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Founded in 1909, UFA Co-operative Limited is an Alberta-based agricultural co-operative with more than 120,000 member-owners. UFA’s network comprises more than 114 bulk fuel and Cardlock Petroleum locations, 34 Farm & Ranch Supply stores and a support office in Calgary, AB. Independent Petroleum Agents and over 1,000 UFA employees provide products, services and agricultural solutions to farmers, ranchers, members and commercial customers in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
It takes a certain kind of ambition to do what farmers do. Between the hours and the hard labor, to the public scrutiny and bureaucratic maze running, it's not an easy task. While the agricultural industry feeds millions, quietly tilling and producing behind the scenes, many forget that our food comes from the hands of real people with real stories.
Join us as we share stories from those with boots on the ground and unearth unique perspectives on agriculture's biggest conversations. It's time to grab your shovel and get to work. I'm Don Schaffer and this is Digging In with UFA.
The fabric of agriculture is woven with the diligence and perseverance of the entire family. While the cultural history and legacy of farming may appear male-dominated, the significant contributions of women in shaping the industry are often overlooked. From the rolling hills along Cowboy Trail to the cattle pastures of northeastern Alberta, we're joined by two remarkable women whose stories are as inspiring as they are grounded in grit, art, and heritage.
Today, we dig in on the women of agriculture.
Establishing yourself as an expert in your field takes partnership, perseverance, and passion. Josie's story exemplifies this path. With over 31 years running a cattle business and establishing herself as a leader and expert in artificial insemination, the original AI, Josie's a testament to the diligence and growth of a vision realized. This is Josie Peschulka. My name is Josie Peschulka.
I'm a cattle farmer located in northeastern Alberta. I'm originally from Manitoba. I grew up on a mixed farm operation there, south of Brandon. And I actually came out here to Lakeland College in Vermillion to take the herd health and the animal health program and never left the area. I met my future husband and we started our cattle company, Versilvia Cattle Company, 31 years ago, the year that we got married.
So I actually, when we got married, I brought a herd that I had started from my years in 4-H. I brought them out as a dowry, I guess you could say, to start our operation and added to my husband's. And we've kind of just progressed from there. I went to Lakeland College and completed the programs there. I actually managed their bull test facility and looked after it for a few years. I did on the road feed sales for about 10 years for a feed company up in the area.
And during that time we were growing our operation and we have three sons. So we are definitely family run operation. We run 400 cows and their purebreds and commercial cattle.
We do a lot of AIing, about 150 head naturally heat detection, and then we put embryos in about 100 head as well. And then the commercials and the purebreds basically run together. Then we grain farm and do some silage and hay as well. There's absolutely no downtime around here, so it's always busy.
When we first started, we had a few pure breads and then we had added commercials and I guess every opportunity that we had to build the herd, you we had some opportunities to lease cows from some producers to grow the herd and I guess work ethic was never an issue. We always wanted to work hard and felt that we would reap the benefits of that. So any opportunity we got, we took it and you know what, those gambles have definitely paid off for us. Where we started, we just had a house
and some old corrals and now we've got a yearly bullsail and we go to all the big cattle shows in the fall. That run will start next week. so, yeah, it's been a 50-50 between me and my husband the entire time and we bounce ideas off each other and just kind of go from there.
The rich histories of land stewardship and family farm dynamics don't only begin in generations past. They can begin with the intrigue of environmental ethics and sustainability, even from the bustle of the big city. Though Rachel's story begins outside the industry, that has unhindered her fortitude in establishing herself as a voice for sustainable agriculture through her work as an author, teacher, and advocate. This is Rachel Herbert.
