Stacy Rethman, the eldest of four children, always found solace on her family’s farm, nestled in the heart of Seneca, Kansas. Even as a child assisting her father with Sunday afternoon milkings, Rethman found a sense of purpose and connection to her heritage. Even if she did not know it at the time.
“I was too short to really help, so my father would duct tape a post dipper to a walking cane and after the cows were milked, I would go up and down the aisle, post dipping cows,” she recalls.
Although Rethman admits saying that growing up she felt like her life calling was to be a teacher instead of a farmer. She loved the classroom, craved learning and the connection of community that teaching brought. She also felt like the life-balance that profession could bring would marry well with her future self.
A Teacher at Heart
As Rottinghaus Holstein Farm grew from 280 cows to 500 cows, so did Rethman’s life. College took her away from Seneca, an hour-plus south to Washburn University, but her summers still revolved around the rhythms of farm life—feeding calves and taking care of chores.
Returning to Seneca, Kansas, after college, Rethman taught middle school math and science, finding creative ways to make lessons relatable for students with and without farm backgrounds. Her dual experiences enriched her teaching, providing a bridge to the community’s agricultural roots.
“I tried to make my lessons relatable to these kids because a lot of them had a farm background and for those that didn’t, they lived in a community where they knew someone that did,” she said.
Reconnecting with the Land
Despite her passion for teaching, the call of the farm remained strong. Regular visits to her family’s dairy rekindled her love for the cattle and land. She helped her mother feed calves on the weekend and when the world pandemic stirred reflections about life priorities, her father’s suggestion to join the farm full-time resonated deeply.
“I loved being outside when I would help on the farm and felt like I was contributing and helping out when I was there part-ime,” she shares, noting that before the world pandemic hit, she started thinking maybe this was the life for her after all. “Then one day, my dad said, ‘You know you can quit teaching and come work for me full-time.’”
Embracing Technological Advancement
The second half of the year 2020 marked a pivotal turning point for Rethman. The allure of being a part of the advancing technology and the chance to play a vital role in her family’s tradition of dairy farming spurred her decision to return to the farm full-time. This wasn’t just a return to old roots; it was an embrace of a new approach to dairy farming. The farm once milked all their cows conventionally and in 2019 added four robots and milked cows both in a parlor and via robot. Then in 2023, the farm added four additional robots and now all cows are milked robotically. This is an area that Rethman helps oversee. The transition to robots was smooth and it also brought unforeseen benefits—flexibility around her schedule and more time with her children.
“If I needed to run to an appointment, I easily could,” she says.
Cultivating a Heritage
But really Rethman ‘s return to farming offered her two small children a glimpse into a life rarely experienced by their many other schoolkids—understanding where food comes from and the legacy their family has cultivated. While Rethman didn’t initially envision herself back on the family farm, she now sees it as her life’s setting, planting valuable lessons in her children about hard work, patience, and the rewards of farming.
“They get to witness the life that we’ve built and generations before us have built,” she shares. “It’s a place where they belong and they’ll have the option to come back someday, if they wish.”
Rethman wholeheartedly believes that whether her children return to the farm or not, values are being planted.
“Farm life teaches patience and truly understanding that the reward comes after the work is done,” she says. “Life isn’t all instant gratification. For example, we have to patiently wait two years before a calf hits the ground.”
Education, Refashioned
Rethman’s passion for education hasn’t waned; instead, it’s found a new form. Through initiatives with Midwest Dairy and Dairy Farmers of America, she continues to educate others about farming, using data from the farm’s robots to demonstrate the intersection of technology, agriculture and health.
“The idea of making a connection about dairy with people who have never stepped foot on the farm is pretty impactful,” she says.
Rethman shares that the data robots collect is incredibly valuable.
“We can do so much, like see signs of illness in the data before we physically see signs of sickness in a cow through how many minutes a cow is ruminating, how many pounds of milk they are giving per milking, see if a case of mastitis might be happening, again, before the cow is showing signs of being sick,” she shares. “All that data helps us prevent illness just as much as it does to catch it.”
Rethman says all that data wows her as a former math and science teacher, saying: “If I was teaching right now, I’d create some cool lessons plans.”
A Journey Back to Her Heart
Reflecting on the roads traveled, Rethman points out that growing up on her family dairy farm, she was taught that gender was no barrier to success.
“I was never made to feel like farming was a man’s job or a women’s job. It was something that we had to do as a family to care for our cows and create a wholesome product,” she shares.
Indeed, this young Kansas dairy farmer’s life has come to embody a balance between the passion for teaching and the fulfillment found in working with the cattle. As she nurtures both her family and the community, Rethman finds herself precisely where she belongs—rooted in the farm that raised her and now raising the next generation.
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