Jons, a fourth-generation dairy farmer, owns his own dairy farm south of Basehor.

He spends his days milking, feeding and tending to his 70 head of cattle, as well as farming 175 acres of corn and hay.

“I guess you could say it’s an overgrown 4-H project,” he said.

When he was in 4-H, Jons was enrolled in several projects including dairy, electrical and hogs.

“I was in 4-H ’til they kicked me out because I was too old,” he said. “I always liked going to the fair. It was a learning process and taught good leadership.”

After his last year in 4-H, Jons agreed to be the open class dairy superintendent.

“I sat out for a couple of years, but they asked me back and I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.

The year after he graduated high school, he said he had planned to go to college.

“I was going to sell my heiffers to pay for college, but the price of heifers dropped,” he said.

Instead of going to college, Jons milked cows for a couple of years, then sold them to attend a technical school for heating and air conditioning.

“I was troubleshooting air conditioners over the phone to guys,” he said. “I knew I didn’t like the desk job, and I knew I would always come back to this.”

Jons said he spends at least five hours a day just milking and taking care of his cows. He must clean and maintain the milking equipment as well as prepare the farm equipment for the crops.

“The number of hours I spend working depends on the day and what needs to be done,” he said.

“There’s always something to do. It’s a hell of a lot of work,” he said. “The day goes by pretty fast.”

He said he stores the milk in refrigerated bulk tanks. The milk is picked up every other day.

“Most of our milk goes into fluid and is put under the Fairmont Roberts label,” he said.

On top of running his own dairy farm, Jons travels to educational programs and events such as World of Ag and Dairy Days at Kemper Arena.

“I take a cow and a calf to the World of Ag exhibit where every bit of agriculture is represented,” Jons said.

Nancy Perry, director of education at the American Royal Livestock Horse Show and Rodeo, said the World of Ag exhibit represents all aspects of agriculture.

“It’s an opportunity for kids, parents and teachers to see how agriculture is involved in our daily lives,” Perry said.

Dairy Days is part of the summer Kids Ag Learning Fest program and she said children are able to see where milk comes from and how it is important.

Perry said Jons really relates well to the hundreds of children that file through the exhibit.

“Gary Jons is just wonderful. He brings his cow, Jubilee, and a calf everywhere we want,” she said.

“When the kids come through, he’ll say, ‘I wonder what that cow’s thinking,'” she said. “That will get the kids asking questions and he answers them so that they can understand.”

Jons said he likes the chance to educate people about the dairy business.

“I never realized how little consumers know about where their food comes from,” he said.

“Part of the motivation of why I do it is that I felt I got a lot out of 4-H and the dairy project,” he said.

“But a big part of it is selfishness. Whenever I can get a cow out in public and get another chance to promote dairy, then maybe I can get diary consumption up.”

Jons said he even uses holidays as a chance to promote dairy.

“At Halloween, I give away plain and chocolate milk,” he said. “It didn’t go over well the first year, but there’s been a following the past few years.”

He said his goal is to just educate people about dairy.

“It doesn’t just pop up on the shelf,” Jons said.

“There’s someone with a lot of time and money invested into producing dairy products.”