From Fair Fun To Energy: What Happens To That Butter

Summer is not officially over. Schools are back in session (or will be very soon), the Labor Day weekend is just a memory, the Burning Man festival in Nevada has concluded, and the New York State Fair has ended its 13-day run for 2025.

Summer is my favorite time of the year, so I'm sad to see it slowly fade away. Although I do usually schedule a week of vacation when the rest of the country is back at school or work. A lot fewer crowds for sure.

Now, back to the New York State Fair. Let's discuss butter and manure. Yes, that sounds weird. But what happens to all that butter from the butter sculpture, and how about all that manure from the cows that spend time in the fair's cattle barn? You know that's got to be a lot of manure!

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Okay, here's what I found out. According to the American Dairy Association North East, they began to deconstruct the 800 pounds of butter today (September 2) in coordination with Noblehurst Farms in Livingston County in Western New York. It took about 80 minutes to deconstruct versus the 11 days it took to construct.

By the way, the butter was provided by O-AT-KA Milk Products in Batavia, New York, using milk from Western NY dairy farmers.

The American Dairy Association North East noted that the butter is turned into energy by Noblehurst Farms in Western New York. That butter is enough to power a house for 3 days.

In addition to the butter, Noblehurst Farms gathers other food waste throughout the year, providing power for their farm, plus over 300 houses in the community for the year.

Now, how about that manure? CNY Central reports that each day, there's enough cow manure to fill a dump truck. Multiply that by 13 days, and that's a lot of cow manure.

Where does it go? To New York State farms to be used as fertilizer for future crop growth, of course. Check out the video from CNY Central for the details.