My success would not be possible if it weren’t for all the many Farm Moms in my life. Our family has to work hard together to make our farm successful.
Small brief about me:
My husband of nine years and I have a five year old daughter, Ella, and one more on the way. We may live 15 minutes from the farm, but that does not keep me from being involved. Besides my role at the farm, my husband and I own and operate a small beef operation and bottle feed many Holstein steers at our home. We are typically raising 10-18 bottle calves at a time. Supporting the farm: After I finish my day as a full time secretary, I head to the farm to help with the last part of milking, which means I don’t get home until 8 o’clock on most nights. I also manage our high school employee’s monthly milking schedule and work with them on a daily basis. For most if not all of these kids, this is their first job, so we feel that it is our duty to teach them to be good employees for the future. I also work with a genetic company to mate the best bull to all of the cows. This is one of my favorite jobs because there are so many options out there and it changes regularly.
Supporting the community:
Our family is very active in 4-H with showing cattle at the local fairs. This gives us the perfect opportunity to show the community firsthand about dairy. I love watching little kids pet a cow or calf for the first time and teaching them where their milk comes from. We are also very involved in our community church. It's very rewarding when church members want to come out to the farm with family and friends to see our operation. We always have ice cream on hand for every visitor that comes by. Since my daughter and nephew are now more active in school, we are starting to promote dairy at the school by donating ice cream for school activities.
We have also been taking monthly pictures of our calf, Dollie, and sending them to the St. Louis Dairy Council to show her monthly progress as part of the Adopt-A-Cow program.
Supporting Ag:
We love giving girl scouts, boy scouts, or other after school clubs tours of the farm. We have recently starting giving tours to college groups as well. Yearly, we get to help with 1000 3rd graders who come to a local horse arena. There, they get to learn about all the different agriculture ventures that are very important to their daily lives. At this event, we bring a cow in and each kid gets to come up and pet her, which they greatly enjoy.
Supporting my family:
My jobs on and off the farm would not be possible if it weren’t for the many other women/mothers in my life. My mom keeps up with her full time job, farm book work, watching my daughter and niece and nephew regularly, and being the church secretary and organist. My sister-in-law, Melinda, plays such a great roll for me. She picks up and watches my daughter after school and always finds the best deals at stores and garage sales. My Aunt Cathy takes care of all the small calves from the day they are born, and she also finds time to take care of elderly family members.
