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June is Dairy Month

By Sara Beth A.R. Kohut, June 2026

old receipt from Abbots old receipt from wawa
The author's great grandfather sold milk produced on his Oxford farm to dairies in Philadelphia.
boy with cow
A relative of the author shows off a young cow in the late 1950s on the family farm in Oxford.

I grew up knowing that June is Dairy Month because every June, the Chester County Dairy Princess would come to our local Grange to present a program and serve us ice cream. It's a tradition that continues today, honoring the county's second-leading agricultural product and the farm families who produce it.

In the late 1930s, agricultural promotion groups designated June as National Milk Month, which evolved into National Dairy Month, in recognition of the versatility of milk in supplying many food products, whether it be cheese, yogurt, or ice cream. The event now serves as a vehicle to educate the public about the nutritional benefits of dairy products, the economic contributions of the dairy industry, and the challenges of being a farmer in the modern world.

It's a fitting custom for Pennsylvania, which adopted Milk as its official beverage in 1982 and ranks 8th in the U.S. for milk production, with more than 46,100 cows across 4,360 farms producing 9.7 billion pounds of milk per year. Dairy remains a strong sector of agriculture in Pennsylvania, counting as the top commodity in cash receipts and comprising about 27% of all product sales. With about 128 dairy farms, Chester County remains second in the state for total market value of agricultural products sold and 11th for sales of milk from cows.

Generations of young women from Chester County and across the Commonwealth have participated in the Pennsylvania Dairy Princess and Promotion Program, Inc. (PDPPS), a non-profit that provides a unique professional development opportunity. Its participants lead milk toasts and speak at events to promote dairy foods and farmers. PDPPS started in 1956, with a Miss Milk Maid Contest organized by the Pennsylvania Association of Milk Truck Dealers and Pennsylvania Dairymen's Association. It evolved into a program that now boasts 28 dairy princesses and more than 200 junior representatives at the county level.

Many Dairy Princess participants are active in other ag-related youth organizations, like 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA), both of which have active chapters and lengthy histories in Chester County. Likewise, the Grange, a family, fraternal organization founded in 1867, has seven chapters in Chester County.

Dairy farming is no easy occupation. Each day revolves around the milking schedule, which typically starts in the wee hours of the morning and repeats each afternoon. Historically, Chester County was dotted with local creameries or dairy plants in places like Cream (near Oxford) and Cochranville. Later, dairy farmers would haul their milk by horse-drawn wagon into local towns and put it on the train to Philadelphia, where it was made into butter, ice cream, or the world-renowned Philadelphia cream cheese by companies like Abbotts, Bassetts, and P.E. Sharpless Co. (purchased in 1924 by Kraft).

As in many sectors of agriculture, the price that farmers earn for their milk is subject to fluctuations that can make it hard to run a profitable business. Add to that factors like increasing prices for supplies, pressure from population growth that drives up land prices, and the preference for employment that avoids the toil of dirty, physical labor, and it is no surprise that the number of dairy farms (and farms overall) continues to decline. Many Chester County dairy farmers have persevered through diversification, running their own farm markets where they sell milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt and other farm-made or -grown products.

June may be Dairy Month, but it is followed by July, which is National Ice Cream Month. For those who do not need an excuse, any time of year is opportune to enjoy dairy products and honor this aspect of Chester County's agricultural legacy.

Sources & Further Reading

About Sara Beth A.R. Kohut

A lifelong resident of southern Chester County, Sara Beth Kohut grew up spending time on the dairy farms of her grandparents. She currently serves as President of Russellville Grange No. 91, where her family (the Reyburns) have been members for five generations. She frequently writes and speaks about local history, and is the author of "Crossing Under Cover," which features the covered bridges of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas.