I wrote my first blog post September 27, 2013. I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew is that I had something to say and I was going to say. I posted it in the middle of the night with tears rolling down my face. This farming gig was rough and to make it even worse the things people were saying about us as farmers were just plain awful.
I decided I wasn’t just going to sit back and do nothing. Complain about how “dumb” folks that live in the city were when in fact I use to be one of those people. The only difference between myself and city folks were that I grew up smack dab in rural America surrounded by farms and ranches. Despite knowing kids that grew up on ranches and showed cattle, I really knew nothing about where my food came from or how it was grown/raised.
I posted that blog post on my brand new Facebook page and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and by internet standards it had gone viral. Farmers and ranchers across the world had shared it. That day, I connected with farmers and ranchers all across the world. They felt those very same feelings of helplessness, frustration, and despair.
To my surprise however, I had countless people who were not farmers and ranchers reaching out to me. They wanted to let me know that they do care and so many wanted to know how they could help family farms like ours. I honestly felt like no one cared about farmers and ranchers and that day I was proven wrong. It wasn’t that they didn’t care, it was that they just didn’t know. They didn’t know us or our struggles to get food from our farm to their plate. And what they thought they knew wasn’t based off what they learned from farmers and ranchers. It was based on what they have read or seen online from animal rights groups or family/friends sharing misinformation.Those next few days confirmed for me what I had already knew. As farmers and ranchers we needed to tell our story. We needed to not only be part of the conversation, we needed to take control of the conversation. We needed to step up to the plate in a game that was being played for far too long without our participation. I dove in head first to sharing our story and have never looked back.
It has been over five years since I started this journey. I would love to say that it has been this amazing journey, but that wouldn’t be true. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, I’ve had some bumps and bruises along the way, and I have taken several breaks. I haven’t been actively sharing our farm story for almost a year now. I took a much-needed break and am ready to jump back in. No better way to do that then to share what I have learned over the years in hopes it will help others in telling their story or give them the push to do so. So what did I learn along the way?
Not all farmers/ranchers play on the same team. I think this was the hardest lesson for me. It truly amazes me that in the aftermath of a blizzard, folks will donate and drive thousands of miles to deliver hay to those in need. If a barn burns down, other farmers will be there to do whatever it takes to help. Online however, we are just like everyone else tearing each other down over the most petty things. In the coffee shop, men will sit around tearing apart whoever isn’t at the table with no regard to who might be listening. Women will gossip about the woman that doesn’t milk her own cows or pick her apart for the photo she posted of her kid and his heifer with a halter on wrong.
One of the most beautiful things about agriculture is how incredibly diverse we are. Even within the same industry, you will never find two farms who operate identically. Unfortunately with that comes folks that think that their way of doing things is the only way. We have folks that think that their method of milking cows is the only way, others that believe certain size farms are the devil while others think if you don’t milk your own cows every single day of your life that you are somehow not a ‘real’ farmer. It honestly is so sad. We need each other. We need farms of all sizes. We need farms that do things differently and are willing to try new things. We need dairy farmers and ranchers to not tear each other down. Whether your cows are on 1,000’s of miles of open range or within the safety of your own barn. It shouldn’t matter as long as they are well cared for. United we stand, divided we fall. We need to get over our differences and self-righteousness and support each other.
Some farmers don’t like to share the spotlight. It’s so crazy to me the extremes within our industry. You have the folks that will run from any spotlight while others will do whatever it takes to be the only one that shines. I have seen such ugliness from folks within agriculture that have made an online name for themselves towards folks just trying to tell their stories. Here is the deal folks, as beautifully diverse as we are the basics of dairy farming still apply. For us dairy farmers, we still have to milk the cows, feed the cows, clean up after the cows, take care of the calves, spread the manure, etc. We are going to talk about the same things. Let me repeat. We are going to talk about the same things. It’s okay if you post something one day and another farmer posts something similar the next day. Why? Because you will never reach every single person that needs to hear our stories. It doesn’t matter how many ‘likes’ you have on Facebook or followers you have on Instagram. You will never reach everyone. So it is perfectly okay for others to share about the same topics. It should make you feel good that you inspired others to share. So get over yourselves folks. We need everyone who is willing to positively tell their story to do so. We need everyone to at least try to we should support them.
