COLUMBUS — This year’s butter cow display at the Ohio State Fair honors several notable Ohioans whose inventions improved lives around the world.
Along with the traditional butter cow and calf, the display features butter sculptures of Thomas Edison with a light bulb and a phonograph, Garrett Morgan with a three-position traffic signal, Josephine Cochrane with a hand-powered dishwasher and James Spangler with a portable vacuum cleaner.
This year’s sculptures were crafted from 2,000 pounds of butter, donated in part by Dairy Farmers of America, by a team of Ohio-based technical sculptors led by Paul Brooke of Cincinnati. His team consists of Tammy Buerk, of West Chester, Erin Birum, of Columbus, dairy farmer Matt Davidson, of Sidney and Joe Metzler, of Auburn. The team spent approximately 450 hours to complete the display, with 360 hours dedicated to sculpting inside the 46-degree cooler. Sculptors layer butter onto steel and wooden armatures and gradually refine their shape before chiseling in the fine details.
The Ohio State Fair will run through Aug. 6 at the Ohio State Expo Center. The butter display can be found at the Dairy Products Building, sponsored by the American Dairy Association Mideast, the regional dairy checkoff group. For more information, visit www.drink-milk.com.
