The 62nd聽annual Winneshiek County Dairy Banquet will be held Saturday at the Festina Community Center. The meal will be served at 7 p.m., followed by the program which will include door prizes, awards and the crowing of the 2025 Winneshiek County Dairy royalty. The candidates include the following:
Ali Hageman
聽聽聽聽聽 South Winneshiek student Ali Hageman is the 10-year-old daughter of Ryan and Beth Hageman of Calmar, who farm 140 acres of corn and grass hay.
聽聽聽聽聽 Ali is a member of the Prairie Shooting Stars 4-H Club where she enjoys participating in the club events. Ali is excited to show animals at the fair for the first time this year on top of playing softball, volleyball, and being in school plays. She has been a member of the Girl Scout Troop 2420 for the last four years and loves to sell the organization's cookies in the spring.
聽聽聽聽聽 Ali鈥檚 chores on the farm consist of helping her older brother with the animals and assisting her dad with many different tasks, including moving equipment in the fields during manure hauling season. Ali likes to drive the skid loader and tractor and help keep the other farm equipment and shop clean.
聽聽聽聽聽 If Ali isn鈥檛 reading, drawing, working with her animals or playing with the family's baby kittens, she enjoys hanging out with friends or playing volleyball.
Hayden Schmitt
聽聽聽聽聽 Hayden Schmitt, the 7-year-old son of Chris and Lexi Schmitt of Ossian, attends school at St Teresa of Calcutta. He has three brothers and one sister. Their family farm consists of milking cows, heifers and calves along with 200 Holstein steers and 650 feeders.聽 They farm about 1200 acres of corn and 300 acres of hay and oats.聽 They sell the milk from their 350 cows to Wapsie Valley Creamery.
聽聽聽聽聽 He is a member of the Co-Champions 4-H club as a clover kid and works hard on taming his calves and creating static projects to bring to the fair. On the farm, Hayden helps feed calves, working with his fair animals and riding in the feed truck.
聽聽聽聽聽 In school, he likes playing baseball and football and being part of the Missoula Children鈥檚 Theatre. He attends Stavanger Lutheran Sunday School and in his free time, enjoys building Legos, reading and ranger rides.
Tristan Moellers
聽聽聽聽聽 Tristan Moellers, a student at St Teresa of Calcutta, is the 8-year-old son of Dustin and Katie Moellers of Ossian. He has two younger brothers. R&D Dairy raise corn and alfalfa and have around 700 head of cows, heifers, and calves. The milk from the 300 head of Holsteins is sold to Wapsie Valley Creamery.
聽聽聽聽聽 His farm duties include feeding and bedding calves, sorting fresh cows, scraping the holding pen, helping milk in the parlor and any other jobs that his dad or grandpa can find for him.
聽聽聽聽聽 When not on the farm, Tristan plays football and wrestles with the Warrior Mat Club. He loves to go camping, swimming, fishing, and turkey or deer hunting.
Parker Mashek
聽聽聽聽聽 Parker Mashek鈥檚 farm, Hilltop Acres, milks 450 Brown Swiss cows, runs roughly 1000 acres of hay and corn and sells their milk to DFA.聽 He is the 9-year-old son of Josh and Gina Mashek of Calmar and attends South Winneshiek School.聽聽 He has two brothers and one sister.
聽聽聽聽聽 You can find him feeding calves, collecting eggs, taking care of the cats, dogs and rabbits or working with his show heifers. He鈥檚 also in charge of gates when it comes to scraping and bedding the heifer pens.
聽聽聽聽聽 When chores are done, you can find Parker in the show ring with his Clover Kids Bucket Bottle Calves, playing baseball, reading, fishing or ice fishing, or playing outside with his siblings.
Hanna Vagts
聽聽聽聽聽 Hanna Vagts, a junior at South Winneshiek, is the daughter of Derrick and Sara Vagts. She has one brother and one sister. She works for Walz Dairy where they milk 160 cows and sell their milk to Wapsie Valley. She also has milked for Irish Grove Dairy and they milk 200 cows and sell their milk to Foremost Farms.
聽聽聽聽聽 She currently serves as the South Winneshiek 第一吃瓜网 Secretary and Co-Champion 4-H Club Vice President while actively involved in the Winneshiek Co Youth Beef Team, Iowa Holstein Association, Hereford Association and Winneshiek County 4-H Council. After high school she plans on attending Iowa State for Dairy Science/Ag Business. She is sponsored by Luana Savings Bank.