Visit this state-of-the-art milking facility for a glimpse of the twice-a-day milking ritual with dairy experts on hand to explain what is going on. The facility build in 2001 provides our Dairy Exhibitors a clean sanititzed place to milk their cows during fair week. Monies from the milk is used to maintain the milking facility and to support the Frederick County 4-H Dairy program by providing for additional learning experiences and scholorships for the dairy youth in Frederick County.
Did you know Maryland dairy cows produced an average of 7 gallons of milk or 100 glasses each day. To produce this much milk, a cow consumes 35 gallons of water, 20 pounds of grain and concentrated feeds and 35 pounds of hay and silage in one day. The first cow arrived in the U.S. in 1611. Now, there are over 10 million dairy cows in the U.S.
Each person in Maryland drank an average of 23 gallons of milk last year. Maryland can boast that the first commercial ice cream plant in the world was established in Baltimore by Jacob Fussell in 1841. Today, one of the largest milk processing plants east of the Mississippi River is located in Laurel.