For Kim Snowden, doing chores around the farm is more than just delivering meals to workers in the fields. There are bills to pay, weather reports to watch and paperwork to be entered into the computer. There's absolutely no way I could get by without her,'' said her husband, Trent. Women are taking a greater role in operating farms, and the increased responsibility is adding stress to an already trying occupation, agriculture experts say.
Women are in charge of more farms than ever before.
There were 165,102 U.S. farms operated by women in 1997, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. And women are handling nearly all of the marketing, such as monitoring overseas markets and worrying about profits, according to a survey from American Agri-Women. Snowden began doing the paperwork a few years ago when her husband realized he couldn't keep up. He still handles most of the field work on their 1,000-acre farm in northwestern Ohio. Before, I didn't know we had these monster bills,'' she said.