Guest Blog

In 2017, my New Year’s resolution was that instead of complaining about things, I was going to do something about it. I learned a lot that year. I accidentally found some things I’m genuinely passionate about. I also discovered I cannot do it all. This led to my 2018 resolution – saying no to things that don’t bring me joy and passion.

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of blogs Rebecca Shaw is providing about female entrepreneurs and what the dairy industry can learn from them.

This summer, I fan-girled over Carey “The Vixen” Lohrenz, the first female F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy and her concept of a red team. Emily Yeiser Stepp, senior director of the FARM Program, and I dove into what exactly is a red team, why you should have one and when it would be applicable. I’d recommend you read that first.

When was the last time you sat down with your spouse without the TV on, without notifications on the phone buzzing nearby, with the kids in bed (or not home at all) and talked about any of the following:

I was sitting there in the doctor’s office as the nurse went down a list of questions for my son’s checkup. I was doing my best to listen to the questions, but I had also been sick all morning, so I was partially zoning. My answers were pretty much all the same as my son is very fortunate to not have any allergies, nor does he take any medications. Then she asked if he ate a lot of dairy, to which he quickly told her that he does. She proceeded to tell us that dairy causes behavioral problems in children. He looked at her like she was stupid and gave me a look like “Who is this lady?”

As dairy farmers, I know we wear many hats, not just on the farm but off the farm as well. So why is it every time someone asks us to do something, we immediately volunteer?

In a firsthand account, Wisconsin dairyman Gordon Speirs describes the challenges that are making 2019 a difficult year for farming.