Women In Agriculture

Episode Summary In the very first episode of Grit and Grace in the Heartland, hosts Mary and Leah kick off an exciting new podcast focused on women in agriculture - just in time for 2026, the International Year of the Woman Farmer. They reflect on the whirlwind of recent years, explore why this moment matters so much for agriculture and rural America, and talk candidly about identity, language, community, and visibility in farming and ranching. From challenging stereotypes to celebrating modern women telling their stories online, this episode sets the tone for a year (and beyond) of lifting women up with honesty, resilience, and heart. ✨ What You’ll Hear in This Episode Why 2026 is a powerful year to launch a women-in-ag podcast The significance of the International Year of the Woman Farmer How women have always been central to agriculture—even when unseen Surprising podcast listener statistics (and what they might say about communication) Farming vs. ranching vs. homesteading—and why labels can divide more than help The danger of weaponizing words within agriculture Why community matters more than independence How storytelling can reduce isolation and strengthen rural resilience 🌱 Highlighted Voices & Inspirations Laura Farms (Laura Wilson) – A Nebraska farmer using YouTube and social media to share the real, honest journey of agriculture, inspiring the next generation Women in dairy and other ag sectors bravely sharing transparent, vulnerable stories Generations of women - from homesteaders to modern ag professionals - whose strength built the backbone of rural America 🧠 Big Themes Visibility: Women stepping out from behind the scenes in agriculture Identity: Every role on an operation matters - from the tractor to the desk Community: Humans weren’t meant to do this work alone Storytelling: Sharing both the hard and the hopeful helps others feel less alone Mental Health: Why connection and openness matter now more than ever ⏱️ Optional Episode Timestamps 00:00 – Welcome & reflections on entering a new year 01:22 – International Year of the Woman Farmer 03:19 – Surprising listener demographics 05:12 – Women’s evolving roles in agriculture 06:07 – Redefining “farmer,” “rancher,” and ag identity 10:23 – Why tearing others down hurts rural communities 11:22 – Spotlight on Laura Farms 17:02 – The unseen power of management, planning & budgeting 18:58 – Community, loneliness, and mental health in agriculture 21:48 – Looking ahead & closing thoughts 📣 Connect With Us You can find and follow the podcast on Facebook: Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women in Agriculture Have a story to share or a woman in ag we should feature? Reach out—we’d love to hear from you. Closing Thought As Mary and Leah remind us: agriculture isn’t just about land and livestock - it’s about people. This year, and every year after, let’s show a little more grit and grace. 00:00 Mary and I'm Leah and welcome to Grit and Grace in the Heartland. Good morning Leah, how are you?  Mary, almost happy new year, doing great. Yeah,  I can't believe that 2025 is over in two days. Cannot. It's been, it's gone so fast and so slow at the same time. That's a great way to summarize it. 00:26 With everything that's happened this year, it seems like every day has just been another slog through craziness and impossibility. But I looked at the calendar yesterday and went, oh, oh, we're rolling in a new year in three days. Okay. I saw the funniest meme yesterday that said, I don't need 2026. How about a gently used version of 2013 or 2009? How about that? Just a gently used 00:56 I don't need a new year after what we've been through.  I saw that and I giggled and then I was like, yeah, what is 2026 going to bring? And then I thought, I can't even think about it right now. I have to get through the next couple of days. um So before we decided to start this podcast together, I did not know that 2026 is the international gear of the woman farmer. 01:22 found that out last week and I thought what a great year to start this podcast. Do you agree? Absolutely. I appreciate the United Nations delegations and  not only have been involved in International Year for  the woman farmer or the woman farmer in agriculture,  but it's also the International Year for range and pastoralists, which are  a fancy word for people who love and appreciate the land. So I think it's  perfect. know there are 01:52 celebrations and recognitions and education, things being planned all over the country and look forward to participating in what we're doing in Nebraska. Sometimes the universe just opens doors that you wouldn't even know it's opening for you. It's crazy. And 2020, 2026, sorry, is the 150th, no, 250th birthday of our country, Birthday of our country. And yeah, so 02:21 some exciting, neat things planned for  arts and music and education and special recognition,  doing some cool stuff just even in our own community, getting kids  to  audition to play the Star-Spangled Banner  or sing it and just a whole bunch of different fun things planned to make it  hopefully a very special meaningful year for all Americans. really hope that 2026  brings us all together and 02:49 gives us a reminder of what the forefathers and founders of our country had intended. That's what I hope for. Me too. Absolutely. It's time.  We need it. Yeah. We need to remember why we're here. Instead of, instead of wondering why are we here and what are we doing, maybe we can remind ourselves that we're here for a reason.  