I'm Rachel Herbert and I'm a rancher near Natin, Alberta. We're a family ranch and we're the fourth generation raising a fifth on some of the same land. We raise red and black Angus cattle and what differentiates us is that we retain all our cattle through their life cycle and we finish and direct market all of our cattle as grass-finished beef. So we really have a full circle approach that lets us
raise the cows on the land and then we put the beef into the hands of the families that we feed year after year. So I was raised in Calgary and Trails End is the traditional summer grazing grounds that are in the hills, porcupine hills west of Nantan. And even though I was raised in the city, I spent summers out at Trails End. It was a romantic summer holiday. My mom just made every day special. We learned the land.
and it was always in my heart. So when I came back to the ranch for a summer holiday, I met a cowboy and the rest is history. I was also a long-term vegetarian. I'd been a vegetarian for 18 years and was in the horse industry, equestrian. So I had this real love for animals and love for the land. And along with my mom, Linda Laree, who has since passed, when she came into her piece of
family ranch. I was a young idealist with a really capable cowboy and we thought what does this look like for the ranch going forward and that's when we discovered that some people were retaining their cattle to finish as grass-fed beef and that just really fit with our environmental ethics, our animal welfare ethics and it really felt like it would be our way to carry the ranch forward into the next generation.
And here we are now. We've been married 21 years and started the ranch right when we were first married. Our kids are teenagers now and it's just so important for us and our decision making that we think of the next generation. There's so many decisions that happen on a daily basis and all of those lead up to the bigger picture. So it's just a full circle approach and it's really special to be able to do that with our family.
Women in agriculture have unique challenges when it comes to industry's visibility and familial expectation. Historically, based with the pressures of a demanding industry, women continue to be the stewards of education, mental health, and champions in the societal shifting of gender roles through the power of community. I guess I had lots of opportunities. was always, my parents were hands-on learning, get your hands dirty and learn everything.
do this job, you have to have a love and a passion for it and a lot of heart because there's ups and downs in it. any chance we get to let people find out about Ag, you know, we welcome them. You know, last week we had a tour of 40 college kids here touring around the farm. And so any opportunity like that, you definitely want to give back to it because we had those opportunities when we were younger. there was lots of people, you know, throughout the years and you know,
As a young person growing up, I never ever had anybody tell me that because I'm a female, I couldn't do stuff. Definitely growing up, I did just the same things as my brothers did, right? So I had the same opportunities. So I was never, you know, really had that ever put to me. It was like, if I want to do it, just pursue it and go for your dreams. And a lot of my mentors, and I've had lots throughout the years, it might be a local producer, it might have been,
an educator, and it just depends. And basically anybody has all had the same theme that if you have the desire, the dream, and the drive to do it, then just go for it, right? And so I firmly believe in that. And it doesn't matter if you're male or female. You know what? Back 15, 20 years ago, there definitely, like what I was doing on the road feed sales, it was tough. There wasn't too many women in the feed business. But what I found
was that if you showed the producers and the people buying from you and working with that you knew what you're talking about and you had the drive and ambition and knowledge, as soon as you prove that to them, you had those farmers behind you 100%. Right. So, you know, and nowadays I definitely, you know, in all the groups that I'm involved in, organizations and volunteer stuff, it's easily 50 50. Like it's not.
You you go in, that's all men that you're dealing with, right? So that definitely changed. I think that anybody, they, like I said, have the drive with passion and knowledge, that is what should matter, right? And you look out, you know, when I'm teaching a class at the college and I see that 75 % of it's females now, that's incredible and great to see. Women add a different perspective than what males do, and that's just obvious.
I think it's a compliment to the ag industry, right? So when I returned to the roots on the family ranch, I was an academic going to university studying literature and history and came into this community full of depth and skill and history. And I had this outsider's perspective and I wanted to dig a little deeper into that.
