Building their careers and staking their futures in agriculture was never a question for Cindy Reynolds of Cobb, Wis. or Shayna Wilks of Wendell, Idaho. Others may have doubted them, but they never doubted the decision themselves.

“I was a divorced mom of three young kids in the early ‘80s,” shared Reynolds. “I was making ends meet by buying, raising, and re-selling calves from my dad’s sale barn. My grandma told me to get something steadier, but I loved the work and the people in agriculture.”

Eventually, she bought her own farm, remarried, and continued to take on agricultural ventures. Today, Reynolds wears many hats as co-owner of Reynolds Livestock, LLC. Their enterprises include raising 4,000-5,000 head of calves and feeder cattle at any given time, along with owning and managing two livestock markets, a retail produce stand, feed store, lumberyard, bar and grill, and dozens of residential rental properties.

Like Reynolds, Wilks knew she wanted a career and life in agriculture, even if her family didn’t support it. “My grandfather was a veterinarian and owned a dairy with my dad and two uncles,” she shared. “Starting at about 5-6 years old, I was my grandpa’s ‘vein holder,’ and was constantly at his side on our dairy. He encouraged me, but my dad and uncles did not, even though I could clearly do the work.”

When she was in high school, a series of events on her family’s dairy left her as the sole caretaker of the farm’s 200-head calf barn. She rearranged her school schedule and took night classes to get everything done. After marrying, having a family, and leaving the state for several years, she returned to Idaho’s Magic Valley searching for work from “any dairyman who would give me a job,” because her dad did not want her to return to the family dairy or agriculture at all. 

Since 2016, she has managed the youngstock enterprise at a 35,000-cow site for Big Sky Dairies, while also balancing marriage and motherhood to three busy teens. As the dairy site’s protocol manager, she oversees not only thousands of calves and heifers, but also 140 employees. Ironically, her dad is now one of those employees, and among her most trusted lieutenants.

Both women say it has been an uphill climb to their current stations in life. “It’s still a male profession in ag, and it probably always will be,” stated Reynolds. “Especially on the farming side, I think women often have to work twice as hard just to prove they are competent. With males, it’s just understood they belong there. My dad used to pay my younger brother for working on the farm, but he didn’t pay my sister and me. That’s just how it was.”

On the flip side, though, Reynolds has found women generally are more eager to soak up knowledge and learn as much as they can. And when it comes to raising calves, she finds females have natural, motherly instincts and are more nurturing, with which Wilks concurs.

“At our site, we have six employees who feed colostrum to newborn calves, and five of them are women,” said Wilks. “Our one man on that crew does an excellent job, but typically women are gentler and more patient, especially with the tiny calves. And they’re better multitaskers. I think the minute you become a mother, you have to be a multitasker!”

A few years ago, Wilks told her employers she wanted to include sexual harassment education in her training portfolio. “They said, ‘Oh, that’s for offices, not out on farms.’ But it also happens on farms, and they are allowing me to include that training now,” she stated.

“I think it happens more on farms,” declared Reynolds. “One of the things I take very seriously about managing people is encouraging young women. We employ workers from lots of different cultures. Some of these women have never been told how talented, strong, and smart they are, and that they are every bit as qualified as a man.”

Wilks shared that her dairy site has a very low turnover rate, in a market loaded with dairy jobs. “A lot of women have told me, ‘You are the reason we stay here.’ That’s very gratifying,” she said.

But she also holds the women under her watch to high standards. 

“Sometimes I have pep talks with our female employees,” said Wilks. “I tell them, ‘We’re not in high school here – we’re grown, capable women. Let’s not act like high schoolers, so we don’t give men the opportunity to discount us.’”

And when high school comes to mind for Reynolds, she looks at her friends and classmates who now are retiring, as she continues to forge ahead with her myriad ag business pursuits. “They might be able to golf and travel, or kick back and do nothing, but they haven’t been blessed with the experiences I have,” she noted. “I wouldn’t trade my life for anything in the world.”