"Our current farm is owned by my husband and I, it was established by his parents in 1978. We milk 200 cows including dry cows, altogether on the farm we have over 400 head from calves to cows. Agriculture is a way of life for my family. It is my passion to take care of my animals and produce the best quality milk that is high in butterfat and proteins. Agriculture feeds the world and I love being a part of that, and being a girl makes it that much better because I can show that not only guys are farmers.
Sometimes I struggle with being too attached to my animals. This is a hard part of the industry for me because people might not understand our passion for what we do and claim that we don't take care of our animals. Our animals are treated better than we treat ourselves most of the time. I work with my girls 24/7 and they all have their own personalities. When it comes time to cull my herd it is very hard for me to do.
*To cull within your herd means selling an animal. Farmers have different reasons for culling depending on how they operate their business.
I want consumers to know how hard we work to produce the products that we do. I want them to know the struggles that we endure and the obstacles we have to face to continue the farming traditions. I think everyone should spend at least a couple of days on farm job shadowing, to realize just what goes on behind the scenes. I think a lot of people would be surprised, in a good way. I've learned that you can NEVER take anything too serious! Try your best to laugh everything off because if you take it all to heart you will be VERY disappointed in your farming career. Learn to laugh....a lot, because sometimes that is the only thing you can do.
We usually show up late to wedding receptions and birthday parties (and I pray they keep the food out because a cold dinner is better than no dinner). I usually don't go out with friends very often because I have to get up early to do chores. And my son misses out on a lot of things too because we have to chop hay or work fields, etc. I do feel bad sometimes, like I fail at being a good mother because I can't take him to activities and things that he wants to go see or do. My family is affected a lot but my goals are to pay everything off and farm for the fun of it. I want to farm because it is something I enjoy, not because of the pressure to pay this or that. Once I have everything paid off I want to milk around 100 cows and run a little greenhouse of my own."
- I would like to thank Nathan and Melissa Guoan for taking the time to share their farm story.
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