Meridian Dairy Days

Each year, Meridian Dairy Days gives us an opportunity to reflect on our past and celebrate our heritage as a community. Since the opening of the Meridian Creamery in 1929, our City has taken time each year to time to honor and celebrate the important role the dairy industry played in our community’s history and development.


While the Creamery is gone, agriculture still has an important and valuable role in and around Meridian. Last week, I got to see this first-hand as I toured the agricultural region southwest of our city with other City leaders. We were able to learn about a few of the crops growing in the area, the unique needs of farmers, such as irrigation, and the economic impact farming has on our community and region. I’d like to thank Drew and Brenda Eggers for taking the time to engage the City on this important topic. The information we gathered will help us make informed decisions as Meridian continues to grow.

We also toured Black Cat Dairy where we witnessed Rocky Row's impressive dairy farm. We arrived during milking time - which I think is 24/7 - and witnessed why he has such high quality milk. This operation is one of the cleanest and cared for dairies I have seen! We were also just minutes short of seeing a calf born.

We may not have the same level of dairy activity as in days past we still have a strong connection to our community’s roots. And celebrating our heritage makes Dairy Days that much more enjoyable for all. I encourage you to come out this week and enjoy the much improved carnival, the Dairy Princess Pageant, the pancake feed, Old McDonald’s Farm and other pastime favorites. We also get to look forward to new events this year like the Fast Lane Kow Karts, stroller parade and the pool bash. For a full list of everything taking place during Dairy Days, please visit www.dairydays.org.

As a reminder, the Dairy Days Parade has been canceled this year due to the construction taking place on Meridian Road. It has been a community tradition that many look forward to. I can say we are all disappointed that we won't have a parade this summer. We know how much this parade means to Meridian families and we will assist the Meridian Dairy Board in any way we can to bring the parade back bigger and better than ever in 2014.