When I went back to the classroom at university, the stories that I was hearing about women in agriculture were the cliches. They fed big threshing crews. They lived in sod huts and had this burden of labor on them. And that wasn't what I was seeing in our community. And that wasn't what I knew from my family's history. There I was in branding pens watching these skillful cowgirls, competent ranchers.
roping cattle, cutting calves, and these aren't skills learned overnight. These are deeply rooted skills that are developed through three years of experience and the respect, the position in the community that the ranching women are holding. I like, this doesn't resonate. Where are these stories? Where does this come from? I know that my granny helped hold the ranch together. Our ranch has been passed down along matrilineal lines. I'm like, where are the stories of these women that I know are out there? So I...
dug a little deeper and didn't have to scratch the surface to know that women have always held a really important role, especially in livestock agriculture. Women have always upheld a huge part of the operation. And we hear these myths like it's the cowboy cultures, the cattle barons and the cattle kings. The ranches that have sustained through generations are typically family ranches. They're typically run in partnership where both
husband and wife, kids, extended family are the glue that holds the operation together and gets the day-to-day work done. I see that with my own kids now. I have this academic perspective, so I'm analyzing and I'm wondering where does this all come from? And I don't have those skills that were raised with a rope in my hand since birth.
So I can feel sometimes like a little bit of an imposter, even if I'm out there managing a herd on my own, feeding the cows, managing the kids, riding a horse alone in the hills, getting the job done, I can still feel like I have that little bit of imposter syndrome. Like, what am I doing here? How did I get so lucky to be here? And then the other day we're out in the corral, my husband and my 15 year old daughter brought some pears in and she just throws a loop on the calves, had a couple calves to doctor and it's just...
It's second nature to her, right? It's just so natural, so quiet, so calm. And those are the moments when you realize like, this is why we're doing it. And you don't have to feel like an imposter because we all bring different roles to the table. I can be an advocate. I can use my voice. I can help build those connections to the industry. And it's all these families at the heart of the agricultural industry, contributing the skills that makes ranching and livestock and the family business come together.
When I was doing some of my research, I encountered a ranching woman from California, Linda Husser. And she said, I know of no other industry that turns totally within the concentric circles of family and community. And I read that almost 20 years ago. And it's still so poignant today is we define ourselves by our work. Our family culture is shaped by our work. Sometimes
That's a hardship. Like it's hard to turn off at the end of the day. There isn't that room for flexibility, but we're so appreciative of the work that we get to do and that connection that we build with the land and the people that we work with. Sustainability isn't just a buzzword. It's a way of life. As producers and farmers, we know it's the land that guides us. The role we play in stewardship is making sure to give back to the land.
that continues to give so much to us. By ensuring sustainability through action and advocacy, we protect Canada's natural resources for generations to come. Sustainability is at the core of what we do, and that can sound like a cliché, but there's sustainability on so many different levels. So one is just the sense of stewardship that on a generational operation, we don't feel like
we're the owners, that this is proprietorship. We feel like we are blessed to be the caretakers at this given moment. And with that comes a responsibility to make the decisions that are gonna carry into the future. So when we think about the day to day, when we think about the bigger picture decisions, we really have to operate in what is going to be best, not just for us, but for the next generation. Most fundamentally, that comes down to the land and the water, because those two things are at the.
core of raising cattle and making a business successful. Without that land, we've got nothing. We're in southern Alberta. One of the stressors in our area for the last five, almost seven years, has been really deep drought. When I was reading the history of women first coming out here and establishing a sense of place and a sense of home,
They were out there on the land. They were learning the names of the wildflowers and they were integrating themselves and their children on the land. Every ranch has the special places that hold a family name. We know what it's like to tell the kids to ride down the Black Path and through the Heifer pasture. When you get to the canyon, then you'll need to go to the North Greg Field and
Hey, was the golden rod blooming? Or, you know, our kids just know the names. They have a sense of themselves as connection to the place. And I think that's one thing that women in particular can really facilitate on family ranches is that knowing and that loving of place. And that's how we will be able to protect a place and see the wild places preserved in Alberta. So much has changed in the world around us, but things stay the same in ranching and
When I was doing my research on the first and second generation of women, even then when women didn't have the right to vote or legal land ownership, women owned herds of cattle. They had their own registered brands way before that they could vote. And a lot of marriages were put together with two cow herds coming together. And when I first met my husband, he was a cowboy on a working ranch near Naton.
