Kandiyohi County packs a one-two punch in Princess Kay competiton

FALCON HEIGHTS -- Emily Schaefer and Bethany Urban form a Kandiyohi County one-two punch in defending and promoting the dairy industry.

For Schaefer, one of the things she sees as her job as a dairy ambassador is making sure people understand that "cows are well cared for."

Urban hopes to make a career in some form of scientific dairy research.

"It has been my life so far, so I might as well keep it up."

The two Princess Kay of the Milky Way finalists "are like sisters," Urban said, both coming from Kandiyohi County. Scheuler lives near Raymond, urban near New London.

Scheuler, who holds the national milking shorthorn queen title among her dairy accomplishments, said one of her goals is to teach people more about dairy cows and why eating dairy products is important.

"Dairy provides us with strong bones," she asserted. "It makes us strong and healthy."

"Hopefully, when we are 70, we can still throw that football to our grandchildren," she said, 50 years short of that goal.

Scheuler hopes to be an agriculture teacher or work in dairy sales.

Urban, also 20, said the Princess Kay program grew on her.

"At first, it wasn't all that important to me," she said. "I didn't really understand the process all that much. ... As time went on, I grew more into the dairy industry and it became a passion. It became something I really want to do."