A larger than usual crowd of about 120 people attended the Crawford County Dairy Kick-Off Banquet Sunday, June 1 at the Eastman United Methodist Fellowship Hall.

The highlight of the evening was the crowing of Autumn Moret as the 2014 Crawford County Dairy Princes. Autumn is the 17-year-old daughter of Randy and Lori Moret. The Morets milk 40 cows on their 420-acre farm in rural Boscobel.

Autumn Moret is currently a junior at Boscobel High School, where she is an active member of FFA, and participates in drama and choir, cross country, basketball and track. She is also a member of the Crawford County Junior Holstein Association and State Fair Dairy Team. Autumn Moret will serve as Crawford County’s 58th Dairy Princess.

During her remarks at the banquet last Sunday night, Autumn emphasized the use of chocolate milk as the perfect athletic recovery drink following a workout. She noted the adoption of the drink by the Michigan State University Spartan basketball team as its athletic recovery drink of choice. Many other examples of athletes and teams using chocolate milk as their recovery drink following strenuous workouts were cited.

Autumn explained that the essential nutrients and carbohydrates found in chocolate milk were what made it the perfect choice for quick recovery from athletic activity.

The 2014 Crawford County Dairy Princess Attendant was also crowned at the banquet. She is Brooke Moret, the 17-year-old daughter of Kenneth and Julie Moret of rural Prairie du Chien. Brooke’s family owns and operates a small family Registered Holstein Dairy that has a special interest in Red and White Holsteins.

During her remarks, Brooke Moret explained the controversy surrounding raw and pasteurized milk. Advocates for the further legalization and expansion of the distribution of raw milk described it as safe and good for people’s overall health, Brooke explained.

However, the Dairy Princess candidate was quick to note that the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) advised the public that consumption of raw milk was dangerous.

Brooke Moret went on to outline the raw milk advocates criticism of the pasteurization process and the virtues of raw milk consumption. She noted raw milk advocates claim pasteurization effectively kills live parts of the milk that can aid immune systems. She also pointed out the CDC warns that consumption of raw milk can expose people to a variety of food borne diseases like salmonella, E coli and listeria. However, she stated that of 48 million cases of food borne disease last year only 50 were directly traceable to the consumption raw milk.

“At the end of the day it is the consumers’ choice to drink raw milk or not,” Brooke Moret concluded.

The two other candidates vying to become the 2014 Crawford County Dairy Princess were Emily Fishler and Brooke Mohr.

Emily Fishler is the 17-year-old daughter of Angela and Rodney Fishler, who live in rural Prairie du Chien. She is active in FFA and sports. She is also responsible for all the young stock care on her family’s dairy farm. Sponsored by the Fishler Dairy Farm, Emily is interested in educating consumers on the importance and health benefits of dairy products.

Emily started her remarks by lauding dairy farmers for the hard work they must do daily. As she described “life on the dairy farm,” she noted farmers are hardworking professionals, who must go to work at 5 a.m. daily.

“One thing that is hurting life on the dairy farm is frac sand mining,” Fishler stated.

While the Dairy Princess candidate acknowledged energy independence is a worthwhile goal for the country, she cautioned it should not come at the cost of losing good tillable land.

“Think about it,” Emily said. “We are more energy independent now due to what farmers grow to create ethanol.”

Emily said the country must do a better job of determining where frac sand mines are placed.

The Fishler Dairy is located in Bridgeport Township near a recently permitted frac sand mine.

The youngest 2014 Crawford County Dairy Princess candidate was Brooke Mohr. She is the 15-year-old daughter of Ron and Darcy Mohr of rural Prairie du Chien. She enjoys FFA, FCCLA, volleyball and riding horses.

Brooke helps raise calves and enjoys helping on her Grandma Beers’ farm, She was sponsored by the Beers Dairy Farm from Steuben.

For her part, Brooke told those gathered at the banquet last Sunday night that she looked forward to working with consumers and sampling dairy products. She also would hope to provide an explanation of what milking cows on the farm entails.

“As Dairy Princess, I would like to have a day when people could come to the farm and see for themselves how things are done,” Brooke Mohr said.

The 2014 Crawford County Little Miss Squirt Contest celebrated its sixteenth year in existence at the Dairy Banquet.

Grace Zinkle was crowned the 2014 Crawford County Little Miss Squirt.  She is a nine-year-old third grade student at Wauzeka-Steuben Elementary School. Her parents, Ryan and Kym Zinkle,  live on a 424-acre dairy farm in rural Steuben, where they milk 160 cows three times a day in a Swing-12 parlor.  Grace helps on her farm by feeding cows and calves. Her sponsor is her family farm, the Zinkle Dairy LLC.

Riley Rea Tower is the 2014 Little Miss Squirt Attendant. She is the 10-year-old daughter of John and Cathy Tower of DeSoto. Riley has two older brothers and is being sponsored by Kevin Walleser, rural DeSoto.

The newly crowned dairy royalty's first public appearance will be greeting guests Saturday, June 7 at the Crawford County Dairy Breakfast, hosted by the Jim and Jean Moret Family Farm, located  south of Prairie du Chien on Highway18.

In addition the Dairy Princess and Little Miss Squirt Contestants for 2014, last year’s Dairy Princess Jessica Steeger and last year’s Lil Miss Squirt Kayla Beers, as well as their attendants were also on hand for the event. More royalty in attendance included the Crawford County Fairest of the Fair, Wisconsin Fairest of the Fair Kaitlyn Riley and Wisconsin Jersey Queen Miranda Randall.