We asked our HERd management columnists to share about their female role models who have had an impact on their dairy careers. They also open up about how they think the dairy industry will change in the coming years and their hopes for future dairywomen.
Karma Metzler Fitzgerald is married to Clem Fitzgerald, who is one of the brothers of 4 Brothers Dairy in Shoshone, Idaho. “While I do not participate in the day-to-day operations of the dairy, I am an advocate not only for our dairy but for farming and agriculture in general,” she says.
Laura Flory is a vital part of her husband’s family operation, Hillside Farm, in Dublin, Virginia. “My farming career began somewhat inadvertently about eight years ago when I showed up after school to help feed calves one day,” she says. “Someone handed me a pair of boots, a list and a handful of bottles. I never looked back.”
The third generation on her family’s farm, Ashley Messing-Kennedy works with her parents to milk 250 cows in a robotic milking setup. The family raises all of their own youngstock and most of their own feed.
“I have been working on my family farm since I could walk,” says Honor DeBates Schwartz of McDonough, New York. She is the assistant herdsperson on her family’s 115-cow dairy.
Along with her husband, Roger, Joanmarie Weiss of Frankenmuth, Michigan, has milked cows with Surge buckets, then via a used pipeline system for 17 years. In 2011, the family upgraded to a robotic milking system. “So, our dairy-crazy daughter, Margie, has milked with all kinds of dairy equipment over the years,” Weiss says. “But she has not had to milk cows by hand.”
Christina Winch milks 200 cows with her husband, Peter, in Fennimore, Wisconsin. They rotationally graze and have the herd divided into a spring and fall calving group. This past summer, they built a new calf barn and installed automatic calf feeders. Off the farm, Winch teaches part-time at Southwest Tech in the dairy herd management and agribusiness programs.
What dairywomen role models have you looked up to in your career as a dairywoman?
METZLER FITZGERALD: My mother-in-law, Agnes Fitzgerald. She was Brooklyn-born and had a degree in chemistry. She had determination combined with a sense of adventure and ended up on the West Coast, running a dairy farm while raising 10 kids. I didn’t know her well, but admired her courage, strength and willingness to evolve as needed to care for her family.
FLORY: When my 16-year-old self showed up at the dairy that first day, I learned quickly if I wanted to get to know the lady I hoped to call family one day, I had to keep up with her first. Before I met my mother-in-law, I never knew how much tenacity, devotion and resourcefulness could be packed into one slender lady. I’m thankful every day that I’m privileged enough to work side by side with someone who so gracefully exhibits the characteristics of a dairywoman.
MESSING-KENNEDY: There are a few women I have looked up to as role models. The first being my mother. We have worked together for years now, and she taught me some of my most basic dairy skills. She has always loved me and supported me in whatever endeavors I had.
Outside of the farm, my friend Sara Long has been a mentor to me. She has been my sounding board for ideas and frustrations for years. We have a completely honest relationship, and I know I can talk to her about anything. Since she has a massive history in the dairy industry, we can talk shop and she has the connections to help me accomplish what I need.
DEBATES SCHWARTZ: I was fortunate enough to complete a college internship with a female assistant herd manager, Kimberly Fesko, back in 2007. I find myself trying to think, “What would Kim do or say in this situation?” a lot, even now. I also look up to my mom, who has been the driving force behind our farm for decades.
WEISS: I’ve been inspired by two incredible dairywomen for more than 27 years, since I met my husband, Roger. Loretta Laux (and her daughters) milked alongside her husband every day they had cows. She can run every piece of equipment on the farm and she knows cows.
Delores Damm ran her husband’s dairy farm because he had a full-time off-farm job. Both women encouraged our daughter, Margie, to become a dairy farmer, not “just” a dairy farmer’s wife. They were supportive, capable, efficient and knowledgeable role models for Margie and me.
Retired now, they are still active in other farm ventures and encourage young people to think about dairy farming as a good way to make a living. I also have lots of dairywomen friends in UDIM and MMPA. We all support each other, even as our roles at home on the farm may be very different.
WINCH: Not growing up in the dairy industry, it wasn’t until I moved to Wisconsin and took my first job teaching at the local high school that I grew to respect the role of women in the dairy industry. As I look back on my first few years in Wisconsin, I would have to say that some of my early role models were the moms of my students.
I admire how they worked on and off the farm, raised well-rounded children and were involved in the community. I have even taken some advice from them when making decisions about raising my children. Some of these mothers have become family friends.
