Celebrating Women Farmers
Year of the Woman Farmer: Dairy Series
with Sophie Gregory
About the Series
Global Dairy Platform (GDP) is celebrating the International Year of the Woman Farmer with an interview series that features discussions with women dairy farmers around the world.
The FAO estimates that more than 37 million dairy farms are female-headed and around 80 million women are employed full-time in the dairy sector. Women constitute up to 70 percent of the dairy workforce in many developing countries, and the sector provides critical livelihoods for youth and pastoralist communities.
The interviews, which are conducted by UK dairy farmer Sophie Gregory, highlight how the farmers provide nutrient-rich food, focus on environmental sustainability and drive socio-economic growth.
About Sophie
Sophie is a first-generation dairy farmer from the Southwest of England, farming across both organic and conventional systems with around 600 cows plus beef and youngstock. Farming across rented farms, Sophie has helped grow the business from 0 to 600 cows in just over a decade through share farming, teamwork and taking opportunities when they came along.
Alongside farming, Sophie is passionate about communication, education and reconnecting people with where their food comes from. She regularly shares life on farm through social media, public speaking and school visits, helping open conversations around modern dairy farming in an honest and relatable way.
Sophie chairs the Organic Dairy Roundtable, sits on the Arla Foods Board of Representatives and is a member of the NFU Dairy Board. She recently completed a Nuffield Farming Scholarship, researching the future of organic dairy farming around the world. She is passionate about helping shape positive conversations around dairy, sustainability and the future of agriculture while championing the role farmers play in feeding people and caring for the countryside.
Meet the Women Farmers
Mary Kraft
Badger Creek Farm Inc
Quail Ridge Dairy
Mary Kraft, owns and manages her 6,500 Holstein cow dairy and 6,500 head heifer growing farm in Colorado, USA. With her husband and son, she manages 85 employees, delivers 25-30 baby calves every day, and ships enough milk to market each year to provide over 4 million – 8 oz servings of milk per year. Her high desert farm grows 1,500 acres of corn and hay that both feed her herd and utilize nutrient rich water from the dairy process. Cows are bedded on composted manure in free stall barns where cows are free to choose their own stall. She serves as Vice Chair of the United States dairy industry’s Dairy Marketing Inc.; 1st Vice Chair of the Montana to Texas marketing region of DairyMax; and serves as a Global Dairy Ambassador through Global Dairy Platform.