Amen. Okay. So,  um, I found out some interesting statistics that I wanna, I wanna share. I was looking at 03:19 my Facebook, I don't know, the little thing that tells you about who sees your pages and who reads and what that does. And for my personal page and my A Tiny Homestead podcast page, more than 50 % of the viewers are male. Wow, And I was really surprised. I was really surprised at that. 03:46 And I did an interview with somebody for the podcast yesterday, my other podcast,  and she had assumed that it would be more women listeners, and it's not, it's men. Mm-hmm, fantastic. And I'm so confused. I'm like, I thought it would be women. Maybe there's something  for us to digest there about how men maybe like to take in information. Maybe they like to listen rather than read. 04:13 especially if they're on the go all the time. I love that podcasts are a way to take it with you  for windshield time or working,  you might be doing. You can't maybe give your eyes attention to, but they can listen. So I think that's fantastic. Yeah, the young woman I was talking to yesterday, she was very surprised at that statistic.  I'm coming down to the fact that women  are inherently the communicators. 04:42 And  men are the people who listen to that communication and  digest it and then move on from it. And so  maybe it's just that we women have many, many words and we string them together in a way that is listenable. don't know. um So  I want to make sure that we say in this very first episode that we are not bashing on men.  We are just supporting our sisters in agriculture. 05:12 and that women have always kind of been the backbone and the behind the scenes people in Ag and now we're starting to step forward. And that's been for the last,  I don't know, 20 years really that women are really stepping up and really making their presence known? Yes, they were always there  doing these things. It's just that it's been more recently that 05:40 they've shared their stories or people are taking notice  of that, of what they've been doing. So  it's really been a great opportunity to recognize their contributions to agriculture  and now get to celebrate all the amazing things they're doing and how they're empowering each other to get out there out in front and  tell their stories. Yes. And  when I think of the word rancher, 06:07 Because I'm 56 years old and I grew up thinking this because what my dad and my grandpa's both all thought  is the guy who is flipping the calf over and tying its feet at the rodeo. You know, that's  not necessarily ranching. Ranching, farming, it's a whole lot of steps and it's a whole lot of little steps that lead to bigger steps that lead to huge steps. 06:34 And so you can't just put one image in your head of what it means. And I feel bad that I did that for a long time. Well, Hollywood  and popular books all participated in helping curate an image of what makes a rancher or what makes a farmer.  And the joke I use is also, depends on which side of the Mississippi River you live on. 06:59 East of the Mississippi,  if you have one cow or 5,000 cows, you call it a farm. If you live west of the Mississippi and you have cows, you call it a ranch. That's why I spend  often a lot of time talking about how  an image is just what your little perspective may be on any given day. And that can shift and change over time. And I'm guilty of it. And I'm thankful for the experiences I've had that have helped me. 07:28 see through different lens. you know why the east of the Mississippi is farmer and west is rancher? Is there a beginning for that? I don't know. You'll be surprised at this, Mary. Our technical name of our operation here is a corporation and it includes the word farm. My grandfather, who registered the name of the organization here, he did it because 07:58 the idealistic um big horse farms of the Southeast.  And his dream, of course, was to raise race horses for a period of time. So we incorporated it. It's actually Cooke's Lees Clear Creek Farm,  which is a joke because we don't call this place a farm. We call it a ranch.  Huh. I didn't know that. That is funny. um And the other thing is, is I think that  ranch implies 08:25 livestock and farm implies crops or produce.  And gets really complicated for those who are diversified who have both.  And in other countries, they use different words like in Australia, it's called a station. Where they have cattle, it's not called a ranch necessarily.  So yeah, we get hung up on all of these titles when at the end of the day, it's really about the operation itself and the people there. 08:53 Yeah, when people ask me what I do, I laugh because I don't do any of the grunt work because I'm not capable and my husband loves it. So he does the grunt work.  And I say, well, we grow a big garden of produce. We grow some fruit trees and we have chickens. I never say farm. I never say homestead. I never say ranch.  I just say exactly what we do. And that way people can figure it out from there for themselves.  I was just curious. I was looking up what the actual 09:23 technical definition of homestead is  because it has been a word that  is trending and I love that.  And of course, when I think of homestead, I think of it meaning  the beginning.  So  that can be  used for lots and lots of people.  