June is Dairy Month, and what a great way to start it by crowning a new Dairy Princess at the Ward O'Hara Agricultural Museum's Old Ways Days event.

Crowned as Dairy Princess was Molly O'Hara, a junior at Union Springs High School. The ceremony also introduced the new ambassadors:Rachel Yale; daughter of Tom and Cindy Yale of Poplar Ridge; Sarah Fessenden, daughter of John and Marianne Fessenden of King Ferry; and returning ones: Emily Young, daughter of Jim and Larraine Young of Fleming, and Annie O'Hara, sister of Molly.

We heard from Jill Thomas, daughter of Gregg and Kelly Thomas of Union Springs, and myself - now the former princess, who will help Molly as one of the alternate princesses.

Molly is the daughter of Ted and Jill O'Hara. Her father owns O'Hara Dairy in Auburn. I think it is neat that she is also the granddaughter of Ward O'Hara - which the museum is named after. I'm sure he would be proud of the family tradition carried on here.

Molly is very knowledgeable about dairy products and the dairy industry, and I believe she will do a great job. She will represent Cayuga County at the state pageant in February, and will continue this monthly column - so you will hear from her soon.

In other news:

€ Our June Baby contest has just happened. Tuesday, June 5, our first baby of June has finally arrived. Congratulations to the new mother, Sarah Stevens, and her baby boy. I was present to deliver a “got milk” gift to the pair as a reminder of June as Dairy Month.

€ Last month we had a “Milk for Moms” contest and offered free milk for a week as gifts for Mother's Day. We had about 600 entries from elementary schools all over the district, and it was so fun to read what each child wrote as to why their mom deserved to win. I gave out two winners: one at AJ Smith Elementary School to Danny Marquart and mom, Amy, and Cayuga Elementary School to Chloe Chamberlain and mom Stacey.

In celebration of Dairy Month, remember to thank a dairy farmer for the nutritious, nearly perfect drink they supply. New York's No. 1 agriculture industry is dairy farming. In Cayuga County there are 30,000 cows producing 610 million pounds of milk each year - that's 76 million gallons of milk or enough to give everyone in the city of Auburn more than 100 glasses a day.

So remember to get your 3-A-Day; that's three servings a day of milk, cheese and yogurt.

Lindsay Young is last year's Cayuga County Dairy Princess.