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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Great New York State Fair is set to open next Wednesday, and the 57th Annual Butter Sculpture will be unveiled a day before.
The sculpture, crafted from 800 pounds of butter, is a collaboration between the American Dairy Association North East and Wegmans.
Sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton, who have been creating these buttery masterpieces for 22 years, began their work over the weekend.
The butter, sourced from O-AT-KA Milk Products in Batavia, is repurposed for the sculpture as it is not suitable for retail sale.
After the fair, the butter will be recycled into renewable energy at Noblehurst Farms in Pavilion, marking the 10th year of this initiative.
The sculpture, weighing the same as 800 pints of ice cream or 1,602 iPhone 16 Pro Max smartphones, takes 1,972 gallons of milk to produce the 800 pounds of butter used in the sculpture.
Here are more fun facts about the sculpture, according to the dairy association:
- “There is enough butter to butter 76,800 pancakes.
- “It would take one person more than 123 years to eat the butter sculpture (based on an annual average butter consumption of 6.5 pounds per person).
- “It takes 1,972 gallons of milk to make 800 pounds of butter.
- “800 pounds of butter is the equivalent to 3,200 sticks of butter or 72,574 individual butter packets (based on a standard 5-gram size).
- “800 pounds of butter is one day of work for 226 cows.
- “800 pounds of butter is about 7.4 months of work from one cow.”
The dairy association added that in North America, the butter sculpture tradition goes back to the 19th century at agricultural and state fairs in the country.
The butter sculpture at the New York State Fair is in the Dairy Products Building.
The Great New York State Fair is set to open next Wednesday, and the 57th Annual Butter Sculpture will be unveiled a day before.
For more NEWSChannel 2 coverage of last year’s butter sculpture at the fair, click on the linked story below.
It’s that time of year again when The Great New York State Fair kicks off. The fair starts next Wednesday, and many are gearing up for the big event, including the 800-pound butter sculpture.