Those who began in the beginning and some were crop only and some were livestock only. It's just  funny how words become trendy and then go away. uh 09:52 come back.  A house, a farmhouse, especially including outbuildings, historically used the beginning,  those who settled the land. yeah,  it's funny how we hitch ourselves to certain words and I'm still guilty of it. I still fight it oh because unfortunately, between some farmers and some ranchers,  it can be kind of a word that's weaponized and used to  diminish 10:23 or make fun of another and I don't like that at all. I don't participate in that and I call it out because no one is less than, they're just different. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe 2026 will be the year of people stopping poking fun at everything that's different from them. I would love that. It is one thing to tease somebody you love and they know that you mean it in a good spirit. 10:52 It is another to try to tear down other people. And  I'm so sick of the tearing down. So we're going to lift at least women up. We're going to try with this podcast all year and hopefully further on than just 2026 and  get women the recognition that they deserve. So to that end, um you and I have talked on my other podcast about Laura Farms.  Laura, 11:22 Her last name is Wilson. I looked her up the other day. And she is a young woman who is in Nebraska, where Leah's from.  And she and her husband have a farm. And I'm not quite sure  what all they do.  I know they grow crops. But uh it sounds like the farm is their only employment. I don't think either one of them have an off-farm job. 11:51 Laura is on Facebook, she has a YouTube channel, and she is pretty incredible considering she's only in her  20s, I think. Did you say that you know her or you know of her when we were talking? I know of her and I've listened to her speak and she did a workshop that my daughter attended last summer,  which was particularly focused on  what it's like to tell your story in a public way, which is what Laura has done and done well. 12:20 and to elevate these young people in this particular workshop about  within their own thoughts of how they could do that and better tell the stories of agriculture. And she was phenomenal. And my daughter was telling me this just yesterday, that Laura  is  very open and transparent about the good and the hard. She is part of her family's operation there as well. They all work together, which  is complex. uh 12:48 requires a lot of extra when you're working with family, as I know well.  And  lot of patients. Yeah, lots of patients.  Of course, it's been difficult  economically the last couple of years in row crop farming. I do think maybe they have livestock as well  now.  then again, just starting your marriage and being young and doing all of these things. It's a lot. So really admire. 13:17 her putting herself out there the way she has.  do too. And one of the things that I told you is that the first episode that I saw on YouTube of her channel,  I was not all that thrilled because she's very, very pretty and she was full face makeup and  very girly. And I was like, oh no, it's another one who's putting on the show, but maybe not walking the walk. And as my husband, 13:48 watched more of them because he thinks that what they're doing is amazing. I would sit down and watch it with him.  And  as I've gotten to see what they're doing and how she is growing and changing, my favorite part of the whole thing is the discovery that she is going through. Because she is, she's totally open to every challenge that comes along and she's totally  open to sharing it.  And so 14:16 Not only is she discovering things for herself and about herself, she's opening up the door for other people to  discover this way of life. Yeah, and it's not easy to be so vulnerable and share what you don't know or the mistakes that you've made, not just to be attention seeking, but to use it as an example of perseverance and resilience.  And what I appreciate about Laura, again, given her age is 14:44 She is the face of  what we need in not just in Nebraska, but across the Great Plains where we have record numbers of family farms and ranches selling because there isn't a next generation.  And there are a whole bunch of reasons why kids are not returning to their family operations,  but she's the example of what we need more of. And so if she can light that spark for others who 15:13 want to find a way. And again, you can say there's lots of hindrances to getting back into farming and ranching or to starting and blazing a trail.  But she is that example that will hopefully inspire young people to  go home to rural America or go there all by yourself and dig in and start. um 15:38 And she's  the only one that I can really think of that has gained this kind of traction.  I do know of any other women who  are kind of doing the same thing she's doing that anyone would recognize the name of right now. There are  women in places and a couple that really, I really admire and appreciate are within the dairy industry. Talk about a tough place to be. 16:05 And I put some names together, but I follow their pages. Nikki is, and then of course I only know people by their handles on social media, not their names, but Nikki is an example. She might be a little bit older than Laura, but she is so open and transparent and talk about vicious trolls that come after the dairy industry. I admire her much, so much. And there are other women who may be a little further down the road, but still fairly new in their... 