Today I admire successful ladies on the business side of the industry, such as Shelly Mayer at PDPW. I also look up to those women who have opened their lives and farms up to the world through the use of social media. Closer to home, I admire my friends Angie and Suzie because they are always willing to listen to my questions and help me learn things that just come naturally to them.
How do you think a dairywoman’s role on the farm will change in the coming years?
METZLER FITZGERALD: I’d like to see it expand and be taken more seriously. I still see sales and service people come onto the farm and look for a man to make decisions – even when the women are the ones making decisions. I think more and more women will continue to choose agriculture as a career path and being more of a powerful force in the industry.
I suspect women are more likely to look toward technology to find ways to more efficiently care for animals. However, in this business, you have to have instincts – instinctively knowing when a living creature needs you. No technology can replace human compassion and kindness – something the dairy industry should always rely upon.
FLORY: I think dairywomen have and will continue to have a lifestyle that is very multi-faceted compared to many other occupations. As we move into the future, dairywomen are as active as ever on the farm, all while juggling other responsibilities at home and in their larger communities.
I see technology having a huge impact on this, as it allows certain things to be managed more efficiently and now we can multi-task better than ever. Since installing a robotic milking system for our cows just several months ago, I have often checked in on the milking cows while walking down the aisles of the grocery store.
This technology doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t have to do work, but I can manage it to make the most of my time. I think this will begin to influence the number of women who will be seen in management roles as well.
MESSING-KENNEDY: In the coming years, the dairywoman’s role will become even critical than it already is. I am finding more and more women on the farm who are managing the day-to-day operations, and I think this will only continue.
Technology will become a huge part of my own involvement, and it already has been. Cell phones allow me to walk employees through emergencies with the robots. The robots keep us out of the parlor and from feeding calves by hand. When juggling the duties of a dairywoman, technology will allow us to manage things with more flexibility than ever before.
DEBATES SCHWARTZ: I believe dairywomen will always be considered the cheerleaders on the farm. We have started using Dairy Comp on our dairy and have started to rely more on electronic computer files for our recordkeeping. I expect to find myself learning new technologies and using new medicines in the future.
WEISS: I milked until the kids were old enough to help Roger. Truthfully, I was thrilled when Margie took over my job in the barn. Then, “Johann LELY” replaced all of us in 2011. Roger and Margie glean information daily from our robot’s records.
Using smartphones, the whole dairy world is available instantly. Access to information from our herd and around the globe gives us more perspectives. We make decisions now with real data, and the cows have a better life because of it. We are better proactive managers and strategists.
WINCH: I don’t feel that you will see as much change in a dairywoman’s role in the next 10 years as you have in the past 10 years. The industry has become very welcoming to women as herdsmen, A.I. techs, nutritionists, veterinarians and within all aspects of the industry.
Today, you see us everywhere right alongside the men. I do feel that technology will impact my own involvement on the farm. As it is continually changing, I find myself learning and adapting to it first then teaching my husband.
What do you think a typical day on the dairy will look like for the female members of your next generation?
METZLER FITZGERALD: I would like to think my girls would be seen as equal to their male counterparts on the farm. They are just as capable of managing dairy operations as answering phones and doing books. I would like to see them negotiating feed and commodity prices, making hiring decisions and overseeing the entire operation if that’s what they love to do.
I can also see them working in herd health and caring for the animals. I hope they earn the respect of their co-workers, employees and the service people who take care of the dairy. I hope no one ever comes to see them and asks to speak to their husband or dad to make decisions.
FLORY: Though I am still early in my journey as a dairywoman, I hope that if I am lucky enough to one day have a daughter who loves cows as much as I do, she will live in a time where, though the world will be at her fingertips (literally), hard work and passion will still be the driving force behind the great industry helping to feed the world.
I think there will be more opportunity than ever for skills women possess to be leading the way. People aren’t going to stop wondering where their food comes from or how we treat our animals, and communication skills will be imperative on this front.
MESSING-KENNEDY: I think that we cannot even imagine what kind of technology will be available to them. They will have things we can only dream of.
DEBATES SCHWARTZ: I don’t have children, but I imagine that my imaginary daughter will rely on technologies I dream of using, like milking robots on a daily basis. She’ll think paper files were created in the Stone Age, too.
WEISS: Margie is like Roger – and Loretta and Delores – she’s a dairy farmer. She loves cows. She loves physical work. She births a newborn calf and carries it to a hutch. She trims hooves. She shovels feed and manure. She is a cow caregiver … and she’s not thinking of leaving the barn chores to someone else.
However, our whole family is learning new roles as we adopt robotic technology. Margie spends more time at a desk each day than her grandfathers did in a month. And it’s in the barn. What would they think about that?