and I started raising pale bunter calves for the rancher there. Someone was like, there's a woman. I was obsessed with these little calves and would nurture the little pale bunter calves, the ones that were orphaned or a twin or needed. And then the rancher gave me a few of those calves that I had raised to start my own herd. So we all bring something to the table and it's just those ways that those relationships and those cow herds start together hasn't changed. I think that, you know, as
times have definitely evolved. Like I remember being a 17 year old girl and my dad passing away and being shocked that all of a sudden the banks didn't want to deal with my mom. And it was a huge eye opener stress for a family that all of a sudden they told her, you know, the loans were going to get recalled and all this stuff and the stress that we may lose our family operation, right? And so my mom had to figure out
how to deal and make the banks believe that she wanted to carry on farming and that my younger brother wanted to stay on the farm and that eventually he has. And so the farm is still in our legacy. But nowadays you don't see any circumstances like that happening, right? But back 35 years ago, that was a common thing that happened to family operations and the resilience and the strength of the women.
that were before us definitely was amazing, right? The ones that persevered through that. So things have definitely changed and gotten better, but I'll never forget that moment in my life history, right? Raising a teenage daughter in the ranching industry, it's almost like she wouldn't even believe the story that she had heard because we're in this generation now where everyone feels like they've got potential. Everyone's abilities are recognized and...
We've come a long way, but now I think we've got a responsibility to make sure that our daughters and those taking the reins and going forward understand that it wasn't that long ago that we could be taken for granted. Even though we know for 150 years, women have been contributing to agricultural operations, especially in the livestock operations. The horse was an equalizer when the first cattle herds came out here and women were expected to pull their weight.
But I think that it's important to have that sense of our history to know that things change generation by generation and we've got to keep the work moving forward. I think it's really encouraging to see women in leadership roles in sustainable beef in our livestock boards and in roles like advocating for mental health. We see women making really prominent strides in how we're connecting with the public about the work that goes on in agriculture and
I think women are also really contributing to the stories of how we live on and with the land. And I think that there's a lot of room to keep growing, but I think we're in a pretty cool place right now. Even when I started my research 20 years ago, people were like, wow, tell us the story about women in ranching. Now we're living that story. Women are the leaders now. Agriculture is more than just a business. It's an often thankless lifestyle.
filled with extraordinary peaks and debilitating valleys. When the reality of your job leaves very little time for much else, it takes a concentrated and intentional level of empathy and care to keep agricultural communities moving forward despite it all. How do we continue to ensure communal personal well-being both on and off the ranch? I think a lot on the operation.
you know, the extra heart and softness and understanding that women will add to the operation, right? We definitely see things differently. I'm surrounded by men. So it's my husband, three sons. We do some grain farming with a single, he's a single bachelor brother-in-law and the only parent I guess that I have left is my father-in-law. So it's all men that I deal with. And so
We definitely see a softness or opposite sides and add some heart to it and can take some of the harshness away to some of the things. So we definitely have a very profound effect on how we deal with things, I think. I entered the livestock industry as a long time vegetarian because I had a deep love for animals. But in my youth, I was naive that thinking
If you love animals, you can't necessarily have them as part of your food. And when I got to actually integrate, become part of the industry, to see the care and the attention that goes into raising animals, it really translates to a deeper connection with your food. And I think that that's where women's roles can really shine through. I don't do all of the cooking in my house. My teenage son is an amazing cook. My husband loves to cook. So that's a shared role in our home, but
One of my daily responsibilities is I always think I'm either thinking about food, making food, raising food, talking about food, selling food. And I've been able to see the love that goes into animals and the intention that goes into every meal on our plate. And it's one of the privileges that we have is being able to feed our family just this high quality food that we know the story. We know it was raised. We know the work that goes into it. But
In our capacity as direct marketing beef, we've been able to build that connection with so many families. And a few generations ago, everyone had a family farm in their history. Someone had an aunt or a grandparent on the farm. Now people don't necessarily have that chance to get into a barnyard. So we've got a small farm store in our barnyard. We sell our beef in bulk to the same families now for 17 years. So we've built.
