Farming is More Than Dirty Hands: But What Actually Makes Someone a Farmer?
It’s the International Year of the Woman Farmer, and the final stop in a regional showcase celebrating women across agriculture, business and country communities will soon be held in Saddleworth.
But before we get to the event, can we talk about the term “female farmer”?
It’s a title that can sound much narrower than the role women actually play across agriculture.
For some women, being a farmer means digging in and taking on the hands-on, physically demanding jobs — milking cows, working livestock, driving machinery or spending long days on the “farming frontline”.
For others, it might mean managing the books and finances, being part of decision making processes, recruiting staff one minute and running grain samples to the silos the next. And then there’s the small matter of growing, birthing and raising the next generation of farmers — while keeping everything, and everyone, moving through the busiest times of the year.
According to the International Year of the Woman Farmer, the term includes women working throughout agrifood systems and across every part of the value chain.
In other words, all of those jobs count — whether they happen in the paddock, the truck, the office or around the kitchen table.
A successful farming business can’t run on dirty hands alone.
More Than Just a Day Off the Farm
And that’s where the Year of the Female Farmer Regional Showcase comes in.
The final event in a roadshow travelling across South Australia and Victoria will be held in Saddleworth on Thursday, September 24 — bringing a day of good food, great coffee and very real conversation to the women who don’t often give themselves permission to step away from everything that needs doing.
Created and hosted by SheFarmer and Day of Rural Women founder Rachel Titley, the showcase isn’t just for women who call themselves farmers.
It’s for women working across agriculture and regional business, women raising families, women leading community organisations and women trying to keep multiple plates spinning without dropping themselves somewhere along the way.
Rachel will present her keynote, The Blur & The Mental Load: You Cannot Navigate What You Haven’t Named, taking an honest look at the responsibilities women quietly collect across work, farms, families and communities.
“Women are extraordinarily capable, but capability can become a burden when we continually absorb more without naming what we are carrying,” Rachel said.
Greater SA’s Abbie and Melissa will also join dairy matriarch Mandy Pacitti and The Nurtured Village founder, therapist and educator Danielle Baker for a panel conversation about the realities of being regional women wearing mulitple hats.
The panel will explore how creativity can turn up in unexpected places — in the way women solve problems, build businesses, tell stories and find new ways forward when the original plan goes pear-shaped.
They’ll also tackle the question plenty of women wrestle with: how do you decide what matters most when absolutely everything feels like a priority?
Whether it’s a fresh perspective, a valuable new connection or simply the reassurance you’re not the only one trying to hold everything together, organisers hope every woman leaves with something worthwhile.
Officially opened by Member for Ngadjuri David Paton MP, guests will be greeted with incredible coffee, locally catered lunch and morning and afternoon tea.
YEAR OF THE FEMALE FARMER (SADDLEWORTH)
WHEN: Thursday September 24, 8:30am-2:30pm
WHERE: Saddleworth Institute
TICKETS & INFO: Click here
