By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

NEWARK, Ohio — Farming might be classified as one of those occupations normally spearheaded by the man in the family. But at  the Shipley Dairy Farms near Newark, Stacey Atherton is at the controls, and loves every minute of it.
“I work in a man’s world and dealing with people’s perspective on the matter is what I ran into a lot,” she said. “But I haven’t let it bother me.”

Atherton (maiden name Shipley) and her husband, Brad, tend to 2,500 acres in Licking and Knox counties. Brad said he’s more like the hired hand in this two-person operation, as Stacy now runs the farm, which has been in her family’s possession since 1941.

 “When people asked me what I wanted to do after college, I told them I wanted to go back to the farm. People immediately thought I wanted to go to the farm and be a stay-at-home mom,” Atherton said. “That was far from the case. I wanted to work the farm and run the farm.”

After graduating from The Ohio State University in 2006, she did return to the farm. “Stacey played a lot of sports in high school, sports like basketball and volleyball and was very active in 4-H and FFA,” said her father, Tim Shipley.
“Stacey always liked the cows and in 4-H she was real competitive when it came to showing those cows. But I never thought her interest was in coming back to the farm.

“When she told me she wanted to return to the farm to manage the farm, I told her we always had room and we’d have to expand a little bit to make that extra income. Since Stacey has returned to the farm we’ve increased milk production, thanks to her attention to details. I’m not that good at attention to detail and that’s what we needed around here. She does a much better job,” he added.

Shipley, like many fathers with daughters, simply thought Stacey would marry and move away. “When she was a little girl I never dreamed that she’d one day have an interest of coming back to the farm,” he said.

“I wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty, I guess,” Atherton said. “People have it in their heads that a girl shouldn’t go back to the farm.  Actually, it’s not become a big issue. I’m hearing of more and more daughters going back the farm to work.

“I think women do a good job on the farm because of all the nurturing they do in life. Women have that ability of keeping a watchful eye on things.”
To help them manage the farm, she hired three full-time employees, two of whom are women.

“I wanted to come back home because I really do enjoy working with the cows. I could go somewhere else and work, and probably make a lot more money and work a lot less hours, but I consider myself lucky to be around here and work with these girls every day,” Atherton said.

At OSU, she majored in animal science and has a minor in ag business. “Business is a big part of the dairy farm, so I took a lot of business classes for that reason,” she said. “It also enhances my knowledge of animal reproduction and nutrition.”

Atherton has a busy schedule off the farm as well. She is one of 13 members of the recently created Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. She has served as 4-H advisor for the Licking County Jersey Club since 2006 and is a member of the Ohio Dairy Producers and the Ohio Farm Bureau.

Farming has been in the Atherton family for generations.

Her father served as a 4-H advisor for 20 years, as did her grandfather and great-grandfather.

“When our family started out in 1941, we had 10 or 15 cows,” Atherton’s grandfather said. “We thought we were as busy as we ever could be. We then had 40 cows, but that wasn’t enough to make a living. Then the sons came in and we increased to 300 cows, but that’s still a relatively small farm.”
Atherton now keeps tabs on 245 milking cows and 450 heifers.

“Regardless of size, we’re dairy farmers because we love it,” she said. “As many hours as you put in, you’d have to be crazy to do it just to make money. We want to make sure our milk is a safe, nutritious product for everybody to drink.”

Atherton and her husband Brad recently gave birth to their first child, Charlie on Thurs. April 14.

“People have asked me what I’m going to do once the baby arrives,” she said. “Some people think I’ll be stuck in the house with the baby, but I’m thinking of having the baby carriage right out there in the barn with me.”