“On the Road with Alice” in September

I can’t believe I have already completed my first three months as Wisconsin’s 78^th Alice in Dairyland! It feels like my first day was just yesterday, but since I began, I have traveled over 11,000 miles and smiled more times than I can count. I’ve also learned and experienced more than I could ever imagine. As I write this, the leaves are just beginning to shift to golden, amber, and red hues while there’s a familiar hum of harvest in the air as we wrap up September. This time of year truly is one of the most beautiful seasons because it brings a renewed rhythm of life to our farms, families, and communities. This past month has been nothing short of incredible, from showcasing and promoting agriculture on many platforms, to making new friends everywhere I go.

I started September with a familiar activity: eating corn! I attended the Demeter Corn Roast in Middleton, where I arrived in “Tassie,” my E-88 Ford Explorer fueled by ethanol made from Wisconsin corn. Daughters of Demeter, established in 1917, is a service organization comprised of former and current faculty, staff, and friends of the UW-Madison College of Agricultural & Life Sciences (CALS). Demeter members are deeply committed to agriculture in Wisconsin and supporting CALS students and the surrounding Madison area community. Some even have historic connections to the Alice in Dairyland program! I also attended the annual Wisconsin Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Association Football Fire-Up event on the UW-Madison campus to raise money for college scholarships. I grew up attending this event with my family and I loved the chance to reminisce on gameday memories with Bucky Badger!

The Agricultural Tourism Fall Season in Wisconsin began on September 11 and is in full swing! Throughout the month, I have had the opportunity to promote the numerous areas for exploration in agricultural tourism by visiting radio and television stations, making social media posts, and writing print articles. While the fall and summer seasons are most popular for rural and agricultural travel, there are activities all year round that allow visitors to get hands-on experience with agriculture and better understand where their food comes from! These include the immersive charm of farm stays, the creativity of pizza farms, the beauty of lavender fields, and the pride of cheese processing facilities. Agricultural tourism welcomes visitors to experience the seasons through orchards, pumpkin patches, maple syrup tours, Christmas-tree festivities, and farm-to-table events that help strengthen our connection to the land, to food, and to the people who dedicate their lives to agriculture. Look for your next ag-venture on the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection agritourism homepage!

These past three months as the 78th Alice in Dairyland have exposed me to so many new sections of Wisconsin agriculture. One recent brand-new experience for me was the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. This nationwide festival welcomes exhibitors from all over the Midwest and the country to showcase the diversity of the sheep industry. From meat to dairy to wool fibers, it was fascinating to see how this livestock species contributes to our everyday lives and enhances sustainability in agriculture! I watched junior exhibitors in the youth show, spoke with participants in the sheep dog trials, learned about fiber arts classes, and connected with local businesses in the sheep industry when walking through the marketplace. I am already excited to attend future Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festivals to help celebrate and promote this hidden gem of Wisconsin’s sheep community!

Another brand-new personal experience was seeing a Wisconsin potato harvest! This was an activity I’ve had on my bucket list since I started serving as Alice, so it was very exciting to accomplish this goal. Schroeder Brothers Farm of Antigo graciously opened their doors (both on tractors and in barns) to give me a firsthand look at harvesting potatoes. I rode along with the “windrower” in the field, which is a machine that digs up the potatoes from the ground and places them together in a neat row down the field. A harvester then comes along and scoops up the potatoes from the rows. A conveyor system on the harvester brings the potatoes up to an arm, or a “boom” to transfer them into a semi-truck. From the field, the semi-truck takes the potatoes to the processing shed, where they are unloaded on to several conveyor belts, dusted off, scanned and sorted for quality, then piled in storage sheds for the remainder of the year. These storage sheds have special ventilation and climate control so that the potatoes remain fresh and free of any imperfections until they go to market. Thank you to Schroeder Bros. Farm for helping me see my first potato harvest and for being so passionate about Wisconsin potatoes!

My first official out-of-state event brought me to Belvidere, Illinois to the combined Wisconsin and Illinois State Grange Convention! The Grange organization was founded in 1867 and has deep agricultural roots. It aims to help members grow to their full potential as citizens and leaders, whether it’s in urban, suburban, or rural areas. I enjoyed hearing from many of the members about why they enjoy being a part of The Grange and the priorities they have in agriculture. I shared the agricultural message with those in attendance, strolled around the competitive exhibits, and learned about the connection that Grange members have around the nation.

