The cow that flew over Missouri

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — As long as dairy farmers have been milking cows to sell milk to those without a farm background, the task of promoting dairy products to increase consumption has been ongoing.

To create widespread publicity — not only for the dairy industry but also for the fledgling aviation industry — over 95 years ago, the American Guernsey Cattle Club teamed up with dairy farmers and the aeronautics industry during the International Air Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, to fly a cow to the event on an airplane.

The endeavor was aimed not only at demonstrating the abilities of the aircraft but also to grow interest among rural Americans in the notion of air travel, including the idea of utilizing air travel as a method of transporting livestock. Promoters felt this was a way to grow support of the aeronautics industry, particularly in farming communities that comprised the center of the country. Aviation industries were suffering from the economic effects of the Great Depression, particularly in middle America.

From a dairy promotion standpoint, fluid milk consumption was also put in the spotlight as the flight neared its final destination in St. Louis.

On Feb. 18, 1930, a registered Guernsey cow named Elm Farm Ollie, sometimes referred to by those who knew her as Nellie Jay, boarded a Ford Tri-Motor airplane.

The Ford Tri-Motor airplane was produced by Henry Ford from 1925 until it was discontinued in 1933.

The trip from Sunnymeade Farm, near Bismarck, where Ollie lived, to St. Louis was 72 miles. Ollie also made her return trip to Sunnymeade via air, logging over 140 miles in flight.

Ollie was chosen to be the star of the flight, earning her own page in bovine history, not only because of her easy-going nature, but also for her prolific milk production, which is said to have required her to be milked three times, daily. Ollie’s name appears frequently in issues of the Guernsey Breeders’ Journal throughout the 1930s, for recognition of outstanding production.

Ollie and two people — pilot Claude M. Sterling of Parks Air College, and the man who would be her caretaker, Elsworth W. Bunce — boarded the plane. This was no easy feat, considering the size ratio of Ollie compared to the small airplane.

Bunce, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, worked for the American Guernsey Cattle Club. An innovative promoter of the breed, Bunce was also instrumental in convincing Admiral Richard E. Byrd to take three Guernsey cows along on his 1933 Antarctic expedition.

Those coordinating the stunt alongside Bunce were uncertain if the plane would indeed be able to take off, let alone attain the altitude to complete the flight. But the venture proved successful, despite the nearly 1,000 pounds Ollie added to the cargo.

During the flight, she was milked by Bunce, earning Ollie another title — the first cow to be milked in flight — while Bunce became the first person to accomplish that task, milking Ollie by hand.

Ollie’s fresh-squeezed milk was placed in paper cartons that were attached to small parachutes. As the plane neared St. Louis, the plane slowed to 65 miles per hour, the slowest speed it was capable of without the engines stalling.

Once flying over the site of the event, the cartons of milk were dropped from the airplane into the crowd below. According to lore, one recipient of a carton of milk from heaven was pilot Charles Lindbergh.

The plane continued to circle the gathering, dropping the milk until it was gone. Ollie produced 24 quarts in total.

Besides spotlighting the manufacturers of the airplane, the infantile air travel industry and the dairy industry, the flight had scientific implications, as well.

Farmers and scientists had questions about what effects, if any, the inertia and the changes in altitude might have on a bovine or her ability to both produce and let down milk during the flight.

Fortunately, Ollie — who gained a new moniker of “The Sky Queen” — seemed to suffer no ill effects of her foray into stardom. Ollie sold at the 1932 National Guernsey Sale for $325 to T. F. Branson of Anselma, Pennsylvania. She was later sold once more to H.O. Hinkley of Blue Spruce Farm in Rockford, Illinois, where she lived out her life to the age of 10 years. The trip proved that air travel could be utilized to transport production livestock without ill effects.

Ollie’s notoriety continues today, even though the stunt failed to launch farming into the world of aeronautics the way organizers had hoped. Decades later, both Ollie and Bunce are celebrated for their place in the dairy industry and aeronautics history at celebrations around the country.

Each year on Feb. 18, the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin, hosts Elm Farm Ollie Day to commemorate the event, remembering both Ollie and Bunce.

The museum was established by former Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Barry Levenson, who is a self-proclaimed admirer of Ollie and her adventures. He even composed a song in her honor: The Bovine Cantata in B-flat, from the opera Madame Butterfat, inspired by Madame Butterfly, composed by Giacomo Puccini. Levenson invites fellow Ollie fans to his establishment to commemorate the event, serving samples of cheese topped with mustard.

The city of Bismarck, where Ollie called home, held a celebration in February to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the flight. The celebration, sponsored by Prairie Farms Dairy, is planned to become an annual festival held in the town.

Sources:

“Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,” Feb. 15, 1998, Dennis McCann

Umpqua Dairy, Roseburg, Oregon

“The Gazette,” Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Feb. 23, 2025, David Wendall

“The Daily Journal,” Park Hills, Missouri, Feb. 12, 2025, Dan Schunks

Exploring History, Feb. 18, 2021, Grant Piper

The Dairy Alliance, Atlanta, Georgia

San Diego Air and Space Museum

“Guernsey Breeders’ Journal”