Dairy Day

Celebrate Dairy Month at the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum’s third annual Dairy Day on Saturday, June 1 from 11:00am – 4:00pm. Visit with members of the local dairy industry, meet cows and calves, enjoy ice cream with a Virginia Dairy Princess, and learn about the history of dairy in Loudoun County.

During the event, visit the Mobile Dairy Classroom, a traveling milking parlor featuring a live cow. This program, presented by the Southwest Dairy Farmers, brings the dairy experience directly to children. The museum will also host representatives from Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company, based in Middleburg, Virginia. Learn about how this local farm makes its delicious cheese, and meet one of the Locksley calves. During the event be sure to enjoy sundaes and floats with members of the court of the Virginia Dairy Princess Program at our Dairy Day Ice Cream Social. We will also be hosting the award winning Blackwater Beef food truck.

This special event includes activities, crafts, and games highlighting all things dairy.  Event activities are free with paid Museum admission.

This event will kick-off Loudoun County's "Summer of Love" celebration. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Virginia Tourism’s “Virginia is for Lovers” brand, Loudoun will be home to more than a dozen events such as movie nights, farm experiences, concerts and festivals between June and August that are inspired by the people, events, music and iconic moments of 1969. Hop in the vintage van and practice holding up your peace signs, things are about to get groovy in Loudoun this summer! For full details, go to: visitloudoun.org/summeroflove.

Participating organizations include:

Mobile Dairy Classroom Presented by the Southwest Dairy Farmers
At the Mobile Dairy Classroom, teaching kids about the dairy industry is their priority. Trained instructors will demonstrate how to milk a cow, describe how milk goes from the farm to the consumer, and then answer questions from the audience.

Maryland Virginia Dairy Cooperative
The Maryland Virginia Dairy Cooperative are cultivators of fresh, wholesome and nourishing dairy goodness. A simple and honest pursuit achieved by creating products people crave and operating with passion and integrity. Founded in 1920 by a small group of dairy farmers dedicated to supplying the nation’s capital with farm-fresh milk, our community has grown to be nearly 1,200 farmers-strong, with members spanning from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Today, this farmer-led cooperative hangs its hat on providing safe and nutritious products that dairy lovers across the globe have come to know for nearly 100 years.

Dairy Princess Program Presented by the Virginia State Dairymen’s Association
The Virginia State Dairymen’s Association was founded in 1907. The goal of the VSDA is to represent and promote the dairy industry in Virginia. The VSDA is a member-organization that spans the state of Virginia and represents its member’s views on a state and federal level.
The purpose of the Virginia Dairy Princess Program is to promote the consumption and sale of dairy products to the consumer and to create better relations between urban and rural people through one on one contact at the local level.

Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company
Locksley Farmstead Cheese Company was founded in 2006 by Jennifer McCloud and Perry Griffin with the purchase of 9 American Milking Devons, a heritage breed cow that came to America from Devonshire, England  in 1622. Over the years they've brought in Ayrshire and Jersey cows to cross-breed with our Devons and most recently Brown Swiss and Red and Black Holsteins. Theye began making cheese in the spring of 2018, and now have available for purchase a delicious selection of true artisan cheeses.

Blackwater Beef
After recognizing almost a decade ago, the difficulties faced in obtaining and containing farm fresh beef, it became the mission of Blackwater Ranches in Middleburg to develop a local cattle program designed to produce quality rich Black Angus beef to feed the community. Having the physical resources in land and facility and a meticulous Registered Black Angus herd, Blackwater Beef was born.

Visit Loudoun
The Loudoun Convention & Visitors Association (Visit Loudoun) is the destination management organization for Loudoun County and its incorporated towns. By developing and implementing comprehensive destination management programs, they promote tourism and travel to Loudoun County and the towns. Serving as the primary programmatic element of Loudoun's travel and tourism promotion, they lead the Loudoun tourism industry to work together as a destination.

During the event, the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum is proud to announce that we will be the recipient of a special Agriculture in the Classroom educational banner. Using a map of the state, the banner highlights agriculture in Virginia. The graphic leads to great discussions of where are we in the world and what grows around us in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The Agriculture in the Classroom website, www.agclassroom.org/va,  also has a number of lessons for teachers and activities for volunteers about the items highlighted on the map.

Please join us as we celebrate Agriculture in the Classroom and its mission of  providing resources, training and support to schools, educators and volunteers so that they can meaningfully connect children to agriculture. The event is free with paid museum admission.