{"id":14883,"date":"2015-06-08T14:17:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T18:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=14883"},"modified":"2015-06-08T14:17:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T18:17:59","slug":"june-is-national-dairy-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2015\/06\/08\/june-is-national-dairy-month\/","title":{"rendered":"June is National Dairy Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/05\/remsberg_1105270638-2.jpg?resize=300%2C199\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chapel\u2019s Country Creamery Dairy Cow, by Edwin Remsberg<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>ANNAPOLIS, MD\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013June is National Dairy Month, and the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) encourages Marylanders to celebrate by enjoying healthy and nutritious dairy products this month and all year long.\u00a0 National Dairy Month celebrates the value of milk and dairy products as part of a well-balanced diet for every American, as well as the importance of milk production to the agricultural industry. There are 455 dairy farms which accounted for $243 million in sales in 2014, according to USDA\u2019s National Agriculture Statistics Service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDairy farming is a vital part of Maryland\u2019s agriculture, generating 10 percent of all farm cash receipts,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. \u201cDairy farms provide us with milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese and many other nutritious foods. I encourage Marylanders to support our dairy farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>National Dairy Month was established in 1937 and initially supported by the National Dairy Council to celebrate the dairy industry and to help stabilize dairy demand during periods of peak production.\u00a0 Originally called National Milk Month, the celebration is now led by the American Dairy Association and has broadened over the years to promote the greater use of dairy products through sales promotion programs and marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>There are many great ways to celebrate National Dairy Month:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Include milk \u2013 Maryland\u2019s official state beverage \u2013 in your diet. Maryland dairy farmers supply about 114 million gallons of milk to several dairy cooperatives whose milk ends up on grocery store shelves in the region<\/li>\n<li>Buy cheeses produced by Maryland farmers. Fourteen farms in the state either produce cheese on their farms or have it produced off-farm with unique recipes.<\/li>\n<li>Experience Maryland\u2019s dairy farms first-hand on the Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream trail, which features eight dairy farms that produce farm fresh ice cream and sell it directly to consumers on the farm. Anyone who visits each of the eight creameries before Sept. 23 will have a chance to be named Maryland\u2019s Best 2015 Ice Cream Trailblazer and win assorted prizes. For more information about the trail: <a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2015\/05\/29\/marylands-best-ice-cream-trail-opens-for-2015\/\">http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2015\/05\/29\/marylands-best-ice-cream-trail-opens-for-2015\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Find local Maryland dairy products near you at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marylandsbest.net\">marylandsbest.net<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Fast Facts about Maryland Dairy <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are 455 dairy farms in Maryland.<\/li>\n<li>The most popular dairy breed in our state is the Holstein.<\/li>\n<li>Milk is Maryland\u2019s official State Beverage.<\/li>\n<li>Maryland\u2019s dairy industry accounted for nearly $243 million in sales in 2014.<\/li>\n<li>Maryland\u2019s top three dairy producing counties are: Frederick, Washington and Carroll.<\/li>\n<li>Maryland dairy cattle are routinely judged among the best in the world at competitions.<\/li>\n<li>Washington County dairy farmer Mary Creek was chosen Dairy Woman of the Year at the 2012 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.<\/li>\n<li>There are about 51,000 dairy cows in Maryland.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p># # #<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD\u00a0\u2013June is National Dairy Month, and the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) encourages Marylanders to celebrate by enjoying healthy and nutritious dairy products this month and all year long.\u00a0 National Dairy Month celebrates the value of milk and dairy products as part of a well-balanced diet for every American, as well as the importance<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2015\/06\/08\/june-is-national-dairy-month\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[898,546],"class_list":["post-14883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-cow","tag-dairy"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14884,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883\/revisions\/14884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}