Passion for animals launches dairy journey

ZUMBRO FALLS, Minn. — After shadowing multiple large animal veterinarians and realizing they all had a background in dairy, Nicole Hauschildt decided she also needed to get experience on a dairy farm.

“I’ve always been super into animals,” Hauschildt said. “Whatever I could do, I’ve just wanted to be around livestock. … The dairy community is super inviting, and they just want to teach you. They want to get you into it. … They’re very including.”

Hauschildt began milking for Irish Ridge Dairy, operated by the Sexton family — Vince and Sheri, Staci, and Lance and Kayla — near Millville. Hauschildt had previously leased dairy cattle from the family. Through her time on the dairy, Hauschildt has decided to pursue a career in dairy cattle genetics and become a breeder instead of a veterinarian.

“I made my whole future plan cows,” Hauschildt said.

Now, a year into milking twice a day on the farm when she is not in college at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls, Hauschildt has been named a finalist for the 72nd Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

“Talking to the consumers … and spreading the dairy messages, I think that’ll be super fun,” Hauschildt said. “(Also) watching people stare at me while getting my head sculpted in 90 pounds of butter, that’ll be interesting.”

Hauschildt lives on her family’s hobby farm with her parents, Stephanie and Chad Domke.

She will graduate with a degree in biomedical and health science with a minor in dairy science next year. She said her target audience as a dairy princess will be high school and new college students.

“New, upcoming consumers are super important,” Hauschildt said. “Speaking as a college student, we’re broke, but you can’t just eat ramen every day. ... It’s super important to focus on telling them that they need to eat dairy products.”

Hauschildt said this advice extends even to dairy treats.

“People say that ice cream is not that healthy, but it’s still giving you those 13 essential nutrients,” Hauschildt said. “Eat the ice cream.”

Overall, she said dairy nutrition is the key message she wants to share as a princess.

“Dairy is super important for your body, and it’s super important to drink (milk),” Hauschildt said. “It helps with growing bodies, growing minds.”

Ice cream and chocolate milk are her favorite dairy foods to consume.

“I just really want to thank (dairy farmers) for the hard work and the dedication that they put into supplying us with our dairy foods,” Hauschildt said. “We drink a lot of milk around here.”

Hauschildt was with her fellow Wabasha County dairy royalty at her princess coordinator’s home, having a watch party of the online Princess Kay finalist announcement when she found out she was a finalist. Hauschildt was the last person to be named a finalist in the announcement — which is in no particular order.

“I got to like the eighth person, I’m like, ‘This is it, guys, I didn’t make it,’” Hauschildt said. “We waited, and then the 10th person, they said something about shooting and riding horses. And it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, that was me.’ We were screaming. It was great.”

Hauschildt has been riding horses her whole life. She has done barrel racing and is part of the UWRF Block & Bridle club on campus. She also has been shooting trap since high school. Next year she will be an officer on her college trap team.

Hauschildt said she was absolutely flabbergasted to be named a finalist.

Besides working for the Sextons, Hauschildt has also participated in FFA and is pursuing her American FFA degree. She has shown most animals at some point in her life, including dairy animals. Her first year showing a dairy calf, she took grand champion in showmanship.

On her family’s hobby farm, she once raised around 17 dairy calves. She also has raised a variety of other species, including market chickens. Currently, she works on a deer farm as well as the Sexton family’s dairy.

Hauschildt said the character quality she believes will help her the most if she is named the next Princess Kay, is dedication.

“I work three jobs,” Hauschildt said. “I always make it to milking. I milk every single day, twice a day. So, that shows dedication, hard work. That really sets you up.”

As she prepares for Princess Kay judging in August, Hauschildt will be focusing on further educating herself on dairy sustainability and genetics.

“I really want to learn more about the stuff that not everybody sees,” Hauschildt said. “(I want to) see how (genetics) impacts everyday herds, how to make them better, and how to get the word out about a lot of things these farmers have been doing.”