Guest Blog

Farm security is not always top of mind for producers, but unfortunately, it’s necessary to protect the safety of your animals, people on your property and your livelihood. Animal rights activists will go to great lengths to portray animal agriculture negatively, ranging from getting hired to record misleading videos to trespassing to holding large-scale protests at farms.

At the Dairy Strong conference on Jan. 23, award presenter Laurie Winkelman painted a picture of someone who invests money, time and resources into promoting dairy farming and bettering the community, even in ways that don’t seem to be related to dairy farming.

I am a dairy farmer who didn’t grow up on a farm, but I always had some desire to be around dairy cattle from exposure to my dad’s family farm as a small child. That seed planted in my heart as a kid led me to join FFA, and my friends who grew up on farms were pretty willing to let me tag along and help with chores from time to time. I learned so much from not only helping with chores, but also from their parents and grandparents.

A little over a week ago, our farm welcomed a TV crew onto the farm. We have had film crews on the farm, but filming a show for a national network is a whole new beast. The entire experience is intense and goes quickly. There are also a lot of people involved in filming a show.

When we were pregnant with our first daughter, people always said, “It takes a village to raise a baby.” If you’ve never had kids, you might not realize that maxim is definitely true. Even if you don’t have kids, having and running a farm is really similar.

New Year’s resolutions made a few months ago may seem like distant memories, after the fierce and what seemed like a never-ending winter we are just now emerging from.