Alice in Dairyland promotes food, other farm Christmas gifts

Holiday gift giving can take many forms, aside from clothing or toys. In Wisconsin, many families may give or get food products, coming from the state’s dairy farms.

The state’s reigning Alice in Dairyland, Halei Heinzel of Oconomowoc, is busy this time of year promoting all types of presents grown or made in the Badger State.

“I love talking about our state’s dairy farmers,” Heinzel said during a recent visit to the WIZM studios, “but we also get to talk about all sorts of things that we grow in Wisconsin. We love talking about specialty crops, like our Christmas trees, our cranberries, and all those other things, our commodity crops like corn and soybeans. There’s really just so much to love when it comes to the diversity of Wisconsin agriculture.”

Heinzel is about halfway through her year of service as the 77th “Alice in Dairyland,” touring the country as a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection. During her La Crosse visit, she spoke about recent growth within the state’s farming industry.

“We went from having a $45.6 billion dairy industry to now a $52.8 billion dairy industry,” said Heinzel, “and 99 per cent of our farms in Wisconsin are still family owned. We have more family-owned dairy farms in Wisconsin than any other state.”

Heinzel says she has visited many schools so far the year, especially speaking to younger children about farming, but she also travels to urban communities to highlight the Wisconsin ag business.