56th Princess Kay of the Milky Way Crowned!

I am super excited to write this post, but I will give you a little bit of background before I dive into the "juice" of this post...

MN State Fair 2002: Myself, Princess Kay of the Milky Way Sarah Olson, Karin Norling-fellow finalist.

Me, in the rotating butter carving booth at the Dairy Building(formerly the Empire Commons). Linda Christensen carving my butterhead-she did a great job!

Back in the summer of 2002 I was selected to be a finalist for the Princess Kay of the Milky Way competition in Minnesota. Each year Minnesota county dairy princesses (sometimes over 100 of them) compete to be selected to be one of the 12 lucky girls to run for Princess Kay. As a finalist for Princess Kay, we were honored to have our profile carved in a 90 pound block of butter at the Great Minnesota Get-together...the Minnesota State Fair! My 90 pound butter head was amazing. After storing it for a few months I pulled it out of the freezer and "murdered it"...by cutting it up and giving it away to those were so important to me and helped me on my journey of life. What a great way to say "Thanks"!

The greatest part about being a finalist for me was not the butterhead (although a great conversation starter) it was the chance to connect with the many thousands of people that pass through the Minnesota State Fair every year! It was the experience of showing youth from the Twin Cities how to milk a cow which continues to drive me to work for dairy promotion. The realization how far removed the average consumer is from where their food comes from drives the passion in me to write this blog, post articles and talk to consumers of all ages. The dairy princess program in Minnesota is a highly developed program, which trains and develops interested girls ages 18-24 to be advocates for dairy farmers-the ultimate honor and the way to give back. The year that I ran for Princess Kay, I was not selected, but instead the honor went to a very professional and poised young woman that deserved that honor....Sarah Olson.

Now for the story of the night....Sarah Olson's youngest sister was running for Princess Kay of the Milky Way tonight. Each year, this night before the start of the State Fair, I always get excited! The memories of that exciting night come back and the pride in the girls that do the hard work for the dairy farmers of this state brings a smile to my face. Sarah's sister Elizabeth was chosen for Princess Kay, making her family proud, (her other sister Lana was also a finalist in 2005) and making Princess Kay History....the first time that 2 sisters from the same family have held the honor of Princess Kay of the Milky Way! As a dairy farmer of Minnesota, I can confidently say that I am proud to have Elizabeth representing me to the consumers of this state! I know she will do an excellent job during her next year!

Congratulations Elizabeth and to her proud family!!!!!

For media coverage of the night see the following:

Star Tribune

Kare 11 News

Midwest Dairy Association

For more info about Dairy Events at the State Fair....come visit the Moo Booth, Dairy Barn, or the Dairy Building.

Tornado Videos Posted!

I finally got around to editing my tornado videos from our dairy on August 19th, 2009. It was definitely more amazing to watch in person, but the videos give you the idea of how scary the storm was. After taking a nap I was pretty groggy and had no idea we were even in a tornado warning. I was kinda scared at first but once we got to the farm it was powerful to watch. It was insane watching the clouds swirl around. So feel free to check out my link....it's the amazing power of nature.

Pics from the County Fair Dairy Show 2009

Kelsey in the Auction ring, she will be using the procedes from local businesses to help pay for her college education.

Bethany was all smiles for the Auction as well, it was a great way to show off Lacey her awesome calf!

Even Val was smiling, for a job well done! Ollie, her cow, is a red and white Holstein cow.

Angela, very focused on the judge....showing her yearling to her very best-good work Terri!

Adam clipping and grooming, final touches for the show.

Chris in the show ring with his yearling.

Such small guy, with a big calf...but a mellow well behaved calf, a good pet even~!

Early morning (some up before 4 am) working on clipping the udder for the judge, so he can see the udder of the cow looking it's very best!

Winter calf class, where all three animals are judged and place. Calves and cows are judged on their style, shape, size, frame, and abillity to produce milk, be productive, and live long healthy lives. Cows with good feet, legs, udders, and frames will live long lives...hence why dairy farmers breed for these traits. Long lives=lots of milk.

4-H offers kids the ability to show animals like this. How great of experience this can be for kids! At least 1/3 of the kids at our fair are leasing their aniamls from local farms. These kids haven't lived on a farm like the others, but lived in town and wanted to learn more about dairy cattle. 4-H showing teaches youth how to care for animals properly, animal welfare, responsibility, work ethic, and other great traits. I was in 4-H for 10 years, 10 great years and now I give back to an organization that gave me so much!

Tornado Warning

I was hoping to sit down tonight and post some pictures on this blog about the fair last week, but instead those plans got railroaded! Tonight at about 6:15pm we had a tornado warning issued for this county. It was a scary time, funnels were in the sky, rotating and twisting. I have some awesome video of this, but I left my camera at the farm in the fury of the storm. We received some much needed rain with this storm-over 3 inches!!!-it's a God send! And we are happy to report that no serious damage occurred thanks to this storm. Apparently we are scheduled to see some more storms tomorrow, and for the first time since this spring I can report that we have MUD in the cattle yards! I am not going to complain about it though, since we needed this precious rain so much! It's nice to see green grass again, as well as the hay field, which we cut and chopped yesterday already greening back up for a 5th cutting of hay in 4 weeks. So please bear with me, I should be able to post some pictures tomorrow---as long as we don't have another scary storm!

Also, just to let you know...cow number 73 has made a full recovery!!!! She has increased her daily milk production, almost back to the level she was before the mastitis....and she is doing very well physically!!! We are still dumping her milk down the drain, since she is still on antibiotics, and we will continue to dump the milk until the residues clear her system. We now know how she got toxic mastitis...and I will talk about that in another post, as it is a long story.

Sleep needed!

Just thought I would let you know I am still alive, just that sleep is needed. After surviving the county fair with about 5 hours of sleep a night, we moved right into 4th cutting of alfalfa hay. Yesterday (Monday) we started cutting our 100 acres of hay, and today we finished cutting and chopped it all. 100 acres of 4th cutting hay should have filled at least 7/8 of a silage bag, but since we have been SO DRY it only filled about 1/3 of a bag. This means we will have to make more corn silage for the cows in order to have enough feed to feed the cows this winter. Corn silage will be starting in a few short weeks, so we will have to do some planning before then. Our alfalfa was beautiful, but so dry....so we hope for rain for a better 5th cutting of alfalfa in September. I will add more info from the fair hopefully tomorrow ;)