real relationships and we've been able to be a part of families food stories. People have been able to bring their kids into the barnyard, know the ranchers. Some people even want a photo of their cow for the year. So I think that's where women's strengths can be is in that important food relationship that's also really the core of what we're doing in the livestock industry. We're putting food on people's tables and it feels really good to know that that's been
done with care and intention and we're just raising quality for people to eat. I think one of the misconceptions about women in a rural space is that we're leading a simple life. I hear that quite often from conversations with friends in the city or you know someone you run into at the hockey rink. say, oh you know one day I just want to move to the country for the simple life. And I think...
you didn't know what you do in a day and how your weeks roll out. And believe me, you never start your day and finish it the way that you think it's going to go. We're always planning, pivoting, juggling so many things at once. We say yes to things. We take those opportunities as they come up and then we're gonna run out and I'm gonna catch up with my family who's just gone fencing in the hills to put a new gate around the dugout.
I'm going to go in and vote and you think there are literally 110 things to do in every day. And I wouldn't change it for the world because I feel like I get such a well-rounded life. But I think a huge misconception is we're out here leading a simple life. We've got all the pressures of the modern world. We're running businesses. We're educators. We're advocates. We're mothers. And there's just a lot of work that goes into every day.
There's a lot of legs on the ground, a lot of mouths to feed, and we're lucky to do it, but it's a full life.
Storytelling shapes opinion. That's to say, reception is perception. For those who may never step foot in the tilled soil of a generation's own homestead, the stories that agriculture and the communities who shape it are the only glimpse into the realities of a world they will never see. When we say storytelling is important, we mean it. Storytelling definitely makes a connection. I was lucky enough to be a recipient of a Women in Ag award in the springtime.
And I had two guys come out to do an interview. They're both from BC. They lived on little farms, but they wanted to know some stories. And so they asked me questions during this interview. They were doing a video that was going to be at the presentation. And one of their questions that they asked me was, what's your favorite experience or time on the farm? And basically what I said to them is I do the calving checks.
Usually 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. is when I go out and check cows. And you have to remember this is in January and February when the weather's not too nice. And so I described to them, I said, my favorite time, everything's quiet. I go out and I'll walk through the cattle. And I said, just the peace. You can literally hear every crisp moment from the snow crunching under your feet to maybe an owl overhead. And I said, that is my moment of peace and enjoyment.
And for some people, maybe they go to church, but that is my moment in time that I feel at most at peace and enjoy the farming. And that's kind of my church is doing that and just reaching out. And so I looked over, I described a story and I told them about my dad passing away when I was a young girl. And he instilled the love of nature and about describing checking cows in the middle of the night. I look over and these two guys were crying.
And they're like, that was the most amazing story. And I said, well, it's not a story. I do that for two solid months, you know, 70 days while we're cabbing or whatever. And every night I get to experience that. Sometimes it's minus 40. So it's not as good of an experience as on the minus 10 nights, right? And so, you know what? I am very fortunate to have all the experience that I have had in my life. And that is definitely through storytelling and getting people to relate.
That is how we touch people's hearts and so how they learn more about our way of life. One way that I participate in storytelling on the ranch is what I call computer ranching. And computer ranching involves a whole bunch of things. It's the bookkeeping, it's the cattle records. A lot of it is our customer relations and the emailing and the ordering. But some of that is storytelling and using images and social media to connect people to the ranch.
