These women are redefining perceptions of the modern dairy farmer
In today’s day and age, dairy farming is far from a black and white affair.
Firstly, the farm itself has evolved to catch up with modern times and technologies.
Then there are the farmers behind the scenes, running the whole shebang—and they, too, don’t always look like the stereotypes from your average childhood nursery rhyme.
Take, for example, Laura Flory and Lindsey Rucks, featured in the latest season of Acres and Avenues, a show that brings rural dairy farmers and young urbanities together to illustrate how dairy products get from farm to table.
As millennial, college-educated women, Flory and Rucks consistently deal with mitigating the stereotype of the “typical” farmer. But these two women are proving that their career paths are not only legitimate—they’re also making an impact upon a centuries-old industry.
Lindsey Rucks
A fourth-generation dairy farmer living in the South Florida sunshine
Lindsey Rucks lives and works on her family’s farm in South Florida. She’s had a passion for cows from the time she was a young girl. She has a degree in Agriculture Communications with an emphasis in Leadership Development from the University of Florida.
I don’t consider this to be a job, but more of a way of life. I wish more people could come to our farm to see what we do day in and day out.
Not everyone discovers his or her life’s passion as an infant, but Lindsey Rucks is one of the lucky ones; her future career path was evident from an early age.
“Becoming a part of our family farm was pretty much set in stone when my first word was ‘cow,'” Rucks tells Mashable. “My passion continued to grow, and when I was eight years old I started showing dairy cows.”
The “cow showings” Rucks refers to were part of 4-H, a global network of youth development organizations administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture. Showing a cow is comparable to the displays at a standard dog show such as Westminster. Today, Rucks still shows Brown Swiss cows at a national level all over the U.S.
Laura Flory
A young dairy farmer hailing from Dublin, Virginia
Laura Flory is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where she received a B.S. in Dairy Science in 2009. She currently lives and works full-time alongside her husband and in-laws on their Virginia dairy farm. In her free time, she enjoys photography, writing and spending time with family.
We get to bring a new perspective to an industry that we have not traditionally been a huge part of. While it might evoke a few eye rolls from our husbands or male peers, we bring a lot of emotion with us to the job, and I think at the end of the day that is a benefit to everyone.
Laura Flory
Laura Flory grew up on a family farm in southwest Virginia. Today, she and her husband, Scott, work on their Dublin, Virginia farm along with her husband’s parents. The pair milks 240 Holstein cows in a robotic milking facility that they built in 2014.
Throughout Flory’s upbringing, she adored animals.
“Though my parents were not farmers themselves, the land was leased out to a family friend that owned beef cattle and I spent many summer days climbing on the fence watching the cows in the field,” Flory tells Mashable. “I always loved animals but was never really involved in an agricultural capacity until I was older and began participating in 4-H and Future Farmers of America programs.”
In college at Virginia Tech, Flory spent a summer feeding calves and helping with chores around a dairy farm, which ultimately influenced her decision to major in Dairy Science and pursue her passion for dairy farming. Post-grad, Flory returned to farm life to dedicate her career to the job she’d grown to love.
“My college education has been a huge part of any success I have achieved so far in my career,” she says. “The most important thing I learned was the ability to have to look for an answer in a situation. Dairy farming is not a career that comes with a handbook.”
Flory also cites the ability to see “cause and effect” and her acute attention to detail as crucial skills she picked up in college.
“When you are responsible for something, you better have a pretty solid foundation for what impact that decision might have and monitor it closely,” she says. “Really the most important thing I learned is that it never hurts to ask a few more questions. Two heads are always better than one.”
Flory has also found that sharing her passion for farm life with others is extremely rewarding.
“I hope to never stop learning,” she says. “I have a dream to one day open up some kind of agri-tourism business that can showcase that passion and encourage others to continue to learn, as well.”
“In my great-grandfather’s and grandfather’s generation, women working on the farm (with the exception of being a bookkeeper) was unheard of,” says Rucks. One generation later, the thought became a bit more acceptable—albeit still quite unconventional.
Today, however, times are changing.
“Gender is not an issue as far as working all positions on a farm, especially once everyone realizes that we can do the same things that they can do! I think women can bring more of a nurturing and compassionate feel to the farm, along with some patience,” says Rucks.
She admits, however, that there are some difficulties being a woman in what has traditionally been a “man’s world.”
“The stereotype is that we can’t work as long or hard as men, or that we don’t like to get dirty. I don’t find any of that to be true,” she says. “My compassion and attention to detail have helped me so much along the way in my lifestyle.”
Flory agrees that there’s often a common misconception about farm life, not only as a woman working on a farm, but regarding the industry in general.
“Being a working woman is hard enough, but when you add in the unpredictable schedule, the dirt and the 1,600-pound animals, sometimes you feel like there aren’t a lot of people out there who ‘get you,'” she says.
“The most common misconception I come across is that [many people] can’t—or don’t—believe I actually do this for a living,” she says. “I used to be quite offended when someone would ask, ‘Well, what else do you do?’ I have come to realize that they just can’t imagine a 5’1″ blonde milking cows and shoveling cow poop.”
Misguided public perceptions have fueled Flory’s desire to fight the stereotype.
“I try and help others see that dairy farming today doesn’t look exactly the same as the image they might have in their heads,” she explains. “Technology and increased knowledge have brought the dairy industry so far, and I hope to help people understand that women can bring a lot to the table when it comes to animal enterprises.”
Technology has played a big part in the modernization of the dairy farms on which both Flory and Rucks work.
“The first and most notable way it has made my tasks easier is that it is accurate,” says Flory. “While I take pride in knowing my animals, I am not there with them all day and all night. Just like people, not all cows are the same.”
She explains that the robotic milking system used on her farm helps ensure she’s tailoring her daily efforts to the right animals at the right time: “It maximizes my time and effort and, in the end, usually makes less work for me and better care for the cows.”
Another benefit of the fusion of modern technologies and old-school farming practices is that there’s been a massive reduction in physical labor.
Closely tracking the cows through technology allows Flory to quickly identify and devote time to the cows that need the most attention.
“As long as [the animals] are well and milking frequently enough, they get to do whatever they want. The calm atmosphere makes them easy to work with and for the most part they are highly cooperative,” she says.
I try and help others see that dairy farming today doesn’t look exactly the same as the image they might have in their head.
Laura Flory
Rucks has also noticed a shift toward using technology to better monitor the animals on her farm.
“We’re able to know if a cow is feeling a little ‘off’ that day before she ever begins to show clinical signs of illness. We monitor eating, standing, walking and laying times,” she says. Automatic calf feeders also ensure that young calves are able to drink milk whenever they need nourishment, 24/7.
“With today’s technology and the Internet at our fingertips, we can get ideas and answers immediately,” she says. “If my grandfather were still alive, he would be blown away by this ability.”
For Rucks, the “sweet spot” involves a combination of new ideas and technology mixed with the tried-and-true methods of previous generations.
“Even in modern times, people and ideas may change, but the cow is still the same,” she says. “Sometimes ‘listening’ to her is all you need.”
Source: Mashable
