When fifth-generation dairy producer Tara Vander Dussen went away to college, she planned to leave farm life behind. Flash forward to today and she finds herself one of the agriculture industry’s most popular ambassadors. Having built quite a reputation — and a big social media following — as the New Mexico Milkmaid, she is an in-demand public speaker as well as co-host of the Discover Ag podcast.
“I think it’s one of those things where you don’t appreciate what you have until you’re removed from it,” she tells Davis Michaelsen on the latest Grow Getters podcast, which focuses on how ag producers are diversifying their operations by starting new businesses. Not that college was a huge step away from her roots — she earned a degree in Soil, Water and Environmental Science. But at the time she didn’t see herself marrying a fifth-generation dairy farmer and raising two daughters on a dairy farm.
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