Senior, University of Wisconsin-Platteville Fall intern with Genex Cooperative Based in Shawano, Wisconsin Background Q. In what area are you pursuing a degree? I'm studying animal science with a dairy emphasis and an agri-business minor. Q. What is your agricultural background? I grew up on an 80-cow family dairy farm outside of Argyle, Wisconsin. When the farm was sold in 2000, I began to help with relief milking with my dad, and this lead to a part-time position at Bru-Hill Dairy in Argyle. I worked here throughout high school and continued to be involved in the industry during college where I worked at Berning Livestock in Cuba City, Wisconsin.

Hometown: Wendell, Idaho My dairy background: My grandpa started dairying 45 years ago in Southern California. My family has been dairying in Idaho since 1987. We then moved to Idaho in 1992. Year in school and area of study: I'm currently a second year dairy science major with concentrations in processing and husbandry. If I wasn't studying dairy, I would be ... most likely would be working on my family’s dairy, but I also wanted to be an engineer when I was younger.

On approximately 450 acres of cropland nestled in the fields of Burlington, Wisconsin, a man and wife are able to farm as one with some credit to agriculture educational programs much like Annie’s Project. Ed and Dawn Noble own and operate Lone Chestnut Farms, LLC, a dairy farm where they milk an average of 120 head of Holstein cattle and grow corn, soybeans, winter wheat and hay.

Minnie Ward is a regional calf and heifer specialist for FAMO Feeds, Inc. Six years ago, Ward and her husband, Randy, began a calf-raising operation near Rochester, Minnesota. She recently spoke at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) Calf Care Workshops in Wisconsin, sharing the lessons she’s learned from installing one of the first automated calf feeders in the country.

Age: 48 Location: Middleton, Wisconsin. We can see the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison from our farm. My dairy’s history: Blue Star Dairy Farms was established in 1976 by my mother and father-in-law, who had been dairy farming for 30 years, incorporated with their five sons. Over time we’ve become a family partnership which now has three of the brothers and two nephews as partners.

For Progressive Dairyman's Women in Dairy issue (November 21), I asked members of the dairy blogging community to describe their female icons of the dairy industry. Below were the responses we received. I couldn't resist also giving a shoutout to my own female dairy hero, my mom. She's pictured at right with, from left, my sister-in-law Kelly, me (can you tell I'm her daughter?) and my younger sister Sarah. The photo was taken at the 2010 Women in Dairy Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

What if the next Bond girl was not a woman, but a bovine? Dairyman Ryan Bright and his blogging undercover bovines believe it’s completely possible. Bright works with his dad and uncle, Douglas and Edward Bright, on a 100-cow dairy in Philadelphia, Tennessee. Bright created a witty blog in November 2010, called The Udder Side, where he writes about fictitious undercover adventures of his herd from a cow’s perspective. “I thought I could do something a little off-centered and be more creative than just, ‘Here’s what I did today on the farm,’” Bright says. “That made it more fun for me to write about and still try to get information to non-agricultural people. They can find something good about the farm and find something to laugh about as well.”