MASON, Ohio — Amy Sigg Davis says she wouldn’t have her life any other way. While other little girls gravitated toward Barbie dolls and dollhouses, she was always drawn to farm chores and working with the soil. She believes it was always in her DNA.

“I was my dad’s boy. Mom dressed me in dresses but whenever I was with Dad, I wore jeans, and that was my preference,” Davis said. “Everybody in my family have been farmers. From the moment I was born, farming was a part of me. I was always around farm equipment; I love it intensely.”

There are other women in Warren and neighboring counties who take a part in farm operations with their husbands, but she is at the helm of this farm.

“It’s a man’s business, and has been since the beginning of time,” she said. “Women have always been critically important to farming. Traditionally, we were the ones who kept the men fed and healthy, looked after the livestock and kept the record books.

“Now we are taking on a new role, moving into the business and workings of the farm as a whole.”

Her husband, Walter, is a retired civil engineer. She works part-time as a Realtor. But when it comes time to grow and harvest their corn and soybeans, she is the one found in the tractor and combine.

Davis has been in charge of this 1,200-acre farm on Hamilton Road in Turtlecreek Township for more than 30 years. Experience is on her side; she had her own heifer at age 10. By the time she was 15 she owned a herd of shorthorns.

“My first love is the dirt,” she said. “Soil is a world of its own, with all the microorganisms and all the things going on in that soil to produce a plant.”

A woman in a man’s business – that’s how Davis sees herself. “Over the years sexual prejudice has been an issue,” she said. “Many of my farmer peers didn’t take me seriously because I pierced my ears and wore fingernail polish. But it’s never bothered me. I’m very comfortable with what I know.”

She’s also comfortable knowing she works in agriculture, Ohio’s No. 1 industry. “I look out at a field of corn and see a lot of jobs,” she said.

“There’s the jobs for the farmhands of course, but also people in the transport industry, the people in the soda industry who use it to make soda pop, people making the soda pop cans and the people selling the soda. Agriculture is Ohio’s No. 1 industry. The role played by Ohio farmers is huge.”

Her passion and dedication to farming hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last year Davis was one of four women recognized as Agriculture Woman of the Year by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. She also served on the Ohio Soybean Council for several years.