CHENANGO COUNTY – Despite the cancellation of Dairy Day in Chenango County, a Dairy Princess was chosen to be an advocate for farmers across Chenango County. This year, Shelby Benjamin has been honored with the crown.

This year's pageant was a little different than normal. Instead of doing a live interview in front of a panel of judges, this year’s contestants had to record and submit a speech on a dairy-related topic, then have a Zoom interview with a single judge.

"I did [my speech] on how COVID has effected the farmers and kind of brought light to that. Then we did a Zoom meeting with a judge who asked us like 15 different questions. We had no idea what the questions were going to be; they were on the spot," said Benjamin.

According to Benjamin, this year there were just two contestants running, and one judge to make the decision.

This year’s judge was Lydia McEvoy, who co-owns Mac-Mara Holsteins with her husband and was the Oneida County Alternate Dairy Princess back when she was a competitor in the pageant.

"She chooses the one that would do the best job being an advocate for the farmers. Being a dairy princess is being an advocate between the general consumer and the farmer. So we're here to answer general questions that the consumer might not know, and promoting and showing what the farmers are doing back at the farms," said Benjamin.