Never dim someone else’s light so you can shine. Just shine.
Folks just want to know that we care. Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he said, “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” When I was still new to all of this, I wanted to learn everything I could about dairy farming. My poor husband. I was like a toddler always asking ‘why’. Just telling me ‘because I said so’ wasn’t working. I needed more. Why are our cows in the barn? Why do we separate the calves and cows? Why is ______ the best way of doing _________? Just saying this is how we do it didn’t work for me and it certainly doesn’t work for the folks that purchase our products for their families.
I would talk to other farmers about their farms and it was always the same conversation about how many cows they milked, how many acres they farmed, what brand of tractor they preferred, etc. When I would ask why they did something a certain way, I would get a very common answer of “because we have always done it this way”. That did nothing to help me understand why they did it. Over the years I have tried to answer the why to everything we do on the farm when I share our farm story. Recently I had a woman reach out to me with the following message:
I love following your farm. I just wanted to you to know that I may not agree that you keep your cows in the barn, but I understand why you do. I appreciate how much love and care you provide for your ‘girls’. Thank you for taking such great care of them. We need more farmers like you.
Here’s the deal folks, she doesn’t like a certain practice on our farm. She does however understand why we do it and still appreciates what we do. People need to know the ‘why’ and they really just want to know we care. How many cows we milk or how many acres we farm doesn’t matter to them.
Social media is just one of the many tools we have in sharing our story. Having a farm Facebook page or a presence on Instagram is absolutely a great way to share your story. I feel like I get the most bang for my buck so to speak. I can reach a ton of people without even leaving the farm. With that said, it’s not for everyone. There are so many ways that we can share our story that doesn’t include being online.
I have a dear friend that doesn’t share much on Facebook and Instagram. She should because she takes amazing photos and writes beautiful stories about farm life. Each year though, she has hundreds of people come to her farm for farm tours. Schools from multiple districts send their kids to her farm in the spring for tours. Nursing homes bring their residents to see the cows. Here’s the deal folks, she is a micro-dairy. She has a handful of cows and a big red barn. What people tend to think our farms should be. You will never hear her bash another farm practice or farm based on their size. She takes the opportunity to dispel myths folks have about farms that don’t do things like her. I guarantee she does more for our industry than any online advocate, myself included, could ever do.
I know several other women that have an online presence who do not get the attention they deserve. You know what? They are constantly involved with their local and state representatives. They testify constantly on behalf of our industry. They are constantly making a difference and social media has nothing to do with it.
Do what you can with what you have. Each one of us has different strengths and it is going to take every single one of us doing what we do best if we are ever going to change the narrative around our industry.
No one is perfect. I have made my fair share of mistakes. I have shared misinformation unintentionally. I have posted something I immediately regretted in the heat of the moment. I have said snarky things to people who didn’t deserve it. I have jumped to conclusions when I shouldn’t have. Not a single person is perfect. So why would we expect anyone sharing their story to be perfect? Sharing our story comes with risks. Every single thing we post, share or say can (and most likely will) be torn apart or taken out of context. From the simplest spelling or grammar mistake (BTW I didn’t edit this blog post, it’s the first draft) to taking your words and twisting them. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. People need to hear our stories. They need to hear them from us not from PR companies and certainly not from animal rights groups. There is a saying, if we do not tell our story someone else will. Well folks, people are already telling their version of your story. Are you just going to sit back and let that happen?
Activists happen. I could write a book about online animal rights extremists. They are loud. They are organized. They apparently never sleep. They are mean. They say some of the nastiest things. They have mastered the Hitler way of, “if you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” They are also becoming so extreme that they are discrediting themselves. So if this is something that is holding you back from sharing your story, don’t let it be.
They are also just folks with internet access and no consequences for the words they type. Delete their comment. Don’t give their words a second thought. Block them. Then move on with your day. It really is that simple.
At the end of the day, those of us in agriculture are just a small percentage of the population. Those outside of agriculture are telling our story, they are trying to control how we farm (or end how we farm), they are driving the policies and taxes that are going to negatively impact us and continue to make doing our jobs incredibly difficult. You cannot expect things to change if you don’t do something to try to change it.
Krista Stauffer
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