Our April Farmer of the Month comes to us from Plymouth, Traci Kohlman. She and her husband run a farm outside of town where they have cattle, chickens, hogs, sheep, and two energetic dogs. After her husband’s dad passed away a few years ago, the couple chose to buy his farm and move back to her husband’s homestead.
One of the cool things about Kohlman is that she sees the value in giving kids the opportunity to show animals at the county fair. She realizes how many lessons they can learn from taking care of these animals and that’s why she makes it a priority to do what she can to help out 4-H youth. “We would rather see a child being able to show even if we have to support them and cover the money cost and that until they sell the animal at a sale,” Kohlman said.
She gave an example of how there was a family who planned on purchasing two lambs but could only afford one. In the end, Kohlman lent the family a second lamb so they could bring it to the fair and show the animal. She said that her goal is to give kids the chance to have a fair experience and not miss out on a chance like that.
“They learn how much work it is to take care of the animals, the cost of raising them. A lot of them have learned that it’s not just a one or two-month thing, they’ve seen the whole process from raising them from little on, to where they give birth to the lambs themselves,” Kohlman explained, “They just really learn a lot of respect. My kids grew up and it taught them a lot of what they need to do to succeed in life and how much they need to work for what they want.”
Between being so involved with kids that are interested in agriculture, working full time off of the farm, and taking care of all of the animals, she has a lot on her plate. Kohlman says that she and her husband have their family to thank for helping them out on the farm when needed. “Without the family that we have helping, we really would be dragging, and getting a lot less sleep than what we do,” Kohlman said.
She brought up how even though she gets about four or five hours of sleep a day…if she’s lucky, working on the farm is a great stress reliever for her. “Actually, coming home after work and all that, it’s my stress reliever coming out to the barn,” Kohlman mentioned, “Having all of the animals and that there, it just kind of changes your mood, gets you back.”
Kohlman hopes that more and more people start to understand the importance of farmers and what they do for the world. “Agriculture is your root of all your food. You’re not going to get it from a grocery store if you don’t have your farms,” she explained that there are too many people who assume that grocery stores just simply make the food, “Your stores cannot make your beef and that…it’s people like me and my other friends and all that, that spend our time raising them.”
Farming isn’t something that she does because of the money, she does it because she has a passion for it. If Kohlman didn’t love taking care of the animals, there’s no way that she’d be working as hard as she does.
You can hear the full interview with Traci Kohlman on our podcast page. Plus, make sure to check out the video from the farm below!
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