My favourite place in the world is to be on top of a big hill, in the Parky Point Hills, on top of a horse with a view of the valleys and just the big sky. That's my Church of the Long Grass, as John Wart Hannum says. And to be able to communicate that to people and show them that the stewardship that goes on ranch lands maintains some of the most biodiverse and abundant
wild places that we have left. We're so lucky in Alberta to still have big open spaces that function as wildlife corridors and carbon sinks and native grasslands that are just full of life that you don't see unless you're out there in the grass. And you can see the birds, the birds and the elk and the coyotes and the grizzly bears. And to be a part of that and know that that's where we make our life and that's where our business operates is pretty incredible. And
We do our best to communicate that to people, whether it's on Facebook or Instagram. And the pictures look beautiful and it can make ranching look pretty romantic. But for all of the hard work and the dirty days and the heartbreak and the stress, you got to soak up those moments and just really appreciate where we get to live. We get asked about Yellowstone all the time. I think because we have such a forward-facing operation and
or putting beef in people's hands and my husband wears a cowboy hat and he kind of looks like a movie star cowboy sometimes. So I don't personally get asked so much but he does for sure. And I think as much as it's got the Western culture has people thinking about maybe the cowboy lifestyle, I think it's missing the mark. I think there was a lot of...
There was a lot of passion with how the Duttons were protecting their land. And I can say that I relate to that passion. But for me, it comes in much more of an all encompassing that I'm protecting something for the benefit of everyone, not because it's a sense of ownership and protecting and building a wall or a higher fence around what I have. I think that ranchers really serve as stewards.
for our land and our watersheds and our lifestyle. mean, the great clothes and the hat comes with that and the beautiful landscapes, but there's really an important role and that environmentalists and ranchers are a lot more interconnected than they're portrayed on TV.
takes a great deal of empathy and effort in cultivating lasting legacies and institutions of change in the agricultural industry. All it takes today is one calf, one conversation, and one community. We've had people ask if every farm has a train station, which of course we don't, but the whole Yellowstone deal is great. It's caused lots of people to look beyond.
the outside limits of the city or town that they live in. There's lots of things about that are great and there's lots that are misconstrued. One that comes example is him riding out and seeing this cow calving. Well, he helps this cow calving up pops this 400 pounds steer runs away that supposedly this cow just burst. you know, there's a lot of unrealistic things in there as well. But anything that makes people appreciate agriculture and
and nature and the beauty it also has, I think, is a benefit. There's definitely some unrealistic parts to it, for sure. But I think any young women, I get to see some of when I teach the artificial insemination courses every year. As long as they have a dream and a passion, I don't think there's anything that can hold you back. know, when things come up, challenges, you just deal with them.
and tomorrow's a new day and just go after what you really want to do and believe in and you'll be successful. What I would tell young women in agriculture is that we're not obligated to be here. I wasn't raised on a ranch, but it was in my blood. I was familiar with how a ranch operated, but I never would have told you I was going to be a rancher. We don't have to be here because we're obligated or it's an expectation. We can participate in agriculture as a conscious decision.
of really embracing what the industry has to offer and bringing our own talents and gifts and doing it in a different way. There's always going to be room for change as much as so many things are going to stay the same. The night checks at 20 below in calving season, those are going to always be there, but we all have our own gifts. What I think about going forward for my own children is, you know, I can maybe be still see things a little rosy because I know that I
I chose to be here. But for the kids who are raised in agriculture, they know how much work it is. They know that it's rare to take a day off. They know the stresses that they see their parents go through, the hard conversations happen at the kitchen table. They know more about life and death than most people walking the planet. So I think for them, we always think, okay, will they choose this knowing how much work goes into it?
I think however they circle back, I think it's just a really interesting gift to know that we're responsible for so much land and animals and family and that that's a gift as much as hard work. myself would probably be the resilience and just the overall passion that I've had. It doesn't matter what part of ag, but there's always, I've always had a passion for it.
