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Amy Neier visited a fertilizer dealer to purchase some material last year when an employee asked, "Does your husband know you're buying this?"
Neier works for the Missouri Association of Soil and Water Districts and helps her husband manage crops and cattle on their property in Maries County.
"They'll talk to the man before they talk to the woman," Neier said of some in the agriculture industry.
Three charter buses filled with women toured Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm Tuesday afternoon as part of the Women in Agriculture State Conference. They sat on hay bales in a trailer and listened as the farm owner detailed the operations of growing thousands of scotch pines on a 200 acre farm south of Boonville.
The conference, a cooperative effort between the Soil and Water association, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Missouri Department of Conservation, has been held annually for 17 years and aims at educating women involved in the industry and providing a networking opportunity.
The number of women farmers in the United States has more than doubled since 1978, from just over 100,000 to almost 280,000 in 2007, according to the USDA. The tour Tuesday featured a mix of younger women starting their careers in agriculture, wives and mothers who share farm chores with their family and widows left to manage the property.
"I've hard a lot of gals who say, 'I wouldn't know the first thing about filing taxes.' Even if you aren't involved in the day to day operations, you have to be educated."
Attendees spent Monday at workshops inside Isle of Capri Casino Hotel and heard an address from Senator Jean Carnahan. On Tuesday, they toured Warm Springs Ranch before visiting Starr Pines.
Ann and Wayne Harmon operate Starr Pines cooperatively. The 200 acres features mostly varieties of Christmas trees, but they also grow aromatic plants which are made into products sold at their Celestial Body Store in downtown Boonville.
"The joke with Christmas tree farmers is, it takes 10 years to get into and 20 years to get out of," Ann said.
Amy Neier visited a fertilizer dealer to purchase some material last year when an employee asked, "Does your husband know you're buying this?"
Neier works for the Missouri Association of Soil and Water Districts and helps her husband manage crops and cattle on their property in Maries County.
"They'll talk to the man before they talk to the woman," Neier said of some in the agriculture industry.
Three charter buses filled with women toured Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm Tuesday afternoon as part of the Women in Agriculture State Conference. They sat on hay bales in a trailer and listened as the farm owner detailed the operations of growing thousands of scotch pines on a 200 acre farm south of Boonville.
The conference, a cooperative effort between the Soil and Water association, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Missouri Department of Conservation, has been held annually for 17 years and aims at educating women involved in the industry and providing a networking opportunity.
The number of women farmers in the United States has more than doubled since 1978, from just over 100,000 to almost 280,000 in 2007, according to the USDA. The tour Tuesday featured a mix of younger women starting their careers in agriculture, wives and mothers who share farm chores with their family and widows left to manage the property.
"I've hard a lot of gals who say, 'I wouldn't know the first thing about filing taxes.' Even if you aren't involved in the day to day operations, you have to be educated."
Attendees spent Monday at workshops inside Isle of Capri Casino Hotel and heard an address from Senator Jean Carnahan. On Tuesday, they toured Warm Springs Ranch before visiting Starr Pines.
Ann and Wayne Harmon operate Starr Pines cooperatively. The 200 acres features mostly varieties of Christmas trees, but they also grow aromatic plants which are made into products sold at their Celestial Body Store in downtown Boonville.
"The joke with Christmas tree farmers is, it takes 10 years to get into and 20 years to get out of," Ann said.
