Laura is one of the many women who work to inform the public of what farmers are all about, while also keeping food on our tables. Raatz, a fifth-generation dairy farmer, and her family own Wagner Farms Inc in Cecil where she took over the calf managing position from her mother. “It’s been a huge passion of mine, following alongside my parents,” Raatz said.
She remembers times as a kid when she and her brother would be put in a carrier and set in the starter cart while their parents worked on the farm. That’s just part of growing up on a dairy!
Raatz left the farm for a bit because she was recruited to play college basketball. After two years of college, she realized that she was meant to be on the farm and came home in 2012.
She explained that one of the big reasons she came back was because of the family aspect of their farm. Currently, her mom, dad, brother, and husband all play important roles in the dairy. Raatz said that it’s exciting for her to be lucky enough to have a career where she’s able to share it with her family.
Being one of the many women in the ag industry, she’s starting to see more and more females joining the ag community. “I think that’s really exciting because women are a very valuable asset to the agriculture industry, just like men,” she said.
Man or woman, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re on the farm for the right reasons and you want to help keep the dairy successful. “I think sometimes people get caught up into the women versus men, or who’s better, and I don’t really think that’s the right way to go about it,” Raatz explains, “I feel both women and men bring huge qualities to the dairy industry or to just agriculture.”
She said a good way for someone without an ag background to get into the industry and find what they like is to job shadow. If you reach out to most companies they’d be more than happy to let you ask them questions and see what they do for a day. If you’re joining agriculture, you need to make sure you’re in the section of it that you love. “If it’s not something that you’re passionate about, like anything in life, you’re not going to do it to the best of your ability,” Raatz said.
One thing she wanted to stress is that if you’re ever curious about how something works or why a farm does things a certain way, ask questions. Never be afraid to ask a farmer a question. They’d much rather you ask them before listening to the media or some unreliable post on Facebook. “It’s okay to reach out and ask a question and be willing to learn,” Raatz said.
She explained that farmers want to be able to talk to consumers about different topics so they can understand agriculture a little bit better. That’s why Wagner Farms’ motto is “People, Animals, and Environment.”
“The people aspect of it, we have an incredible team on our farm so it’s not just one person that brings the success of a farm, it’s our team,” then she spoke about the animals, “we’re really passionate about taking really good care of our animals and striving to make sure that they live the best life that they can,” and last is the environment, “taking good care of the environment is becoming a huge aspect of farming around the globe,” Raatz told us.
She said that at the end of the day, farmers need to let their voices be heard and also be willing to answer any questions people may have. That’s the only way to bridge the gap between the ag industry and the rest of the world.
You can listen to the full interview on our podcast page.
