family-friendly activities for kids of all ages, plenty of farm animals and, of course, lots of dairy products.
The day will kick off with the 3rd Annual Milk Run, a 5K run which starts and ends at the Chenango County Fairgrounds in Norwich. Although the early registration deadline has passed, Pfromm assured that entries will be taken up until just prior to the run’s 9:30 a.m. start. The entry fee for the event is $10 per runner, proceeds from which will benefit the Dairy Promotion Committee. Prizes will be awarded for the top finishers in each of the four divisions: Youth female, youth male, adult female and adult male.
The Dairy Day Parade will begin at 11 a.m., with floats lining up at the P & C parking lot and proceeding down East Main Street to the fairgrounds. The parade will be lead by local dignitaries including Assemblyman Cliff Crouch and Norwich Mayor Joe Maiurano. Other participants will include the Puckerville Pullers antique tractor club, the Smyrna Citizens Band, the Bainbridge Old Time Band, Red Barn Alpacas, the Dairy Ambassadors, 4-H Clubs, scouting groups, school groups and farm animals. Many ag related businesses will also be joining the parade this year, including Coventry Transport, Cazenovia Equipment and Schwann.
New this year will be Upstate Farms, which will be handing out samples of “intense” chocolate milk.
“If you miss the parade, they’ll still be there handing out milk (at the fairgrounds),” said parade coordinator Karen Hoffman, an animal scientist with the USDA Service Center in Norwich.
Upstate Farms will be one of more than twenty exhibitors at the fairgrounds for Dairy Day, which will be open to the public at no charge from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Many of those exhibitors will be either sampling or selling their wares.
Another addition this year will be Critz Farms from Cazenovia. According to Pfromm, they will be bringing their Cow Train and providing free rides around the fairgrounds.
Also new will be New York Beef “Sundaes:” A scoop of mashed potatoes topped with shredded beef in gravy, a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of shredded cheese with a cherry tomato on top.
“They are going to be tasty,” said Pfromm, who said she sampled a similar dish at the Spring Farm Show. The “sundaes,” made with all New York State products, will be sold by the Grange for $5 each. Proceeds from the sale will support the organization’s activities.
Pfromm said she and the other organizers always have their eye on keeping the event educational and “keeping it fresh.” To that end, she has revamped some favorite Dairy Day activities and introduced a few new events this year.
One of those favorites is the Petting Zoo, which Pfromm said she is hoping to improve on this year by providing more information on each of the animals. “We do try to get animals of all shapes and sizes,” she said. Those on display will include different small animals like chickens and poultry, alpacas, miniature horses, pigs, goats, cattle and one of each dairy breed.
Kids will even have a chance to try their hand at hand-sheering a sheep and participate in a goat milking contest, a kiddie tractor pull and an I Love My Chenango County Farmer competition. And each entry in the Dairy Day coloring contest will be on display.
This year will also be the inaugural Ag Olympics, a time trial where kids under the age of 12 will see how well they fare at doing simulated farm chores. The competition will include a sack race, apple toss, pedal tractor race, hay bale toss, cow milking, pig herding and egg collecting.
Younger children can do similar activities on a smaller scale at the Farmer for a Day exhibit and all those who attend Dairy Days will have the chance to Thank-a-Farmer by drawing or writing a message to a local farmer.
“It’s nice to send them a thank you note to let them know they are appreciated for what they do,” Pfromm said.
The organizer also had words of appreciation for those generous members of the community who made donations toward the event this year. Despite the current state of the economy, Pfromm said they were still able to raise the money necessary to make the annual agricultural celebration possible.
“The community really pulled together,” she said, talking about the support they received from not just farmers and ag-related businesses, but other sponsors as well.
The 9th Annual Dairy Day will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 20 at the Chenango County Fairgrounds in Norwich. The event will be preceded by the 3rd Annual Milk Run, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. For more information, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension at 334-5841.
There are still room for both more exhibitors and more parade entries. Those interested should contact Hoffman at 334-4632, ext. 116, or Pfromm at 334-5841, ext. 12.