COLUMBUS, Ohio – A fan favorite every year at the Ohio State Fair is the butter sculpture.  In the Spectrum News 1 studio, we had an opportunity to chat with Jenny Hubble, Senior Vice President of Communications, at The American Dairy Association Mid-East, and she shared with us some interesting tidbits about that big buttery attraction at the fair.

A temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit is maintained inside the cooler. Each year, approximately 500,000 people visit the Dairy Products Building to see the butter sculptures and enjoy dairy products. In 2017, a team of artists worked 500 hours and used 2,000 pounds of butter to create the masterpiece and its accompanying sculpture.

Some previously featured butter sculptures include:

  • 90th anniversary of the ice cream cone
  • A bald eagle
  • A Hasbro Tonka Truck
  • A salute to the armed forces
  • A tribute to Ohio’s dairy farmers
  • A tribute to The Ohio State Buckeyes
  • A tribute to the Olympics
  • Darth Vader
  • Dave Thomas of Wendy’s
  • Furby
  • Jack Nicklaus
  • John Glenn
  • Mr. Monopoly
  • Neil Armstrong
  • The Liberty Bell
  • Columbus Bicentennial birthday cake
  • A tribute to the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir
  • A tribute to Ohio symbols

One of the most common questions we hear about the butter sculptures is – “what happens to the butter after the fair?”  The American Dairy Association Mideast uses butter for the display that is past its expiration date and not able to be used.  After the Fair, the butter is recycled and refined into an ingredient used in products like biodiesel, animal feed, tires and cosmetics.