DANE, Wis. — Under overcast skies on a southern Wisconsin farm, several Girl Scouts earned a dairy badge — the first of its kind awarded in Wisconsin.
For Babett Loesh, one of those Girl Scouts, learning about dairy operations this past week was a big deal.
“I have lived next to a barn my entire life so there's always cows there and I think it'll be interesting to learn about it," she said. "It's been a part of my life, but I've never really explored it."
Just like milk and cookies, Wisconsin and dairy go hand in hand.
“It'll be nice because it'll be a little culture, Wisconsin culture if you will, so it'll be fun,” Loesh said.
The Girl Scouts learned about dairy operations last Saturday on John Haag's Dane County dairy farm.
“The main reason we're doing this is exposing these kids to careers in the dairy industry; it's not just about cows and plows. There's a whole other area of careers that would be very rewarding careers,” Haag said.
The girls learned about nutrition, herd management, technology and several other topics from a total of 10 different presenters.
“We're just kind of taking every chance we can to promote our product and kind of talk about how we do it and why we do it and how much pride we take in producing a quality product,” Haag said.
For the past four years, the Dane County Dairy Promotions Committee worked with Girl Scouts to donate milk and cookies to food banks. It was in that work they realized there was no dairy badge for Girl Scouts in the Dairy State.
“So we thought we've got to do something about this,” said Yogi Brown, a dairy farmer with the group.
Brown hopes the event excites some future agriculture workers.
“I'm hoping that's what the girls find out here today," Brown said.
Brown hopes some of the girls will be able to walk away from the day and be able to think, "Hey, I'm not from agriculture, but there's some really cool opportunities."
At the end of the day, every young scout got a dairy patch, given to them by Alice in Dairyland.
“It's a great feeling to see all the kids come out and take an interest in the dairy industry like this,” Haag said.
The number of girls participating in this inaugural dairy patch was limited because of the pandemic. Next year they hope to expand and take the event state-wide
For Girl Scouts in the inaugural group, it was special to be the first dairy patch recipients.
“There's so many Girl Scouts— so to be like one of the first, that's pretty awesome,” Loesh said.