KASSON, Minn. — A Triton High حلحلآ» graduate is putting on a show to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the dairy cow arriving to the Plymouth Colony.
Women always have played significant roles in agriculture. While the stereotypical farmer or rancher in recent centuries became male, women have continued to raise livestock, plant crops, feed crews, perform financial and bookkeeping tasks and more. The 2022 Census of Agriculture says 36% of producers are women, which may be an underrepresentation of women's contributions to farms and ranches. In this series, we introduce some of the women in agriculture in our region.
The dairy show is open to all Minnesota FFA members to compete, and will take place June 6 and 7 at the Dodge County Fairgrounds in Kasson.
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Day one of the event will feature a showmanship contest in the afternoon followed by a burger meal and awards ceremony. Day two will showcase Holstein and other breeds shows and Supreme Drive. So far, the event has around 30 students scheduled to participate and around 70 animals.
Manager of the show is Cadence Spearman, a graduating senior from Triton High حلحلآ». The show is Spearman's senior project, which is required of all the school's graduates to give practical experience in a career field they are interested in.
"I decided to do a youth dairy show dedicated to FFA members in the state of Minnesota," Spearman said. "I have a passion for the dairy industry, and would love to get back to it since it's given so much to me."
Spearman got the idea to put on a youth show from her FFA advisor, Robert Ickler.
"I wanted to do something with dairy cattle, and I wanted to do something with the FFA group, so he kind of pitched the idea to me of, 'Should we do a show?'" Spearman said of Ickler. "He was kind of an inspiration in that way."
Ickler was also the impetus for the title of the show, which came from a fact in the University of Minnesota’s 4-H knowledge manual, which the state's FFA members use to prepare for dairy Career Development Events.
"The idea came from studying with my dairy team three years ago, when they were getting ready for state competition," Ickler said of the group which included Spearman. "One of those trivia questions is, what year did the dairy cow come to Plymouth Colony? And that was 1624."
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For Spearman — who has spent most of her life showing animals — planning the event has been "stressful" at times.
"I've never really realized how hard it was to plan a show," she said. "This project kind of humbled me and has been a source of appreciating what all these people do for these youth, and these organizations."
She credited the small businesses and communities of West Concord, Dodge Center and Claremont for helping to raise $12,000 to help put on the show.
Spearman put together a and advertisements for the show, which she said was also a new learning experience for her.
"That's another thing I gained from this project, as well as software design, advertisement, communications, directing, presiding over meetings — all the things that you can get from FFA, that I kind of strengthened with this senior project," Spearman said.
Spearman works at Gochnauer Farms owned by Jacob and Megan Gochnauer, and she said without them, she wouldn't have the love that she does for dairy cows. The family is also supporting the event by supplying food for the Thursday dinner.
"I owe it to these guys, Gochnauer Farms, for getting me into this industry at such a young age and just paving the way, because if I wouldn't have started here, I wouldn't be doing this project right now," said Spearman, who grew up on a pork, beef and crop farm. "I got into dairy when I was about 13 years old."
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At the end of summer, Spearman will depart for South Dakota State University where she'll be majoring in animal science with a minor in communications.
"I don't know what career the future holds for me, but it's something in agriculture, and something that's going to help out the farmers," she said.
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