HUNTINGBURG, Ind. – There is a greater understanding and acceptance of women as farm owners, operators and decision makers today than in the past, according to a fourth-generation Huntingburg dairy farmer.

“In today’s business climate, it is imperative that ag service providers understand and respect the role of women in agriculture, or their companies are going to be left behind,” Sam Schwoeppe told Farm World. “If they choose to ignore women in agriculture, they are purposefully missing out on a large percentage of their potential clientele.”

Schwoeppe and her husband, Darren, along with their two sons, own their family’s dairy operation in Dubois County. Sam said the role of women in agriculture and on the farm has changed over the years.

“We all know few things in life are guaranteed, and something we can depend on is change,” she explained. “As technology improves, all roles on the farm change. One example is milking cows, which used to be done by hand and is now commonly done by robots.

“Women are masters of the side hustle. Thinking back to our grandmas – how many multi-generation farms have something bought with grandma’s ‘egg money’? Whether it is laying hens, freezer beef, jams, jellies, pies, cakes, bookkeeping, consulting, judging, random ag sales and service, trucking, or sewing and crafts, women have been the value add in agriculture on farms for generations.”

Schwoeppe is one of 1.22 million female producers in the United States, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. That number was down from 1.23 million in 2017. The number of male producers was also down, from 2.17 million in 2017 to 2.15 million in 2022. The census defines a producer as someone who is involved in decision making for the farm operation.

The census found that farms with a female producer and farms with a male producer differed in one key aspect, said Virginia Harris, a statistician with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Harris spoke Feb. 15 during the 2024 Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington, Va.

“Farms with at least one female producer are much less likely to be operated by a single person,” Harris stated. “Most women are involved in farms with other people. Just 11 percent of farms with a female producer have just one person involved. While men are much more likely (37 percent) to be operating farms as sole operators of that farming operation.”

The involvement of men and women in decision making varied by sex, Harris noted.

“For example, female producers, their highest participation in decision making (was) in the categories of day-to-day decisions, record keeping and financial management aspects of the farm. Male producers were much more involved than female producers in making decisions about land use and crops.”

In conjunction with the designation of March as National Women’s History Month, Damarys Mortenson, the Indiana State Conservationist for the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, issued a statement on the importance and contributions of female producers. The Hoosier state has about 31,000 female producers, according to 2022 census.

“Indiana is blessed to have a large number of female producers and landowners,” he said. “Whether they operate a large row crop farm or a small community garden, March offers us the chance to highlight the impact they continue to have throughout the state and the role they play in putting conservation practices on the land.”

Schwoeppe is the Indiana Farm Bureau’s district 9 education and outreach coordinator, and serves on the organization’s livestock and animal care policy advisory group. She is the director of business partnerships at Fresh Connect Central, an agrifood distributor operated by Gleaners mainly serving the national Feeding America network.

She said women have always been involved in the daily operations on farms.

“From farm to farm, our roles differ,” she pointed out. “As our families grow and develop, our roles change and the knowledge, expertise, labor and support from the women in the family is integral to the success of our family farms.

“There isn’t men’s and women’s work on farms – there is farm work. People are only limited by their understanding of what the work entails. Women can manage the herd, change oil in the tractor, fix a flat tire, plant corn, bale hay, run a combine, manage accounts, write checks, negotiate with bankers and suppliers, and more. With education and training, the possibilities are endless.”

Women farmers are accountants, veterinarians and teachers, and some have an interest in robotics, microbiology, genetics, nutrigenomics and environmentalism, Schwoeppe said. It’s empowering to know women can accomplish anything they set their minds to do, she said. Many of the people doing all these things on the side are also the centers of their family support system, Schwoeppe added.

She offered advice for women who might feel they aren’t taken seriously, or who aren’t treated equally.

“It is not a man-versus-woman battle,” Schwoeppe said. “It is everyone’s responsibility to be self-aware. We have to have enough self-awareness to understand, ‘Holy cow, I didn’t handle that as well as I could have. Now what do I need to do to fix it?’ We have to care enough for one another to be honest and have conversations where we provide real input and are not just checking a box.

“Authenticity is key. Speak your truth, acknowledge everyone in the room, include them, start the conversation, and move forward. We are not perfect, and we will not get everything right all the time. Sometimes we are completely wrong. Guess what? We can learn from failure and turn it into success. It is all in the perspective of how we look at things.”