One of the owners of a Maryland family dairy operation was honored at World Dairy Expo last week at the 2012 Dairy Woman of the Year.

Mary Shank Creek owns and operates Palmyra Farm in Hagerstown with her husband, Mike and brother and sister-in-law, Ralph Jr. and Terrie Shank, as well of all of their children. “We are strictly a family farm,” said Mary, pictured here with Alice in Dairyland, during an interview at expo. “We have no outside employees, we do it all ourselves.”

As a 3rd and 4th generation family farm, Palmyra has been home to registered Ayrshires for 48 years and Holsteins for 19 years. “It is a totally registered herd,” she said. “We do a lot of marketing and merchandising of the cattle and we now have also started our own little niche market cheese business.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Mary here: Dairy Woman of the Year Mary Shank Creek

In addition to International Dairy Person of the Year Dr. Abelardo Martinez featured in the previous post, other Recognition Award Winners this year included Dairyman of the Year John Fiscalini of Modesto, California and Dairy Industry Person of the Year Dr. Sheila McGuirk with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

2012 World Dairy Expo Photo Album