Erica Louder

Farming is rarely a one-man job. Very few can get by without some sort of outside “help.” Even with thin margins, having a hired hand or two makes a huge difference – if not financially, it sure helps with your quality of life.

March was Women’s History Month, and as a woman and a lover of history, I fully engage in the celebration of our vibrant and remarkable history. A social media post from popular blogger Carrie Mess – author of Dairy Carrie – reminded me not to forget about the history of women in agriculture. This got me thinking about how women in agriculture shaped my history.

Despite the labor pains of farming, a farmer eagerly lines up to experience it again and again, season after season.

It is like describing a car to a caveman – there is just not a point of reference to build common ground. There is nothing else like experiencing a total solar eclipse.

This year, when my husband began spouting off the old Farmers Almanac adage of “knee-high by the Fourth of July” to describe our corn crop, this history buff had to do some research. A Google search of that phrase brought up a couple of thousand links.

For as long as there have been farmers there have been farm wives. And today, we are not just farm wives; many of us are farmers in our own right. In an occupation where work, family and lifestyle are so impossibly intermingled, a female farmer faces a unique set of challenges.