Dairy Month Celebration Monday at Hood Plant in Oneida

The new commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets is coming to Madison County Monday in celebration of Dairy Month.

Richard Ball will tour the HP Hood plant on Genesee Street in Oneida at about 9:30 a.m. He will be accompanied by state Sen. David Valesky, of Oneida, Assemblyman William Magee, chair of the Assembly agriculture committee from nearby nelson, Madison County, and Hood officials Steve Pelkey and Rick Kovarik.

Plant officials will show Ball the entire milk manufacturing process, from the milk truck to the grocery store.  

New York is the third largest milk-producing state in the nation and accounts for 6.7 percent of national production. In 2013, there were over 5,000 dairy farms in New York and 610,000 dairy cows across the state, with the average dairy farm had 121 cows producing 2.67 million pounds of milk per year. From 2010 to 2013, New York saw a 6.1 percent increase of pounds of milk per cow, compared to a 3.2 percent increase at the national level.