Pour the milk, lick the ice cream cone, and squuek the cheese curds! It’s Dairy Month here in Wisconsin.
Since 1939, June is National Dairy Month. Here locally, we celebrate our farmers. For example, Organic Valley is America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers with 1,800 farmers in 34 U.S. states and will produce 1.7 billion pounds of milk, cheese, butter in 2022 and are the leading grass-fed milk brand.
When it comes to “MOOOOO”ving dairy facts, here are some UDDERLY fascinating bits of info.
· The first cow arrived in America in Jamestown in 1611. Until the 1850’s, nearly every family had its own cow.
· Each day, the average cow produces eight gallons of milk, drinks 30-50 gallons of water, and eats about 100 pounds of feed.
· The average American consumes almost 25 gallons of milk each year (7 billion gallons total).
· There are about 300 varieties of cheese that are sold in the United States and the most popular is cheddar.
· Vanilla is America’s favorite ice cream flavor.
· If Wisconsin were a country, it would rank fourth in the world in terms of total cheese production, behind only the U.S., Germany and France, and just ahead of Italy.
