Before the sun rises on the Tlach family farm, sisters Abby and Jenna are hard at work.
Before they head to school, it’s off to pamper the show cows. They’ll receive hundreds of hours before the real work begins in the summer.
It’s not glamorous. But for them, it’s a calling.
“I’ve done this basically my whole life since I was 6 or 7,” Jenna Tlach says. “I wouldn’t know my life if I didn’t have it in it.”
After the cows come to the pasture and checking to make sure there aren’t any calves on the way.
The sisters work as a team. Their inspiration written on a whiteboard in the form of quotes they’ve found along the way.
“When we come up here they just remind us that we have to continue to work even if we don’t have the motivation during that day,” Jenna Tlach says.
These women represent the future of farming. And for Marji Alaniz, they represent a powerful group of workers.
“I started a photo project to show people what women can do on farms,” says Marji Alaniz, founder of FarmHer.
What started with pictures developed into a TV show, aptly titled FarmHer.
“Every single thing that we all eat comes from a farm in one way or another,” Marji Alaniz
The jobs can be thankless. FarmHer is about being thankful.
“You could be here on a farm in Iowa taking care of your cattle, and someone in California can look at that and say ‘that’s my every day … that’s my morning … I can relate to that person’,” says Marji Alaniz
The motivation for Jenna and Abby comes from a lot of places. But none as strong as the motivation within.
“Most of the time people joke about how girls do better in the show ring than boys,” Abby Tlach says.