Our December Farmer of the Month is one of the owners of Lenaty Dairy in Manawa, Tasha Bartel. Her family has been farming at the dairy’s main location since 1978. Bartel explained that after graduating college in 2009, she decided to come back to the farm. “I worked other places and I hated it. I hated working for someone else. I wanted to be my own boss, but I didn’t know that I truly wanted to be a farmer full-time,” Bartel said. Since she chose to come home to the farm, they’ve added about 60 cows for a total milking herd of 150.
She said that when she joined the farm after college it was tough. “We didn’t have a whole lot of money.” Bartel went on to say “we ended up buying a second farm and now we milk in two barns.” She said that it’s a lot of work, but she wouldn’t change it. She’s hoping that someday they can combine the farms and just milk at one location, but she’s not sure if that’s the right move to make right now. “At this point and time I don’t know if our best option is to build a barn. Milk prices are tough. Farming in general is tough…I would like to make things easier on us,” she explained.
LISTEN: You can hear the whole interview on our podcast page.
Another aspect that plays a huge role in Bartel’s life is that she’s a foster mom to a little girl. Between handling the farm and being there as a foster mother, she has her hands full. Bartel said that being her own boss is one of the factors that makes being a foster parent possible for her. “I’m not going to get fired if I’m ten minutes late.” She talked about how farm life might be hard on some kids, but her foster daughter has done great with it all. She admits that yes, some days she struggles, but so does every parent. Her advice for other foster parents is to have the mindset that “tomorrow will be better.” “Tomorrow is a new day…those kids just want someone to love them. They just want someone to be there and take care of them,” she said.
Being able to be a great foster parent and a dedicated dairy farmer takes a special type of person. Even with everything going on in her life, she stays positive and recognizes the importance of agriculture. “We need agriculture to provide for the people in the world and I don’t think the general population understands the work that goes into being a farmer.” Bartel explained that it doesn’t matter what type of farmer you are, they all play an important role in everyone’s life. She said that she hopes people realize that their food doesn’t come from the grocery store, it has a long backstory before it gets to the local supermarket.
She said that if you want to be a farmer, you need to be prepared to work extremely hard because nothing will ever come easy for farmers. Bartel talked about how if you put in the time and effort, things will start to come together. They might not right away, but eventually they will. She also brought up a big lesson she’s learned this year. “I’ve learned in 2020 to expect absolutely nothing because you have no idea what could happen tomorrow…I think that milk price changes every day and if you are going to go into farming you need to realize that nothing is the same day-to-day and I think you need to adjust to that.”
Lastly, it’s people like Bartel and her family that keep agriculture alive in Wisconsin. Her farm is a great example of how you don’t need to be a huge dairy to stay in business these days. Things might be tougher for them, but it takes tough people to want to farm in the first place.
“Are we great farmers? No. But we’re here. We’re surviving.” – Tasha Bartel
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