Dairy princess holds court on milk issues

Who: Summer M. Greenwood, 17, daughter of Russell B. and Ruth L. Greenwood, Watertown, is the Jefferson County dairy princess for 2009-10. She was chosen at the annual pageant May 15. Summer is a junior at South Jefferson Central High School, Adams.

What is the job of the dairy princess?

"I promote the agricultural industry and nature's most perfect drink. Right off the bat, we have the Dairy Day parade, the Strawberry Festival in Adams and the county fair. I also attended the Stone Mills Craft Fair and Ag Extravaganza, which lasted three days this year. There were 1,300 kids at the Ag Extravaganza."

What else do you do?

"We're not just pretty faces on floats. We do school presentations and teach the community about dairy. I say where milk comes from. It's mostly about what milk does for the body, what it has to offer them. Then we sign autographs and get pictures taken with them."

How do you learn to give the information creatively?

"I went to statewide training right after I was named. I decided I wanted to make a wheel with the nine essential nutrients in milk. I used it at the county fair, the state fair."

How do you decide what to do?

"You can do as much or as little as you want. I've done PSAs (public service announcements) and been on the 'Home Grown Show' (a radio show with host Jay Matteson) and I do a lot of talks.

How is the dairy princess chosen?

"You put on a skit of what you would do for your dairy presentation. And there's a written test and an impromptu question. There's a whole interview process, too. Then you go to state training in July."

What's required to be a dairy princess?

"You do have to be tied into the dairy industry. I work on a farm and they sponsored me. You can be a dairy ambassador — in the court — beginning at age 13 to 24. And you can be dairy princess at age 16 to 24."

What do people not understand about dairy farming?

"Dairy farming is a business, a multi-million-dollar business. Farmers don't just milk cows, they calculate feed rations, handle medication, keep everything clean and run all the equipment. The farm where I work, we grow all our own crops, they mix all the feed and they breed perfect cows."

What do you enjoy most about being dairy princess?

"I think I most enjoy talking to farmers about what I've been doing to promote the industry. They fund the dairy princess program. It's nice to get to know all the different people through the program that I wouldn't have known before."

What's the hardest thing about being dairy princess?

"Finding the time to do everything. At the fair, you hand out ribbons early in the morning and work the late shift, too. The building's open until 10, so there are some long days."

What do you do as a dairy princess court?

"We're all involved at the fair. It's also nice because we have people all over the county, so we all do stuff in our own communities. But for some of the stuff we do travel around the county to do."

What else are you involved in?

"At South Jeff, I'm the FFA treasurer. I competed at the national FFA convention. I compared raft and nutrient film technique hydroponics systems and concluded the nutrient film system grew bigger plants. The raft is the plants are floating constantly in the nutrient system and the NFT is when there's water cycling through the roots — they're in two gutters and a pump underneath pumps the water through. I used marigolds. Next time, I'll use tomatoes and measure the pounds of fruit, not just the height of the plants."

"And I bowl at South Jeff Lanes on a team in a mixed league. My best scores are 199 for a game and 516 for a series, which is three games."

"I'm taking the Dairy Institute class for college credit. It's not just breeding the cows, it's watching cows for their heat cycles and hormone cycles."

What would you like to do as a career?

"I know I'm going to do something in agriculture — I don't know if it will be in dairy, alternative energy or agribusiness. I want to have something where I do a lot of jobs."

If you have an idea for a Times Q&A, please contact staff writer Nancy Madsen at 661-2358 or nmadsen@wdt.net.