During the month of March, we’re taking a moment to appreciate all of the hard-working women in the ag industry. One of those women being Janet Clark who is one of the owners of Vision Aire Farms in Eldorado, Wisconsin. The farm is currently in a transitional phase and being passed down from her parents to her and her brother’s families. When it comes to transitioning the farm, it’s more of a process than you’d think. “It’s a constant transition…Our farm, we’re doing it a little bit slower by creating entities and then that transition of ownership happens over time through percentages of inheritance,” Janet said. Everybody does it differently, but this is what’s best for their family.
Her parents are still very involved on the farm and would like to keep it that way or at least have a hand in it once Janet and her brother fully take over. She mentioned that her parents are helping out every day. Their retirement plan isn’t to wash their hands of the farm but to simply take a step back from the management side of the business. “My dad always says, the time I retire is when I’m six feet under,” she joked.
She and her brother grew up on the dairy and now everything’s coming full circle, but this wasn’t always the plan. After high school, Janet went to UW-Plattville and got a degree from the university in Agribusiness Management. She then took that degree and got off of the farm for a few years to learn management in other jobs. 2010 was the year that her career path shifted back to the dairy. She explained that her parents told both Janet and her brother that if they weren’t interested in being the next generation running the family business, then they were going to sell. That’s when she and her brother decided to form a partnership and keep the family farm going.
While Janet admits that the set nine to five schedule was nice, the benefits of being back on the dairy outweighed what an off-the-farm job could offer. Even though it’s a tough job and it doesn’t stop, she said that she wouldn’t be able to farm if she didn’t love it. “It was in my blood…when you become a part of the agriculture family, it’s something that’s a part of you and it’s hard and you don’t want to leave,” she went on to explain the ag family, “not just my immediate family, I mean, there are families that are around here that we farm next to that are a part of our family.” Her extended farm family goes as far as others that she meets in different organizations also.
Speaking of family, Janet isn’t only a farmer, she’s a wife and a mother as well. The balancing act is something that many women in ag have to deal with and it can be a very big struggle. “The things that I wish I knew more of were how to balance my family life with my farm. That is a challenge, because not only am I a wife, I’m also a mother,” she brought up how she has to make time for it all, “That constant pull of, where’s my time best?” She said that she thinks keeping up with the family and the farm is the hardest part of the dairy farm that she deals with on a daily basis. Luckily, her kids love being on the farm. “To be able to see my children grow and learn what they’re learning on a farm is the best gift that I can give them,” Janet said. She also mentioned that one of the toughest times with kids on the farm is when they’re really little because you can’t bring them to the farm as easily and have them help out. Janet said one thing to remember is that when they’re little, it’s so challenging, but that time is so short compared to what will come and the time you’ll be able to spend with them growing up on the farm.
Even with an industry as unpredictable as ag, she wouldn’t trade being in it for anything. She said that it’s all about the family and the other connections you make along the way with other farmers. One of her favorite parts about the farm is watching the lifecycle run its course. She explained that it’s a great thing to watch a calf turn into a heifer and then a mother because it’s something that not a lot of people have the opportunity to watch before their eyes.
She also realizes that it’s not always a perfect life on the farm. “There are times that it’s so hard,” Janet said that those are the days when it feels like everything is against you and you might not know how the bills are going to get paid, but it always seems to work itself out. She went on to explain that the worst part is that you work so hard to care for the animals and keep the calves healthy, but it doesn’t always end that way. Her advice when losing a calf is to learn from the failures. You need to pick yourself up, figure out what happened, and go from there. You can use that loss and that hiccup in the road to change in order to have a brighter future with your animals.
All in all, Janet knew that this is what she was meant to do. Farming takes a special type of person. “It’s I think a gift that God has given me the gift of perseverance, eternal optimism you could say,” Janet said that no matter what, she always remembers that she’s on the farm because God gave her the talent of being a caretaker. “He has continued to bless me in certain ways to make sure that I can continue to do what I’m doing and what I’m gifted in.”
You can check out the full interview here!
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