Our farm is very diverse. First, my mom and I own and operate Old McDonald’s Farm, a woman-mother-daughter owned, hands-on agritourism business/ farm. Our visitors can interact with 200+ farm animals– even a camel– take a hayride to feed our giant Brown Swiss cows, watch a pig race, pick sunflowers, pick pumpkins, and get lost in a 12+ acre corn maze that we plant with GPS. In addition to Old McDonald’s Farm, my family has a 1500 cow dairy, North Harbor Dairy, and an 8,000 acre crop farm, Robbins Family Grain. I provide support for those other two businesses through government advocacy, public relations and truck dispatching. My husband, Jake is also a manager for North Harbor Dairy/ Robbins Family Grain, and we are raising one of the 6th generations of this family’s farmers.
I am a fifth generation farmer. My family has been farming on this land for over 100 years. After college, I dabbled in some other fields– mainly politics– but it always led back to agriculture. I knew that I would eventually come back to the farm, and when the time was right, I did. Working alongside my parents and now bringing up my daughter to appreciate agriculture and animals, has been the biggest blessing. I often joke about the old saying that girls usually marry someone who resembles their dad. I definitely married the younger version of my father! I’m so grateful to have found a partner who loves and appreciates farming and agriculture as much as I do!
This is the most rewarding life, but it is also challenging. Spending each day surrounded by God and his creatures being entrusted by Him to be the caretakers has a healing quality to it, but we are at the whim of mother nature, which can create a lot of stress and anxiety when it’s too wet or too dry, too cold or too hot. As farmers, we work with our family, and we are blessed to have a “village” close-by. The kids grow up with their grandparents next door and cousins all around them, but then you also never leave “work”– even holiday dinner conversations end up being about the farm. Despite the challenges, I wouldn’t want to do anything else or live anywhere else!