My monthly visit to Marathon County was busy with high school and college visits, industry tours, and seeing more of what the county has to offer! Heil Harvest Ginseng in Edgar welcomed me for a tour in the middle of the month to showcase their newest worm farming venture, as well as their ginseng gardens and ginseng processing facilities. The Heil family accounts for approximately 15% of Marathon County’s ginseng crop – that’s a lot of root, especially considering that Wisconsin produces 95% of the nation’s cultivated ginseng! On the worm side, Connie and her team care for thousands of earthworms to produce worm castings, which is a high-quality organic fertilizer that can be used to enhance soils. These castings are being sent throughout Wisconsin and to other states to help improve soil structure and absorbency, strengthen seedling growth, introduce beneficial bacteria and fungi to soils, and reduce certain plant diseases.

Afterwards, I visited Fischer-Clark Dairy to learn about how they’ve adopted technology on their farm to boost animal care and health, as well as take care of their surrounding land. Just like other dairy farmers throughout Wisconsin, this team is prioritizing sustainable practices with water use, manure and bedding management, efficient software systems, accurate record-keeping, and so much more! Did you know that Marathon County is the second ranking dairy county in the state, and the 19^th in the nation? It surely is a wonderful place to highlight Wisconsin dairy!

Education has been a major theme of September as students head back to classrooms at all levels, from kindergarten to college! I had the opportunity to speak at the Community College Alliance for Agricultural Advancement annual meeting at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau. This annual gathering brings together two-year technical and community colleges across 16 states to help advance agricultural education. It was my honor to share the Marathon County agricultural story with attendees, as well as lead a breakout session on public speaking and enhancing young people’s agricultural advocacy skills. There have been several high school, middle school, and elementary school students that I’ve interacted with to share about agriculture, including at Wausau West High School, the Marathon County FFA Benefit Auction, and the River Valley School Fair. This school fair in Spring Green is one of the last three remaining school fairs in Wisconsin and is essentially a miniature county fair!

I’ve also been working with Badgerland Girl Scout troops of southern Wisconsin on their educational programming called “Adventures in the Milky Whey.” We recently visited Sassy Cow Creamery where we discussed entrepreneurship and business in the dairy industry, the math needed for dairy farming, and how ice cream is made. We even created our own ice cream shops! We finished with a tour of the creamery from owner Jamie Baerwolf to see where they make all their delicious dairy products, including ice cream, chocolate milk, and cheese. It was a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at ice cream making for our Badgerland Girl Scouts, and it maybe even inspired a few future ice cream shop owners!

This month brought many more heartwarming community events throughout the state, too. The Columbia County Farm Bureau welcomed me to their annual meeting, which I attended many years ago when I was an active FFA member in my home chapter, Rio. While visiting with the Janesville Blackhawk Golden “K” Kiwanis Club, I shared about Alice in Dairyland and Wisconsin agriculture, especially Wisconsin dairy. I showed attendees how to make butter from heavy whipping cream, which was a great activity! There were even some events that Alice had the pleasure of attending for the first time, such as the Youth Day at the Sun Prairie Farmers Market and Sorghum Fest in Fall River. Each of these events display the diversity of people, places, and products in Wisconsin agriculture!

My final events in September celebrated two of Wisconsin’s top commodities: cranberries and cheese! Warrens Cranberry Festival, the world’s largest cranberry festival, takes place every year on the last full weekend of September. The town of Warrens jumps from a population of approximately 500 to over 150,000 to celebrate Wisconsin’s state fruit and welcome visitors to learn more about cranberry production. After all, Wisconsin produces over 60% of the nation’s cranberry crop, so there is much to take pride in when it comes to these powerhouse red berries. Between meeting local cranberry growers, trying deep fried cranberries, making a cranberry cream puff, visiting the Cranberry Discovery Center, wading through the Wetherby mock-up marsh, and sharing the Wisconsin experience with some Ocean Spray executives, I created memories I will never forget. 

The third annual Art of Cheese Festival helped me wrap up September in a night of celebration and glamour at the Wisconsin Cheese Ball. Held at the Sylvee in Madison, the ball recognized our hardworking dairy farmers, award-winning cheese, and especially our talented Master Cheesemakers that uphold Wisconsin’s world-renowned cheese legacy. It was so enjoyable to watch their pride for Wisconsin dairy shine through under the glittering lights and vibrant music. Our 5,200 dairy farms and our over 1,200 licensed cheesemakers truly form the foundation for Wisconsin’s rich cheese heritage, which has garnered over 7,600 state, national, and international cheese awards. This is more than any other state or country in the history of cheesemaking competitions. What a fabulous way to celebrate Wisconsin’s $52.8 billion dairy community before rolling into World Dairy Expo in October!

As I turn to a new page on the calendar, I am so thankful for all the people around Wisconsin that have made my first three months as the 78th Alice in Dairyland so special. Everywhere I visit, I leave with more knowledge about Wisconsin agriculture and new rich connections and friendships. I can’t wait to see what October has to offer!