Dairy Day in Washington
I'm Bob Larson. Older than the state itself, Washington's dairy industry is recognized by lawmakers in Olympia.
With nearly 62-hundred dairy jobs across the state, the Senate recognized the men and women who do those jobs on Washington's annual Dairy Day at the state capitol last Wednesday.
Republican Senator Randi Becker grew up on an Enumclaw dairy farm...
BECKER ... "We rode horses to get our cows in and our cows sometimes chased us on our horses and we had a lifestyle that is probably nonexistent today in so many ways."
Becker told the crowd it was a lot of fun AND a lot of work ...
BECKER ... "We had a creek that ran through our property and we ran barefoot and swam and would go and chase the heifers in and do all that hard work. I started carrying buckets of milk, the minute I could carry that bucket we started working."
Moses Lake Senator Judy Warnick shared some of her favorite memories ...
WARNICK ... "We had fifty-five cows which was a big dairy at that time. The cows didn't have numbers they had names and one of them, somehow, came with the name Judy and so I was a little offended by that, but it was, she was a special cow to me."
And, Warnick says, back in the day, she was a dairy princess ...
WARNICK ... "I still have my banner. I still have my crown."
The first creamery in our state opened in 1880.
On hand in the gallery were members of the Washington State Dairy Federation, Washington State Dairy Women, and state and county Dairy Ambassadors.
