Grand champion from Buchanan

CASSOPOLIS — How much is a gallon of milk worth?

For Dowagiac’s Christina Preston, a lot more than you would think.

The 18-year-old said she has paid for half of her college tuition through 13 years worth of auctions at the Cass County Fair.

She will likely be making another deposit to her college fund after having the Grand Champion Other Breed during Monday’s Dairy Show at the fair. The top animals often attract the largest bids at fair auctions, which come later in the week. For dairy animals, auctions come in the form of a gallon of milk from the animal.

“Every time I get a check it goes straight into the bank account for college,” said Preston, a 2014 graduate of Dowagiac Union High School. “Half of my tuition came from the fair, the other half scholarships.”

Preston will be attending Lake Michigan College in Benton Township to study pre-pharmacy. She will also play on the college’s soccer team.

“The fair has been very important for me. My brothers and sisters showed, so I’ve always been at the fair since I was a little girl,” she said.

Her winning animal was a Brown Swiss named Sunny — after a sunflower. She said all the Brown Swiss at her uncle’s farm are named after flowers.

Buchanan’s Mike Carpenter was the other big winner during Monday’s Dairy Show.

His animal, named Banana Split, was named Grand Champion Holstein.

Carpenter, 20, named the Holstein Banana Split because she could not support herself when she was born. She would fall split style to the ground. To fix the problem, Carpenter said they put her in a water trough to keep her from falling while building her strength.

“A couple weeks in the trough and she was fine. I never thought she’d be a grand champion,” said Carpenter, whose win was his first at the Cass County Fair.

Also in the Dairy Show, Edwardsburg’s Brett Bowman was named the top showman for his ability to display the animal to the judges. The win places him in Saturday’s large animal showmanship sweepstakes where individual animal showman winners show all animals with hopes of becoming the grand champion showman.

Bowman, 18, has been the Dairy Showman the past seven years, but has never won the large animal showmanship sweepstakes. He’s finished second three times and third twice, including last year.

“I’m not got to be so serious about it this time,” said Bowman, who graduated from Edwardsburg High School this year.

He will be attending Holy Cross College in the fall.