The State Fair's all-you-can-drink milk will be more expensive this year

All-you-can-drink milk will cost $3 at the Minnesota State Fair this summer, a $1 increase from last year.

The increase is the first price change for the fair's only unlimited food or drink item since 2015 and comes amid significant increases in labor costs to produce and serve milk, according to a Midwest Dairy news release.

The all-you-can-drink tradition began in 1955, costing just a dime for bottomless white milk. This year, fairgoers can get unlimited 2% white or 1% chocolate milk throughout the State Fair, which will run from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2.

In 2023, the all-you-can-drink milk stand served around 12,500 gallons of white milk and 13,000 gallons of chocolate milk, according to a spokesperson for Midwest Dairy, which runs the dairy farmer-owned operation.

Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish said it's important to note that farmers themselves aren't raising the prices and seeing that reflected in their paychecks.

"It just costs more to produce a gallon of milk, a glass of milk," Wertish said.

Higher prices are largely due to an increase in production costs, like labor and feed, he said.

Dairy products saw dramatic price hikes recently, after years of keeping prices low, explained Lucas Sjostrom, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association. While other food products saw their prices rise gradually, dairy prices are now on an expedited schedule, and it's drawing attention.

But the 50% price increase at the fair "is not another dollar in the farmer's pocket," Sjostrom said