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ST PAUL — McLeod County's Rachel Visser was crowned the 71st Princess Kay of the Milky Way. 

The sophomore at the University of Minnesota from Hutchinson was honored during an evening ceremony on Aug. 21 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, in an unofficial kickoff to the The Great Minnesota Get-Together, also referred to as the Minnesota State Fair.

Visser, who is majoring in agricultural and food business management and agricultural communications and marketing, will serve as the official goodwill ambassador for the nearly 1,800 Minnesota dairy farm families. 

"It almost doesn't feel real," Visser said a few minutes after being crowned. "I'm so excited for the next 12 days at the State Fair, and the next year ahead will be super exciting. I was super shocked and super surprised, but it was a super incredible feeling. Looking out into the crowd and seeing my parents and the people that have supported me was incredible."

Visser, who didn't grow up on a dairy farm, got involved with the industry and quickly grew to love it. In the summer, she works with Chad and Stacy Bohn of Litchfield on their farm, where they milk 27 cows and focus on developing a high-quality show herd. 

"I showed my first Jersey calf 11 years ago, and I fell in love with the hard working dairy farmers, and I wanted to learn everything about what they did to produce healthy dairy products," Visser said. "I'm super excited to share the dairy story — not only my story, but from farmers across the state of Minnesota."

Nine county dairy princesses from throughout Minnesota competed for the Princess Kay of the Milky Way title. Katie Ketchum of Altura, representing Winona County, and Grace Woitalla of Avon, representing Stearns County, were selected as runners-up.

Noah Fish / Agweek

Visser, Ketchum and Woitalla were also named scholarship winners. Mackenzie Moline of Saint Peter, representing Nicollet County, was named Miss Congeniality.

Throughout her year-long reign as Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Visser will make public appearances to help connect consumers to Minnesota’s dairy farm families. Her first official duty as Princess Kay will be to sit in a rotating cooler in the dairy building at the State Fair to have her likeness sculpted in a 90-pound block of butter by sculptor Gerry Kulzer. 

Other finalists for Princess Kay were Miranda Schroeder, Caledonia, representing Houston County; McKenna Wright, Hutchinson, representing McLeod County; Selena Corona, Saint Joseph, representing Stearns County; Katelyn Welgraven, Ruthton, representing Pipestone County; and Afton Nelson, Owatonna, representing Steele County.