What is the theme of the Ohio State Fair butter cow display?

It's unlikely that most people today have ever seen a phonograph in person.

You know what's even more unlikely? Seeing one made out of butter.

This year, Ohio State Fairgoers will see a sculpture of the vintage record player in this year's butter cow display, which is a tribute to Ohio inventors. Featured alongside the traditional butter cow and calf are butter sculptures of Thomas Edison with a light bulb and a phonograph; James Spangler with a portable vacuum cleaner; Garrett Morgan with a three-position traffic signal and Josephine Cochrane with a hand-powered dishwasher.

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The display was unveiled Tuesday by the American Dairy Association Mideast at the Dairy Products Building at the Ohio Expo Center, 717 E. 17th Ave., where the Ohio State Fair will take place Wednesday through Aug. 6.

“Ohio has been home to many pioneers in science and technology over the last 200 years, and this year’s butter display celebrates that rich history of innovation by paying tribute to four inventors and their groundbreaking inventions,” said Jenny Crabtree, senior vice president of communications at American Dairy Association Mideast, in a release.

This year, a team of Ohio-based sculptors created the display in 450 hours using 2,000 pounds of butter donated in part by Dairy Farmers of America. The sculptures are made and later displayed in a 46-degree cooler, making for a speedy and chilly sculpting process, said lead sculptor Paul Brooke.

Brooke, joined by fellow sculptors Erin Birum, Tammy Buerk, Matt Davidson and Joe Metzler, said the team started drafting designs in May, then completed the entire display in just eight days: from July 10 through July 18.

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The team used traditional carving tools, handmade tools and sometimes just their hands to craft the final product, which, Brooke said, features a few special touches.

“The dishwasher sculpture actually has a transparent door on it so you can see inside, something we’ve never tried before,” said Brooke, a resident of Cincinnati.

The team also integrated electricity into the display to illuminate Garrett Morgan's three-position traffic signal, and the lightbulb held delicately by a butter version of Thomas Edison.

The American Dairy Association Mideast noted that the display pays tribute to the innovative farmers who leverage technology to sustain Ohio's nearly 2,000 dairy farms.

"It's such a tremendous honor to represent Ohio's dairy farmers. Those 1,450 dairy farms around Ohio, they represent nearly 136,000 jobs from the dairy products that we produce ... generating over $35 million in economic business," said Scott Higgins, CEO for the American Dairy Association Mideast, at Tuesday's unveiling.

"(Dairy farmers) care for their cow, they care for their people, they care for their community, they care for the planet," said Higgins.

Matt Davidson, a longtime member of the display's sculpting team, has been working as a dairy farmer "since forever," he said. He relishes the opportunity to combine his passions of dairy farming and art when executing the butter cow display.

When asked what tools he prefers when molding the butter, Davidson chuckled: "A butter knife will do the trick."

After the fair, the butter from the display is recycled and refined into an ingredient for non-edible products like biodiesel, animal feed, tires and cosmetics.

The butter cow made its debut at the Ohio State Fair in the early 1900s. Themes for the famous display, which attracts 500,000 fairgoers each year, were added in the 1960s.

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