MADISON, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) — The percent of women farm managers in the U.S. Is increasing.

According to U.S. Agriculture Census Data from 2017 — the most recent Census — 29.14 percent of principal producers on farms were women. The last Census — 2012 — listed that number at 13.66 percent. In raw numbers there were 288,264 women principal producers in 2012 and 798,500 in 2017.

In Wisconsin 35 percent of farms had women as the principal producer.

More than half of farms in the U.S. And Wisconsin have women working on them.

Katy Schultz, co-owner and operator of Tri-Fecta Farms in Fox Lake said growing up on the farm, she didn't realize that it was uncommon for women to work the same.

“It didn't matter if it was a girl or a boy, if you needed to drive a pay loader, if you needed to drive a semi you learned how to drive a semi,” Schultz said. “There was no gender difference here, so I didn't know that there was a gender difference until I was able to experience a little more agriculture outside of our own farm.”

Now she runs the farm with her sister and brother. Schultz — who is also a board member with the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin — said she thinks part of the bump in the number of women running farms is because of consolidation. As there are fewer, but larger, farms it takes more managers to run them. She said those managers are often women.

However, she says a large reason for the bump could also be recognition. She said the idea of a “farm wife” didn't used to give proper credit to the women working to run operations.

“If you asked someone in the early 80's who was the farmer they probably would have said my dad, but in the backbone and the reality of the situation my mom was an equal partner with him and they've always operated on an equal partner basis,” Schultz said.

Schultz said it doesn't matter as much to her who is running farms, but that family farms and agriculture continue to operate.

“Whether it's a male or a female taking over the next generation I just want to see agriculture continue to be a part of our heritage and a part of our legacy of where we've grown up,” Schultz said.