Dairy royalty to begin journey pouring their hearts into the industry
Crawford County’s 2017 dairy royalty, crowned May 21 at the dairy kickoff banquet, are (from left) Rita Sime, Lil Miss Squirt Attendant; Sarah Kearns, Dairy Princess; and Grace Callahan, Lil Miss Squirt. (Photo by Donna Hartley)
Strong support for the dairy industry brought out a “full house” for the Crawford County Dairy Kick-Off Banquet Sunday night, May 21, at the Eastman United Methodist Fellowship Hall, where Sarah Kearns was crowned the 2017 Crawford County Dairy Princess.
Sarah, the 17-year-old daughter of Tom and Beth Kearns, will serve as Crawford County’s 61st Dairy Princess. She grew up on her family’s 150-cow dairy farm near Seneca. She is homeschooled and will graduate this spring.
Sarah is involved in 4-H dairy judging, the dairy and livestock quiz bowl team and is a club officer. She is also active in the junior Holstein and Crawford County state fair dairy team. Sarah’s duties on the farm include calf barn manager, registering calves, keeping cow records and milking. Her favorite activities are showing Holsteins and driving tractor.
The Crawford County Little Miss Squirt contest is in its 19th year. The 2017 Crawford County Little Miss Squirt is Grace Callahan, daughter of Josh and Carrie Callahan, of Wauzeka. She is 9 years old and a student at Wauzeka-Steuben Schools. On her farm, Grace helps with maintaining the free stall barn, milking in the parlor, feeding calves and, of course, loving all the cats, dogs and her duck, Mr. Quacks. As last year’s attendant, she found out that she really likes to interact with people and tell them about her family farm. She has two older brothers, Jack and William.
This year’s Little Miss Squirt Attendant is Rita Sime. Her parents are Chad and Sarah Sime. They live on an 80-cow, 240-acre dairy farm near Mt. Sterling. Rita has a big brother and two younger sisters. She enjoys showing calves in the Farmer Bud Dairy Show at the county fair as well as showing off school projects. On the farm, she helps her brother feed calves—the brown Swiss are her favorite, just like her dad—and takes care of many cats.
Rita is in Girl Scouts and TNT Gymnastics. Her favorite dairy food is strawberry ice cream.
The newly crowned dairy royalty’s first public appearance will be greeting guests Saturday, June 3, from 6 to 10 am. at the Crawford County Dairy Breakfast, hosted by Steger Family Farms, located just off Hwy 27, on Irish Ridge Road, north of Prairie du Chien.
