After a visit in early June to participate in Dairy on the Capitol, newly crowned Dairy Princess Madison Sleeman also visited the Warren County Courthouse declaring June as Dairy Month. Her dedication to the industry has been a lifelong endeavor that she plans to advocate for years to come.

Madison Sleeman has experience as Warren County Dairy Princess.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her 2020 term wasn’t the experience Sleeman wanted. Now, six years later, she’s ready to promote the county’s agricultural community to the fullest. The 22-year-old graduate of PA Cyber left traditional public school in order to work while she finished school.

Employed at Dairy One, Sleeman is a Dairy Herds Improvement Technician where she conducts testing by taking samples of the milk for farmers before it is sent off to the lab and tested for various things. Sleeman has been at this job for three years but around dairy farms her whole life. She grew up on her grandparents’ farm, known as Pine Shade Dairy or the Sleeman Family Farm.

“We’ve had a tester up at my grandparents’ farm up on Yankee Bush,” she said. “We’ve had him for my whole life, so I kind of knew about it. I was just looking for something that was in the dairy field, and this is what came up, so it all kind of fell in place.”

Sleeman said she was Dairy Princess in 2020 but due to COVID, despite promoting as much as she could through social media, it was not the experience it should have been. On the dairy promotion course from a very young age, Sleeman was the dairy princess runner-up in 2021. Getting the chance to experience the position properly is rewarding in itself for Sleeman. Her crowning ceremony took place at the Lander Church in May.

Promoting the idea of not just eating dairy, but making sure that the farms are not lost, Sleeman pointed out that dairy farms are declining all over the place. This challenge makes it difficult, she said, which makes it all the more necessary to keep promoting and stay positive for the ones that we do have. The Fill a Glass with Hope campaign, a foundation that continuously raises money for getting milk into local food pantries in Warren County, is one of the most important contributions to giving back to the community, said Sleeman. The foundation took such a big leap, a bigger leap than what anybody expected.

“It’s an amazing program, because there’s such a high demand for food and milk in our food pantries in Warren County that nobody really recognizes, so being able to be the one to help get that there is very meaningful to me,” Sleeman said.

If it weren’t for our farmers, we would not have food on our tables. Sleeman commented that dairy farms are the most needed industry in the world.

“But we are unfortunately one of the most frowned upon. Dairy farming is most needed because it doesn’t just create jobs on the farm but it creates hundreds of jobs around the world.”

Sleeman said the thing she looks forward to the most is to do the school promotions. A busy schedule of both promoting during her reign along with her job, she pointed out that the year will be fast but good, and that she and the girls on her court this year are eager to learn.

“We have a dairy maid, who has been in it for a couple years, and she is just growing every year. Her ability to talk to people and willingness to talk to people at such a young age is so amazing to see,” Sleeman said.

A passion from an early age, Sleeman has chosen to promote the dairy industry far beyond her current reign. When asked where she sees herself in the next 10 years, she answered, “I can see myself still promoting the dairy industry and still running the family farm, Pine Shade Dairy. I want to be that advocate for the dairy industry.”

Sleeman encouraged people to reach out with questions, or to schedule the court for an event, by contacting them on their Facebook page.