She knows her cows by sight, and she knows cows through data and industry researchers and online forums. She has learned, as successful dairy farmers everywhere have, there’s as much value in the time spent looking at numbers and studies as there is in the time spent in the barn.
WINCH: I have three wonderful children, but they are all boys. I do, however, have many bright young women as students. I enjoy working with them, guiding them and shaping them into the future leaders of the dairy industry. I think a typical day for them will involve technology, particularly smartphone apps.
As these women go back to the farm, I see their day looking something like this: They will wake up and send a quick Snapchat or post something on Facebook. While doing this, they will use an app to check in on the calving pen and maybe the calf barn. They will then use a different app to see which cows are in heat.
The next app they might click on will tell them the status of cows going through the robotic milker or calves being fed on the automatic calf feeder. Now it’s time to pull the boots on and walk outside, with a game plan on where to go first based on what was observed through the apps.
Chances are, they will send another Snapchat or post something on Facebook once they get to the barn. After all, people love cute calves. Once morning chores are done, they will attend an educational workshop, go to meetings, visit with company representatives and maybe have lunch uptown.
While away, they will continually check in with the farm through their smartphone. Once home, it’s time to send another Snapchat or Facebook post with a picture of that cute calf born during the day. Now that evening chores are over, they will relax with family and friends. Before snuggling down for a good night’s rest, it’s time for a last minute check-in on the cows and calves through apps.
What do you think we as an industry can do to encourage more women to be involved on the farm?
METZLER FITZGERALD: I think we need to step out of the title “farm wife” and embrace being dairy producers and farmers. We don’t need to add the term “wife.” We work just as hard as the men, yet the men don’t feel the need to add “husband” after their job title – as in dairy husband.
I think changes like that will go a long way to gaining respect as a business owner and manager. Women in agriculture need to stop hanging out in the background and stop selling themselves short.
There seems to be an assumption if the woman in the household spends more time in the house caring for the kids that her job is less important. That if the women aren’t out in the corrals every day, but instead running the books or running a 4-H meeting with the kids or working in town to help support the business, that their job isn’t as important and equal to that of the job a man is doing on the farm.
That’s an assumption that needs to stop. We need to step up and be more comfortable with the essential role we play. Being a female doesn’t make the job less important.
FLORY: Just as I was supported and taught by great women in the dairy industry, I hope our industry will continue to welcome and respect the pink-wearing, passionate women who express an interest in becoming involved. I think it’s our responsibility as dairywomen to portray our true personalities and skill sets so other women aren’t intimidated by thinking they don’t have what it takes.
While it is important to learn how to deal with the tough decisions, demanding schedules and realities of life on a dairy, there is nothing wrong with doing it with a smile on your face, the occasional tear on your cheek and a lot of love.
MESSING-KENNEDY: By leading by example. By showing we can have it all and do it all. Maybe not perfectly all the time. Maybe we need to send our kids to day care a few days a week or our house might be messy most days. But we can have it all, meaning we can live our lives the way we want versus the way we are expected.
DEBATES SCHWARTZ: The dairy industry as a whole should continue to encourage women who bring positive attitudes, patience and foresight into dairy farms across the nation. I personally think a great way to encourage this is to support women who voice their opinions on farm boards and continue to foster women farming groups that may allow women to feel like we are not alone in this industry.
The more we are able to communicate, the more we will feel appreciated in this industry. And I think the dairy industry is starting to acknowledge the value of women’s farm groups more and more.
WEISS: What’s with the word “involved” in that question? Be bold. Think on this instead: What can we do as an industry to encourage young women to own (and operate) a successful farm business? The answer to that question is largely found in the way a farm family develops their daughter’s capabilities to be a farmer, just as much as they do a son’s capabilities. As for Roger and me, we know Margie is destined to be a successful farmer.
WINCH: I feel the industry needs to keep doing what’s it’s doing by embracing women and what we bring to the table. Local co-ops hosting “Ladies’ Days” off the farm help us connect with other women and build a network of support.
Groups such as the Dairy Girl Network are also great ways to encourage women. Companies stepping up to the plate and sponsoring events geared toward women show us that they value what we bring to the industry.
Recognizing what women are doing in the industry through special sections in magazines like this and through programs like the 40 under 40 also show that we are not sitting on the sidelines. Most importantly, we need to keep putting positive role models out there for the next generation to look up to, just like the role models we look up to ourselves. PD
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Emily Caldwell
- Editor
- Progressive Publishing
- Email Emily Caldwell
