From one generation to the next

NEW PRAGUE, Minn. — Alexis Hoefs is following in the footsteps of her mother as a finalist for Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

“Growing up, Princess Kay and the finalists were always role models to me,” Hoefs said. “Representing the dairy farmers and the work they do 365 days a year is so rewarding and is the least that I can do.”

Hoefs is the daughter of James and Lisa Hoefs. The family lives next door to the dairy farm on which James grew up and now farms full time with his parents and brothers. They milk 250 cows in a double-8 herringbone parlor. On the dairy they also raise all their own replacements and steers.

Hoefs and her siblings work on the farm and show some of the registered Holsteins managed with the larger grade herd. Hoef helps milk, move cows and calves, assists with pregnancy checks and manages the show herd.

In 2016, Hoefs’ grandpa and parents purchased a registered springing Holstein heifer in partnership as a show animal for the kids. The show herd grew from there.

“I love the people that I have gotten to meet showing,” Hoefs said. “Just entering the ring with an animal you have worked with all summer is such a great feeling, especially when it is an animal you bred and raised from the ground up.”

Hoefs is involved with the Minnesota Junior Holstein Association and served as president last year. She is also a member of the Gopher Dairy Club while on campus at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where she will be a junior this fall. She is majoring in animal science, with an emphasis in dairy production.

“It has been fun getting to know other young people interested in the dairy industry,” Hoefs said.

After graduation, Hoefs intends to work in dairy reproduction and genetics. This summer she is learning more about dairy genetics through an internship at a 3,500-cow dairy farm in New York.

“It is quite different from our farm, so I am learning a lot of things from calf care to herd management,” Hoefs said. “I work a lot in the maternity ward, take genomic samples, tag calves, help with pregnancy checks, (controlled internal drug release devices) and the in vitro fertilization room.”

The internship is one of the factors fueling Hoefs’ interest in the dairy industry. She has been attending the Princess Kay of the Milky Way coronation since she was in sixth grade. Her mother had her likeness sculpted in butter as a finalist in 2000, but the Hoefs family decided it was time to use up Lisa’s butterhead in 2020.

“Seeing that whole program in person for so many years, it became something that I definitely wanted to do,” Hoefs said. “I love the dairy industry so much.”

Hoefs has been a Le Sueur County Dairy Princess for the past two years and enjoys interacting with consumers, she said.

“A lot of them like to share about a farm event that they experienced or ask questions about my experience with life on the farm,” Hoefs said.

Having a variety of experiences under her belt, Hoefs said her main message, if selected as Princess Kay, will be that 97% of dairy farms are family owned and operated.

“I am the seventh generation to grow up on my family’s farm, so emphasizing that fact is really important to me,” Hoefs said. “Letting consumers know that dairy farms come in all sizes and shapes and all dairy farmers care for their animals and land and produce a high-quality product is a message worth sharing.”