Delaware Symbols, Beverage: Milk

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Milk

Adopted on June 3, 1983.

State Code
§ 312. State beverage.
Milk shall be the official beverage of the State. (64 Del. Laws, c. 41, § 1.)

Where milk comes from and how it's made.
Ever wonder where delicious milk comes from? It all starts with healthy, well-fed cows that live on farms all around America the beautiful.

Did you know that: Milk has been proclaimed the official state beverage or drink in each of the following states

State Symbol: Milk

All cows are females (males are called bulls).

A cow can't give milk until she's given birth to a calf.

Cows provide 90% of the world's milk supply.

A cow's udder can hold 25-50 pounds of milk at a time -- no wonder she's so eager to be milked -- and a cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

Can You Say, "I'm Full?"
Cows are BIG eaters. Did you know that cows have four stomachs and eat 90 pounds of food a day? That's probably more than you weigh! A cow that chows on only grass can make 50 glasses of milk a day. But one that eats grass, corn and hay can make 100 glasses of milk a day!

Milk, an excellent source of calcium (300 milligrams per cup), contains protein, riboflavin, vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and other nutrients. The milk produced by the more than nine million dairy cows in America is, not only healthy, but it also provides us with butter and many different kinds of cheeses, yogurts, and my all time favorite dessert, ice cream.

Milk has a long and rich history. For example, did you know?

Sanskrit records mentioned milk 6,000 years ago.

The Bible describes the Promised Land as Aa land flowing with milk and honey.

The Greek physician Hippocrates recommended milk as a medicine some 2,300 years ago.

Christopher Columbus brought cattle to the New World on his second voyage.

It has been said that one reason for the high death rate among those who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower was that they had no fresh milk to drink.

Cows were brought from Europe to the Jamestown colony in 1611 and to the Plymouth colony in 1624.

Cheese was an important item in the diet of the Vikings, who from about the 8th to the 10th century sailed the seas on long voyages.

Cheese was an article of commerce in ancient Rome. Monks developed the art of cheese making in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Dried milk was used as far back as the 13th century by Genghis Khan's cavalry. The Mongol soldiers dried mare's milk to a powder in the sun to preserve it. Then, each day they put some of the powder in a water bottle hung on their horses' saddles. The horses' jogging acted like a whisk, turning the mixture into a thin porridge by nightfall.

Dairying has always been an important part of Delaware agriculture. Around the end of the 1890's, Delaware had approximately 30,000 dairy cows that produced less than 4,000 pounds of milk per cow per year. These cows were milked by hand, which is very time consuming because it takes approximately 340-350 squirts to yield a gallon of milk. In 2001, the Delaware Agricultural Census shows that there were 9,000 dairy cows on farms in Delaware, which produced 151 million pounds of milk (approximately 16,778 per cow per year). These dairy cows, which are milked by machines, are housed in more than ninety dairies across the state. Dairy products produced more than $24 million in cash receipts in Delaware in 2001.