Special Iowa Dairy Princess Edition
DAIRY ST R
August 4, 2011
Connecting with the consumer
Moser spends year educating others as Iowa Dairy Princess By Kelli Boylen Staff Writer
COLESBURG, Iowa – To say Kendra Moser lives life with enthusiasm may just be an understatement. She is passionate about rural life, the dairy industry and her family. She appreciates hard work and the need to explain agriculture in a way anyone can understand. And, she can’t talk about serving as the 2010-11 Iowa Dairy Princess without a smile on her face. Moser grew up on a 60cow Holstein operation near Colesberg, Iowa. Her parents, Todd and Lynn Moser, have two other children, Kirk (18) and Kohl (11). The Mosers milk in a stanchion barn and also have beef cattle, sheep and chickens. They own 600 acres and Kirk is leasing an additional 200 acres as he works into the operation. “We all help out on our farm, and we have a lot of fun along the way,” Moser said. The Mosers have always welcomed people to their farm, including young school children and friends of friends from urban areas. Since she was about 9 years old, Moser has been explaining the story of dairy farming to visitors. She served as Clayton County Little Miss Squirt and later served as Clayton Coun-
Photo by Kelli Boylen
Kendra Moser of Colesburg served as the 2010-11 Iowa Dairy Princess.
ty Dairy Princess. From her county post she moved on to her state title. Moser (19), said the more she tells her story of dairy farming, “the story just keeps getting bigger.” She often finds herself telling the whole story of agriculture in addition to educating others about dairying. Moser just completed her first year at Luther College, majoring in biology. How
does a young woman from a dairy farm fit in at liberal arts college? “I end up doing a lot of promoting even when not in my crown and sash,” she said. “I think it is fun telling others who have never experienced the farm about what we do.” Of all her friends at college, only one is from a farm. Moser said she was often singled out by her professors to talk about agriculture
and sometimes even defend it. One professor thanked her at the end of the year for her valuable input in the class. Moser did miss home while at school. “I do my best thinking when I’m in the barn milking,” Moser said. She often felt she could have used more “barn time” to think about the papers she needed to write for college. Moser also likes to put her dairy princess speeches together in her head while milking, rather than writing them down. She likes her mom and dad nearby to have the opportunity to bounce ideas off them and ask their opinions. Moser does not have a problem speaking in front of groups and said she would often ask at dairy banquets before she took the microphone, “How long do you really want me up here?” Moser has enjoyed the opportunity to bring the story of dairy to different audiences and teaching about the benefits of good nutrition. “I like showing them and making them believers,” she said. One of her favorite displays was using sugar cubes to show the amount of sugar consumers are getting when consuming milk, chocolate milk and soda. Moser said one of the bigger challenges of being Iowa Dairy Princess, besides juggling her hectic schedule, was taking the knowledge she has and adapting it to her audi-
Recent Iowa Dairy Princesses
ence. “You don’t want to go over their heads and sometimes that means starting with the basics” Moser said. At one appearance, she was talking to kids about what cows eat and none of the kids there could tell her what the feed she was holding was; it was hay. Moser enjoyed working with farm kids at events such as the Iowa Junior Holstein Convention and the Iowa Youth Dairy Coalition. “I like to try to stump them, but they end up challenging my knowledge as well,” Moser said. As the Iowa Dairy Princess, Kendra has attended more than 40 events and has traveled more than 3,500 miles, once traveling more than 1,000 miles in one week. Her appearances have included dairy banquets, farm tours, fair queen judging, parades, breakfast on the farm at The Dairy Center and throwing out the first pitch at an Iowa Cubs game. She has also enjoyed working at farm tours and seeing the different dairy setups, including a robotic milker in northeast Iowa. Moser’s summer has been fun, exciting and even a little challenging. At a Swiss Valley Young Cooperators gathering, she met Jeff Jirik, one of the former owners of Faribault Dairy Company and now Swiss Valley’s vice president of Blue Cheese Turn to Moser / Page 2
2009 Princess
2009 Alternate
2010 Princess
2010 Alternate
2011 Princess
2011 Alternate
Katie Steinlage Fayette County
Leah Henkes Clayton County
Katie Adams Fayette County
Stacy Fitzpatrick Delaware County
Kendra Moser Clayton County
Alyssa Meyer Bremer County