The Washington County Fairgrounds is familiar territory to the Evers family of Banks.

The fair is only four days long, but the Evers kids have spent the whole year getting ready. Actually, their whole lives.

Stefani, Mitchell, Jamie and Andy Evers were born into it, having been raised on a dairy, where the farm isn’t just their job, it’s their life.

The Evers kids run the dairy with their mom, Candace, and the help of two other employees.

Stefani switches off with her sister Jamie and feeds the calves every other morning and night. She also hauls hay, drives the tractor, does odd jobs, takes care of a lot of the cow breeding and takes charge of the calf care.

She’s got a lot to balance — duties that come with her role as Washington County Dairy Princess, work on the farm, Future Farmers of America events, school, homework — but on the farm, working with the cows is where she wants to be.

“People don’t realize how hard farmers work to feed the world, and they rarely get thanked,” Stefani said. “Some people do appreciate it, but some people just have no idea. A lot of people have no idea where food comes from.”

Stefani Evers worked full days at the fair this year, too. In a way, it’s just like at the farm. She was busy last week showing her dairy calves, participating in tractor driving contests and FFA events. She judged contests, worked at the Dairy Farmers of Oregon booth, and, best of all, executed the duties of Washington County Diary Princess, something she has wanted since she was a little girl watching the contest.

To win the title of county dairy princess, she met the requirements of living or working on a farm, having a 4-H or FFA project or having a parent in the industry, then prepared a speech and television commercial and answered questions on stage at an event in April.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a really long time,” she said. “I was extremely happy — I don’t even know the word to describe it. I was overjoyed.”

The role of dairy princess is an increasingly important one. As more people visit the fair to see the animals but an ever-decreasing amount grow up on farms, making their living from livestock and raising calves into cows, Stefani takes her role of educating the public about the dairy industry seriously.

She hopes appearing at events like the fair and in classrooms, where she teaches kids about dairying, will help spread knowledge and make things a little easier for farmers.

“People are building on farmland, but people need to realize if you don’t have farms you don’t have food,” Stefani said.

From dairy kid to vet

Her brother Mitchell is also working to inform people about agriculture to help the industry progress. Now serving as the vice president of Oregon FFA, he will be traveling for the next nine months throughout the state, the U.S. and internationally to serve as an agricultural ambassador and promoting awareness about farming.

After participating in FFA throughout his career at Banks High School, Mitchell decided to take the opportunity after graduating to give back to the organization that added so much to his personal development.

He is hoping to inspire students as he and his fellow state FFA officers visit every high school in the state with an agricultural program.

“Less than 2 percent of the U.S. public is directly involved with production agriculture, and by 2050 the ag industry is expected to feed the projected 9 billion people on this planet,” Mitchell explained. “Where we are right now is not going to work. We have to be progressive and people need to know that.”

Mitchell will start at Oregon State University’s Honors College when he is done with his vice presidential duties and plans to pursue veterinary medicine — a passion he discovered on the dairy farm.

Stefani also wants to go to college after she graduates from Banks High next spring, but she isn’t sure where yet. She knows she wants to pursue an agriculture-related field, though. And at just 16 years old, she has time to decide.

The future of dairies is up in the air. Neither Mitchell nor Stefani is sure whether or not they want to take over the family farm. Mitchell plans to stay busy being a vet. And while Stefani loves the cows and the farm, she is still thinking about what else might be out there.

Candace passed down her appreciation for the dairy, the animals and the farm, lessons that helped teach her children compassion, work ethic and responsibility for life, but admits she would someday like her schedule to be her own.

“Everything is dictated by the animals. You’re not in control of your own plans,” she said. “There is never enough time to get all the work done and never enough time left over for family time.”

Still, Stefani experiences a feeling of accomplishment when she knows how much she’s done in a day.

What does she like to do when she’s done working? That rarely happens.