More Women Run Farms

MILWAUKEE - Diane Grezenski grew up a city girl, but now she and her husband run a dairy farm where she has taken on more and more of the work over the years.

"I do almost all the milking, feed the animals, and handle the book work and much of nearly everything else that needs to be done," she said.

The public face of women in agriculture in Wisconsin for 60 years has been Alice in Dairyland, a young woman selected annually to promote the state's farm products. But because of old barriers coming down, men doing other jobs, and mechanical advances, women such as Grezenski are more actively involved.

Grezenski's husband does field work and pitches in on milking when he can while working full time at a nearby paper mill. The two are increasing the size of their operation from 47 cows to about twice that number.

"But somebody has to work elsewhere to get health insurance, and often it is the man because they usually can find better-paying jobs," Grezenski said.