She is a college student, farmer, emerging social media creator, and fashion designer. And she is 20 years old. But what drives Kate Stephens most isn’t the combine that she steers on the fields with her dad on their rural Great Falls wheat farm in Montana; it is the mission she has to inspire other young women to realize that they can also be leaders on the farm one day.
“I think agriculture as a whole is such a male dominated industry,” Stephens told American Farmland Owner as she sat in the family combine and harvested several more rows of wheat before the sun set. “Growing up, I never saw someone like me represented on the farm in a combine, driving these tractors and participating in managerial roles on a farm.”
RELATED: Spectrum News spotlighted Marlowe Ivey, a North Carolina swine farmer, on female leadership on the farm. Watch that story here.
One out of 11 farms in the United States were run entirely by women, according to the USDA’s Census on Agriculture. And nearly half of the operations did not have a woman who was an active participant on that farm.
Stephens wants those numbers to evolve. “I hope to be the change in that direction.”
Bringing that change means opening up her life and putting a camera by her side. She started a YouTube channel called, “Kate’s Ag – Farm to Fashion.”
RELATED: In this YouTube video, Kate Stephens explains how her family farm has a friendly debate about whether swathing or combining is the more important contribution. And then there was a snake. Watch that video here.
“Not many people know where their food comes from, or even much about the work that the families put in who produce it,” Stephens explained.
“So, I thought, Wow! I really need to help change this. And that's when I got a tripod and put it in the cup holder of my combine and started making YouTube videos. And it kind of took off from there.”
RELATED: Montana Ag Network talked to Kate Stephens and her college friend about their experience coming back to the Stephens family farm over the summer. See that story here.
Stephens’ channel has grown to more than 116,000 subscribers. She sees that growth as an opportunity to bring young women along with her. “I've got a lot of YouTube channel comments about how girls had never seen another woman driving a combine before, and they didn't think that they could do it before watching my video.”
“So, I think that that's really what keeps me going. I'm very passionate about showcasing that. You know, girls can do it just as good as the guys.”
Stephens also started her own fashion line of shirts and tote bags, another outreach for her to connect the non-farming community with life in agriculture. You can see her merch here.
Sharing her farm life on YouTube also means acknowledging challenges. Montana has been suffering through a lack of rain for several years. That stresses operations at a time when wheat producers have already been struggling with prices.
“Especially for those family farmers around us who have to make payments on their land and into machinery dealers, “Stephens said of the hardship. “We're putting all the money in the bank, and we're getting a pretty good harvest this year.”
“We're also hoping for prices to go up, and just hoping we can maintain that generational farm.”
Maintaining that farm also means dealing with the unexpected, like when a neighbor’s field caught fire. One thousand acres burned and threatened the Stephens farm field. Stephens’ family, neighbors, and volunteer firefighters rushed in to help contain the flames.
“The wind helped the fire get started. And before they could put it out, it was out of control,” Stephens said.
“We are very blessed and grateful that no one was injured because nothing matters more than life,” she said.
RELATED: Kate Stephens’ video of her Montana neighbor’s farm field burning and what her family did to help has more than 1.3 million views. Watch it here.
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