16:32 their journeys because again, on a family operation, you don't necessarily get to jump right in when you're pretty young. You you patiently wait and take your turn  until you get into some of those positions of decision making.  But I also say that every single person on the operation plays an important part and a cog in the wheel. And I think about my mom in particular, who came to Nebraska in her twenties  and  did not have a back. 17:02 in ranching, jumped in, worked on the labor side of things, and then worked her way into some of the managerial work, which is the bookkeeping, for instance.  And it's also important in this whole context about identity that we recognize that every single role is equally valuable. And some of the most successful farmers and ranchers are not the ones in the tractor and not the one on the horse. They're sitting on their behinds in a desk chair. 17:31 in front of a screen, planning and budgeting.  And if we don't have that,  we don't have a future. It's more important than ever to be on top of your marketing and planning and budgeting. And that can be, maybe that's the woman's role. So it doesn't always look just one way, that's for sure.  No, and it never has. I mean, I know you are a fan of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. 18:01 And you were telling me that Laura's mom in one of  your favorite book of the series,  I can't remember what the story was, but that she was going to make darn sure that whatever bad thing was going to happen wasn't going to happen.  And  I look at the women in that generation and how strong and tough they were. Because you had to be. If you were going to live and make sure that your husband and your children survived, you had to be strong. 18:30 Yes, physically, emotionally,  spiritually. And I have so much compassion for those, not just women, but anyone who  mentally suffered and many did. And the stories are legendary in particular about women  homesteaders going crazy or a little bit crazy with nothing to listen to but the sound of the wind on the grasses on the prairie. 18:58 and no family and no visitors and being shut away far from anyone and humans are not meant to exist in a silo alone. And it had to have been so lonely and women need fellowship in community.  I really appreciate organizations like the National Women in Agriculture and all of the  subsequent chapters because they recognize the importance of women getting together and having community and learning together, learning from one another. 19:27 even just taking off their titles and being women  and  needing that connection. it's something I'm equally passionate about. We've fallen away from it too much in recent years. We're so focused on being independent  and  self-directed that thinking we don't need that. But historically, we've always needed that connection and that community.  And that makes me think of when my kids were little. 19:56 When my kids were 18 months to two years old, every single one of them would say, I do it. You know, I would say, do you want me to do that for you?  I do it. Because they were gaining that autonomy and that independence. And that's really important.  But  as grown people, you can't do everything yourself. That's not how humans were built. We  need community. We need helpers. We need that  connection. 20:26 Because trying to build a home  out of logs, you cannot do it by yourself. You need other people. And trying to grow a huge garden,  you can't do it by yourself. I mean,  you can try, but having many hands makes light work, as we all know, and having the many hands really helps when you're trying to create something  bigger than yourself. Yes, and even sometimes, as I... 20:55 say over at Clear Creek Ranch, mom, the validation of saying me too is enough to help someone go on to the next day because it can be very lonely and isolating and many of us in agriculture do hold our hard things really closely. We're very proud, too proud and private people. this 21:17 this way of living and talking and sharing our stories, it makes some really uncomfortable because it wasn't until most recently that we began to share these things.  But it's my opinion that it has been  good for our community in making people feel less alone. And I hate using statistics to draw and say this is why it's necessary, but we only have to look at the mental health crisis within agriculture and how many have been lost to suicide to recognize that it matters more than ever. 21:48 Yes, and we need to do an episode about that in the future because that's a really important topic to cover.  Okay, so I wanted to keep this first episode short and when we're at like almost 22 minutes. So  this was great. I'm so excited to be doing this with you, Leah, and people can find us  at our Facebook page for now. And it's grit and grace in the heartland, colon women  in agriculture. That's where you can contact us for now. 22:16 I am honored to be here and thank you for thinking of me and I cannot wait to help tell these stories this year.  am  beyond excited. Like I am beside myself. It's ridiculous. uh It's so wonderful to have wonderful things to look forward to and  to helping share these stories that I just said it matters more than ever. So I'm so excited. All right. In the meantime, everybody hang in there and show some grit and grace.