This past Monday was International Women’s Day, where we take the time to recognize the hard work and dedication women have to their families, their careers, their friends, and all of the other important pieces of their lives. Within the farming community, it’s the same thing. The women who are a part of the ag industry are some of the most dedicated people out there.
One of those women being the General Manager of Grotegut Dairy Farm in Newton, Rosario Ibarra. Initially, her plan was never to be a part of the dairy industry, far from it to be honest. “I was not raised on a farm. My plan was to be a lawyer or something totally different, but then I was introduced to a cow and then I decided they were going to be a part of my life,” Ibarra said.
Going from wanting to study law to studying agriculture is a drastic change, but it seems to have been the right career move. She has received her Bachelor’s Degree in Agronomy, her Master’s in Business Administration, and also graduated with certificates from Cornerstone Academy.
Going back a little bit, her dairy career started in 2005 when she was going to school for agronomy at Tecnológico de Monterrey – Campus Querétaro in Mexico because they had a partnership with UW-Madison. The school would bring students from Mexico up to Wisconsin so they could learn about the dairy industry in our state. From that partnership, Ibarra had the opportunity to work on a small dairy for a summer and that’s basically how everything started.
She explained that in Mexico, you can find dairies similar to the ones in Wisconsin with all of the technology and comparable facilities, but there is one difference. From what Ibarra has seen, Wisconsin dairy farms are much more open to women having lead roles on the farms. “In Mexico, at my time, we didn’t have those opportunities…here I saw that a woman could be anything. You could be working in all of the areas of the farm or in the industry, so that’s what made me move,” Ibarra said.
She remembers thinking about how in Mexico there were a lot of unwritten rules where women could only do certain jobs on the farm. “I always remembered Wisconsin and in Wisconsin you see the little girls growing in the farm and working and that was a thing, that was the difference.” That’s when Ibarra decided to make the move and start her career in the dairy state.
She said that no matter what, you can’t think of your career as a “man’s” career or a “woman’s” career. Ibarra went on the say that you can’t set those limitations for yourself. You need to remember that you’re here to do a job and to do it as well as either gender, it doesn’t matter. “As long as you’re a hard worker, you take care of the animals, and you understand the responsibility that we have as dairy farmers, gender doesn’t matter.”
Ibarra mentioned how thankful she is that there were people within the dairy community who gave her a chance to learn and gain experience in the industry. She said that there are a lot of people who want to be a part of ag, but they need someone to take a chance on them. The only way anyone will learn and get better at something is if someone takes a chance on them.
“I think it’s very important that we create a space for people to learn more about agriculture and get involved. That is exactly what got me here into this industry,” Ibarra explained, “Someone saw potential in me and took the risk and I’m very grateful for that. So I encourage everyone to offer the same opportunities.”
As the General Manager of the dairy, she had some advice for others who may be in similar positions. The first thing was the know your employees, not just their names and where they’re from, it goes deeper than that. “You need to understand what motivates the people in order to grow a good team,” she brought up how a good team is a game-changer, “If you have a good team on the farm, we can take care of the cows and we can produce better products…it’s about people and people take care of all of the cows, and the cows take care of us.”
She said that anyone interested in joining the ag community needs to come into it with an open mind, an open heart for the animals, and the ability to work with others. “In agriculture, there is a challenge to work with other human beings. You can be working in -30 degrees, you can be working at 100 degrees, and the challenging part is to work with people,” Ibarra said.
She said that once you have a good grip on working with others, then the only other thing is to realize that agriculture is a business just like any other business. You don’t only have to stick to one specific position on the farm, there’s plenty of room to grow. She gave the example of how you don’t always need to be feeding calves, there are many other roles that need to be taken care of as well. Ibarra ended with this, “Anything is possible in agriculture and anything is possible in the dairy industry.”
You can hear the full interview with Rosario Ibarra on the podcast page, right here.
