From left, Mary Cregg (WMFA), Bill Stakenas (Mason County Dairy Council) , John Cregg (WMFA), Marcia Hansen (WMFA), and Joan Hasenbank.
The 87th Western Michigan Fair opens Tuesday, Aug. 11 and will continue through Saturday, Aug. 15.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
PERE MARQUETTE TOWNSHIP — As more family-owned dairy farms continue to disappear from Mason County, the Western Michigan Fair Association is introducing a new exhibit designed to teach fairgoers where milk and other dairy products come from.
The interactive exhibit, located in the dairy barn at the Mason County Fairgrounds, was created after fair organizers realized there will be no dairy cattle exhibited at this year’s Western Michigan Fair. While five working dairy farms remain in Mason County, none currently have children or grandchildren participating in the fair’s dairy program.
The project was funded through a grant from the Joan and Robert Hazenbank Fund at the Community Foundation for Mason County. Established by the late Robert Hazenbank and his wife, Joan, of Free Soil, the fund supports projects that preserve, celebrate and educate the public about Mason County’s rural heritage and agricultural traditions.
“This exhibit is exactly the type of project my husband and I had in mind when we developed this fund,” Joan Hazenbank said. “It is important that children learn about where their food comes from and it is important that we honor our rural communities.”
The exhibit features a life-sized Holstein dairy cow, educational displays explaining a cow’s daily feed and water consumption, milk production and other facts about dairy farming. Visitors will also find displays highlighting dairy products and a collection of dairy-related artifacts housed in the former milk house.
Marcia Hansen, representing the Western Michigan Fair Association, said the exhibit was created to fill an educational gap left by the absence of dairy cattle at the fair.
“The fair association board felt it was necessary to have some kind of educational program for our fairgoers, especially our young people, about where food and fiber come from,” Hansen said. “Dairy is on the decline in Mason County. There are only five working dairy farms, and none of them have young people bringing dairy cattle to the fair.”
Hansen said the fair board wanted to create an exhibit that would engage families while teaching basic facts about dairy production.
“We hope parents and children will stop and ask questions like, ‘How much water does a cow drink?’ and then learn the answer,” she said. “Hopefully, some of it sticks, and they’ll understand milk doesn’t just appear in the dairy cooler at the grocery store.”
The exhibit includes information showing how much hay, grain and silage a dairy cow consumes each day, how much water it drinks, how much milk it produces and other aspects of daily dairy farm operations.
Hansen said the display is only the beginning.
“This is a work in progress,” she said. “We’ve only been putting it together for a couple of days, but we hope to expand it, not just this year but in the years ahead. We hope fairgoers will find it unique.”
She credited the Community Foundation for Mason County, the Joan and Robert Hazenbank Fund, Mason County Milk Producers, Mason County Farm Bureau and members of the Western Michigan Fair Association for making the project possible.
The exhibit will debut when the 87th Western Michigan Fair opens Tuesday, Aug. 11, and will remain open throughout the fair, which continues through Saturday, Aug. 15.
For more information, visit masoncountyfairgrounds.com.
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