Livestock Awareness Event in Downtown Raleigh

Tomorrow is the annual Legislative Milk Chugging Contest and Ice Cream Social at the North Carolina General Assembly. Steven Lathrop, Dairy Marketing Specialist with Livestock Marketing for NCDA:

“It’s a cooperative event with the NC Pork Council, NC Cattleman’s Association, NC Dairy Producer’s Association and Coop Council Dairy Promotions committee of NC. We are very pleased. We will be serving sausage and ham biscuits and milk for breakfast from 8-10. Then roast beef sandwiches from 11-1. We’ll be giving out milk all day. There will be a milk chugging contest at noon.”

This year’s milk chugging contest will be between the Senate Super Sippers and the House All Stars.

All this is in good fun to promote the livestock and dairy industry and help educate the public, according to Lathrop:
 

“It’s to emphasize where our food comes from. It’s a good way for folks to remember that the food on the table comes from our producers.”
 

Lathrop explains that there were two events in years past, but now have been combined into one:
 

"Last year we had livestock day separate from the Ice Cream break and chugging contest.”

While the North Carolina Pork Council will have a presence at the event, the state’s dairy industry will be in the spotlight, according to Lathrop:
 

“The dairy industry has turned a corner after a disastrous 2009. For the first time we are now adding dairies. In North Carolina, we produce half of the milk we consume. So there is a big potential for growth in the industry.”
 

North Carolina has almost 300 dairy farms with 45,000 milk cows that produce more than 100 million gallons of milk. The state leads the southeast for most milk production per cow

For more details on the event click here.