And you know, definitely when you get a chance to educate people, like I said, I've taught artificial insemination for 18 years. So we're talking probably 4500 people that I've been able to teach over those years, right? And so, you know, you meet some of these people, you only get them for a few days when you're teaching them. And then you meet them 10 years later, and they're like, Oh, you know, I learned so much, I loved your course, and all of that. So you know what, that always feels good.
The last five years we've been doing a junior course with kids that are like 13 to 18 and it's like a weekend camp for them and they're all become good buddies and lots of them are lifetime supporters of each other. All of that gives you a really good feeling of connection and that you have made an impact. And sure the awards are nice and getting to speak to people about it, but there's been lots of great moments, right? It's hard to sum that one up. I can't say there's anything that
one thing that I'm most proud of. But there's a really great feeling that my husband and I get to experience every beef season. And I often wish that all livestock producers could get this sense of satisfaction of knowing what it feels like to put the beef that you've raised into people's hands and see their genuine appreciation. We've got an established business now. And so we see the same people year after year, and they have genuine gratitude.
for their food producers. And I think sometimes the industry can feel attacked from outside pressures and just the changes in the world. to be able to know that we're doing what we know works with the land and with our cattle and then to get that direct gratitude back is a really rewarding experience as a livestock producer. I wish that everyone could get that feeling of knowing that we get to put food on people's tables and see their kids grow and
See them lift the heavy boxes of beef and say, hey, your kids pretty strong. They've been eating good food. That kind of relationship building has been really special in how we've chosen to ranch these last many years now. I never would have imagined that I'd be part of the matriarchy of Trails End and the Midway Ranch. I've lost my mom and I've lost my aunt who ranched on the family ranch.
I've got a really close cousin who's like a sister to me and we put a lot of expectations on ourselves and you you can feel the weight of the ancestors, but I feel like she and I can say at the end of the day that the grannies are smiling down and I think they feel like the ranch is in good hands. And as long as we keep being true and intentional and authentic and we've got a work ethic that was built into us, it feels good to know that.
we can keep making progress in leaving the ranch in good hands for the next generations.
I have many different hats in the egg industry, being part of our family operation with the purebreds and commercials, supplying seed stock to other producers, and now selling females or bulls to second and third generations. You know, that's incredible. As far as my teaching artificial insemination courses, you know, the legacy, the number of people that that has impacted their own operations from skills that they've learned that you've taught them.
That's incredible. And then with the verified beef production, just getting to go to producers places and learning about their operation and about on-farm food safety and supplying safe beef, you know, that's something that is hugely rewarding to be a part of as well. So, you know, there's just so many opportunities I've been blessed with and, know, our everyday way of life. So I really think the sky's the limit for any women that...
or starting out and want to go into ag, just dream big and just go for it and you'll be rewarded many, many times over and just enjoy all the small moments that you get to get rewarded every day with. What I would want my kids to know and anyone who is responsible for land that's in their care is to continue to use your voice.
stay true to the values that we know because we are so connected to the land and to the seasons and to the weather and the animals is that we can be a voice for that land and we need to know that it's in our capacity to stand up for this place and ensure that the land under our feet is better than we found it. There's nothing more appreciative than getting to talk about how we deal with
our day-to-day lives and work and agriculture and all the benefits we've had. And thank you for including me in this opportunity. It's been awesome. Thanks for the conversation. I always enjoy the opportunity to get to talk about the things that are so close to my heart.
At the end of the day, we look to our resiliency within ourselves and our communities to make our collective futures as bright as possible. All it will take is conversations like these, some vulnerability and a little digging.
Thanks to the support of UFA Cooperative, we're able to share stories from those who live and breathe agriculture. Thanks to Josie and Rachel for giving us a deeper perspective on women in agriculture of the past, present, and future. For more information and new episodes, visit ufa.com. With listeners like you, we'll continue to dig a little deeper here on Digging In with UFA. I'm Don Schaffer. Thanks for listening.
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