Greetings ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to our first blog post as part of AgStar’s expanding efforts for our female clients. Seems only fitting as we enter a new crop cycle and start the planting season, that AgStar rolls out this remodeled program.

The most recent U. S. agriculture census noted more than a million women are involved in farm operations nationwide and women are sole proprietors of over 300,000 of our nation’s farms. As these numbers continue to grow, we’re finding a whole new generation of women farmers entering agriculture. AgStar has long recognized the increasing numbers of female clients as sole proprietors, as well as the contributions made by the wives, daughters, sisters, daughter-in-laws, etc. to most farms and ranches. Our challenge is to connect with them and help all of you. We’ve offered Women’s Seminars for several years, which brought rave reviews by attendees. We also received feedback that you want more, and we heard you.

Of course, as a woman, wife, mother, owner and employee of a hog farm and AgStar board member, expanding our offerings to women in agriculture just makes sense to me. I enjoy the opportunity to network, learn and share with others. We all have a story! This job of providing food and fiber for the world is a hard one. We have plenty of people looking over our shoulders so we need to do it right. Agriculture is not known for working together well. Our commodity groups, livestock sectors, and niche markets often work independently. By sharing and caring, I believe we can accomplish more.

Your AgStar Board of Directors has pledged full support for the efforts of our team as they experiment with different ideas, programs and directions to help you. There are many options to choose from, and we’ll try a few in the coming months to see what your reaction is and where you see the value that AgStar can bring to your daily lives. We understand that your lives are busy and calendars can fill quickly so we want to offer programs that are meaningful for you.

For starters, we’ve recruited an outstanding group of women with diverse backgrounds and operations to contribute to our Women in Ag Blog. We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that well known ag speaker, author and advocate Michele Payn-Knoper will be a regular contributor with twice monthly posts. Michele will kick off the blog with a video this week. You won’t want to miss her take on laying the foundation for the next generation of farmers, ranchers and ag industry professionals. In addition to Michele, we have women of different ages, backgrounds and ag sectors, (including some AgStar team members and clients!) who will be bringing us their view of life on the farm and connecting the world of agriculture to consumers. Be watching as we share their musings and insights in the coming weeks and months.

We are so excited about our expanded efforts and we hope you’ll find this to be a place where you feel a sense of community, find valuable content and be entertained a little bit along the way. I am confident you’ll let us know when we’ve hit the home run, or struck out. Let’s open the door and see what’s available! Please have a safe and successful growing season. As always, we thank each of you for choosing AgStar!