We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In, continues to make headlines more than six months after its release. This “sort of a feminist manifesto” is doing what Sandberg set out to do – call attention to female leadership, or the lack thereof, in the workplace.
Progressive Dairyman set out to examine this subject in the dairy industry today. We asked the following questions of three of the industry’s best women in executive roles.
“You never truly appreciate things until they are gone.”
Leslie Hammond, a recent University of Kentucky graduate, can now fully appreciate her eyesight after a severe decline to her vision.
Vickie Franken is committed to the dairy industry, not only to the 14,000 heifers her family raises but also to her fellow producers.
Franken has been an industry leader by serving as a director in organizations, starting new traditions and setting an example by continually improving her business. Franken’s focus has always been helping others.
“Have you beheld a man (or woman) skillful in his work? Before Kings is where he will station himself; he will not station himself before commonplace men.” So says Proverbs 22:29.
We have all observed certain individuals who just seem to excel at their given occupation.
“Lucky for my cows they all have Norwegian names now,” Marjenna McWilliams says. “I named my most recent calf Ingrid Alexandra.”
McWilliams, the newly crowned 60th anniversary Princess Kay of the Milky Way, has found an interesting way to merge her two passions: cows and the Norwegian language.
McWilliams’s family has been dairying in Minnesota’s Polk County for 101 years and her father has been milking cows himself for 63 years of his life.
While the Red Hat Society is a popular women’s organization, which is known for its members to wear red hats and purple dresses while meeting for tea or other activities, there is another group of red hat wearers that has been comprised solely of male members – until now.
Hats of different colors signify various responsibilities at the World Championship Cheese Contest held every other year in March. The contest’s 40 judges wear white hats as they core, sniff and taste approximately 2,500 entries.
Wisconsin dairyman Ted Johnson arrived for the routine exam his doctor recommended at age 50 more worried about his cholesterol levels than the results of a different routine test.
“In my family, if you made it to age 59 and didn’t have a heart attack, you were probably going to live until you were 85 or 90,” says Johnson, owner of Horse Creek Holsteins with his wife Gretchen, in Star Prairie, Wisconsin.
“This was a little different because cancer was involved.”
Balancing schoolwork, an FFA judging team, track and chores during high school is difficult.
All of these things and a nationally ranked research project is unthinkable.
Except for Pennsylvania native Shawna Weller.
Lambertville, New Jersey, has many draws. It’s an hour’s drive north of Philadelphia and an hour’s drive south of New York City.
It’s known as the “Antiques Capital of New Jersey.” The nearby Delaware River offers plenty of recreational activities.
Age: 50
Location: Harrisonburg, Virginia
History of your hoof trimming business, in a nutshell: After going to hoof trimming school at Dairyland Hoof Care in Wisconsin, I started my business in May 2000 while living in West Virginia. ... Now almost all my work is in the Shenandoah Valley.
I trim around 15,000 cows per year on an Appleton Steel Ultra Chute purchased in March.
RSS
