Back to the Farm
/Two dairy farmers’ daughters carry on their families’ legacies.
As the next generation of farmers step up to feed the world, dairy farmers are relying on their sons and daughters to take over the family farm. While many children who grow up on the family dairy choose to leave and pursue other passions, two young ladies, Emily Bourdeau, 20, and Emily Mikel, 21, are returning to their roots.
Emily Bordeau
“As I grow up, I see how many people my parents and grandfather have helped out, and how much they have done for the agriculture industry,” Emily Bourdeau says. “As my grandfather gets older, I think ‘I only have sisters, so what’s going to happen?’ Normally, the sons would take over, but I love dairy and I work just as hard as any guy.”
The oldest of three daughters, Emily Bourdeau recognized the responsibility of being a dairy farmer’s daughter at a young age. She cherished the longstanding tradition of her family’s farm, Pleasant Acre Farms in Swanton, Vt., that her great-grandfather started in 1946. Her earliest memories include carrying buckets to feed the calves and sweeping barn floors with her mother. Now, as a junior studying animal science at the University of Vermont and a first-generation college student, Emily Bordeau’s responsibilities look a little different. She has an active hand in caring for the cows alongside her mother and father, in areas including cow care and health, partnering with veterinarians to doctor sick cows and helping in the fields during hay season and harvest.
Emily Mikel
For Emily Mikel, dairying has been a life she’s loved since 2008 when she joined her parents in building Mikelholm Holsteins in Stafford, N.Y., from the ground up. Now going into her last semester before graduating with a degree in dairy management from The State University of New York Morrisville, she has big plans for her dairy. As an only child, she’s the future of her family farm and she’s ready to step up. Adding more fans and switching to energy-efficient LED lightbulbs in the barn are just two examples of the ways she has already begun to advance and expand her dairy.
As the next generation on their respective family farms, both women have chosen to carry on the legacies of their parents and the dairy industry as a whole.
For Emily Bourdeau, that means caring for her cows and her community. “Dairy farmers want to share about what we do and help others understand that their food comes from people who respect the land, passionately care for their cows and are good neighbors that invest in their communities for the long haul”, she says.
Emily Mikel envisions an industry moved forward by young people. “I’d like to see more young people in the industry because the average age of the dairy farmer is rising,” she says, “and younger people need to step up and into the roles the older generation has held.”
For the Emilys, returning to their roots was never a question, but a way of life.
