Newton youth wins two titles at 2021 Miss United States Agriculture state pageant

A Newton youth has earned the crown for 2021 Iowa Junior Miss United States Agriculture and earned the 2021 Iowa people’s Choice Miss United States Agriculture.

Mackenzie Cupples, 12, traveled to Maryville, Mo. in November to compete in the state pageant with girls from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. About 40 girls competed in this year’s competition from the 70 who had originally signed up, some of whom could not attend because of concerns surrounding the ongoing pandemic.

The pageant kept safety in mind as the girls from the four states competed. All were required to wear masks, the number of contestants on stage were limited and a safe distance was kept between all the competitors.

Cupples is the daughter of Brian and Heather and is currently a seventh grader at Berg Middle School. Apart from winning the two titles at this year’s competition, she was in the top three for Iowa Miss Congeniality, Overall Junior and Overall People’s Choice.

“It was a really good honor cause I did so much for Miss United States Agriculture this year even with the COVID restrictions. As a county representative, it really felt great to now represent the whole state of Iowa in my age division,” Cupples said.

For the pageant, she had to compete in several different divisions, formal wear, fun fashion, pop question and introductions. Of the different categories, fun fashion was by far Cupples favorite.

“You get to choose something that describes you and where you’re from. It just shows your personality,” she said.

She decided to dress up as a wind turbine this year. She donned a white jumpsuit and wore wind blades made out of cardstock.

To earn the title of 2021 Iowa people’s Choice Miss United States Agriculture, Cupples had to put in a lot of work before the competition started. The title is bestowed to the contestant who raised the most monetary donations and/or collects food items for the Missouri ministry organization. Cupples collected 1,083 non-perishable food items. The family said it took two vehicles just to transport the items to the competition.

The Miss United States Agriculture pageant program is designed to celebrate the agriculture industry while also promoting self-esteem and building strong leaders in local farmers. The program also helps by awarding scholarships to encourage the pursuit of education.

“As well as utilizing our vision: An advocacy program for women to teach and enhance the American Agriculture story,” state director Holly Hatfield said.

Cupples received a $500 scholarship to be used for her to pursue her future agriculture journeys.

Her mother, Heather, described the experience as a “neat” way for these girls involved in the pageant to help push agriculture and inspire the next generation of female farmers.

“It’s to also help bring women into agriculture and promote them a little bit more because they’re kind of the underdog in this industry,” she said.

Cupples lives in rural Newton on her family farm of row crops and cattle. She also keeps her own “funny farm” which includes animals like fainting goats. She has been an active member of the Sherman Sunbeams 4-H club for the past four years. She currently is the photographer for the club. She has shown animals like swine, cattle, rabbits and goats at the county fair. She has also completed multiple citizenship projects for her 4-H Club.

Cupples is also active in her school as a member of Berg’s student council and is in the choir, where she serves as seventh grade president.

And now she has the Miss United States Agriculture pageant to add to her list of accomplishments.

“The experience was really good. You got to meet more people. You got to learn more skills, learn more about agriculture,” Cupples said.

Cupples will travel to Florida in June to compete in the national competition. For more information about the upcoming national competition or about the program in general, visit missusag.org.

Contact Pam Pratt at 641-792-3121 ext. 6530 or pampratt@newtondailynews.com