Madison Sifford served as the 35th Hoard’s Dairyman editorial intern. She grew up in North Carolina before moving to Goldvein, Va., with her parents, Stephen and Rosemary, and younger sisters, Salem and Sedona. Her family raises Holsteins on their Plessed-Rose Dairy, and they also have a Hereferd cow-calf operation. Sifford’s extended family dairy farms in North Carolina, where her great-grandparents own George L. Pless & Sons Dairy.

On campus, she holds leadership positions for the Alpha Zeta sorority and the dairy club. She also competed on the university’s dairy judging team, earning second place individual honors at the national intercollegiate contest held at World Dairy Expo last fall. Sifford is active in the Virginia Junior Holstein Association, the Virginia Hereford Association, and she served as the Virginia Dairy Princess. She has held several jobs on campus and interned for two summers with the Fauquier County Cooperative Extension office.