Small towns can bring big opportunities, and Natalie Kovarik is working on making that true for her family, too. Kovarik grew up in a small town in southwest Montana and now lives in a small town in central Nebraska. With her podcast, speaking circuit, and social media presence, she hopes to let everyone know why rural life can be the best life.
No more being a pharmacist either. Kovarik told American Farmland Owner that it was an “accident” that she now is where she is. But Kovarik made some intentional – and very meaningful – decisions along the way.
Natalie Kovarik bio:
Fourth generation cattle rancher
Owner, Kovarik Cattle Co.
Co-Host, “Discover Ag” podcast
Former pharmacist
“We’re fairly remote. I am for context about an hour and a half from like a Target or a Walmart,” Kovarik said of her family’s small town living.
It has been a big change for her professional career in Ord, a town of about 2,200 people in the Nebraska Sandhills.
Kovarik worked full-time as a pharmacist near her family’s farm in Montana until she met her future husband, Luke. Luke had cattle dreams in Nebraska. Those eventually became Natalie’s, too.
She worked part-time as a pharmacist to make some off-farm income for the family that now includes three sons. But Kovarik no longer wanted the time commitment away from her family to do it. So, she concentrated on growing the family business by expanding the ranch’s social media and online sales presence.
Selling Beef Online
“…starting a direct-to-consumer beef business, and I did that with a childhood friend who was actually back in Montana, who was on a ranch,” Kovarik said.
That move ignited her creative spirit, social media savvy, and realization about a necessary ingredient to their success. “In order to start getting strangers to buy beef from us, you know, to get food online, you really had to build a community. And you really had to establish trust. And you had to do marketing.”
The confidence and new skill set that she developed – again, she would say by accident since this was not her original life’s plan – led to a following on Instagram that wannabe influencers envy: more than 100,000 followers (only about 5-7% of Instagram users have that many).
Kovarik, the fourth-generation rancher, now hosts a podcast – long distance, thanks to technology – with Tara Vander Dussen, a fifth-generation dairy farmer from New Mexico (who is also an environmental scientist).
Partnership with the ‘New Mexico Milkmaid’
Vander Dussen also has developed a significant social media following and uses the nickname, “New Mexico Milkmaid.”
They mix their love of food, agriculture, pop culture, and small-town life into the “Discover Ag” podcast. They have recorded more than 200 podcasts so far. And their topics are diverse.
The duo does deep dive discussions into topics like food waste, Joe Rogan, red dye #3, organic food, debunking food myths, and Glyphosate.
RELATED: Americans drink less milk than they did several decades ago. American Farmland Owner reported on what that could mean in this report last June.
The success of the partnership proves – in case she had any lingering doubts – that she could build a fulfilling life by moving back to a rural community.
“I think every small-town kid has angsty dreams of being a teenager and going out and experiencing life,” Kovarik said, “They’re going to move to the 'big city,' and the small-town life isn’t for them.”
Small-town life is for her, and she wants others to have a better understanding of what it offers. “As you grow up, get past some of that, and enter adulthood, you start weighing things that are important to you.”
Sacrifices to Live in a Small Town
Despite the charm of small-town living, Kovarik acknowledges that the rural lifestyle comes with its own set of challenges. “Yeah, it’s frustrating some days. I miss a Costco. I miss the convenience of living in a bigger city,” she admitted.
“When I lived in Montana, I was about a half hour from our family ranch, so I had those amenities at my fingertips. But overall, I think the rural country lifestyle is definitely more conducive to the way I want to personally live and raise my children.”
This lifestyle, however, is increasingly rare in a country where farming has been undergoing significant transformation. In recent years, larger farms have come to dominate the agricultural landscape, and the number of smaller farms has been shrinking.
Yet, Kovarik notes a contrasting trend emerging, particularly in places like Iowa, where more people are getting involved in farming. Although, they often depend on income away from the farm.
“I think we’re in a very interesting time right now. The events of 2020 changed a lot of people’s perspectives on how they spend their time and how they think about food.”
MAHA (Make America Healthy Again)
Kovarik pointed out that the pandemic opened many people's eyes to the importance of food sourcing and farming, creating a new wave of curiosity about agriculture. “People want to reconnect with where their food comes from,” she said, referring to the growing popularity of farming and ranching in mainstream culture.
A key point of conversation on her podcast is the ongoing "MAHA" (Make America Healthy Again) movement, which has sparked significant dialogue about food, farming, and sustainability.
“I remember last year,” Kovarik said when she looked back at a speech by future U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy, Jr., “he spent 20 or 30 minutes talking about food and farming. I thought, wow! This is really something—someone with such a large platform is talking about our lifestyle,” she said.
Despite the increased attention on farming, Kovarik is concerned about the long-term effects of consolidation in agriculture. While many people are drawn to the idea of homesteading and farming, statistics show that small farms often struggle to survive.
“You are seeing consolidation. You are seeing smaller farms going out of business, and the larger ones getting larger,” Kovarik observed. “Consolidation is like a hard beast to stop once it gets rolling. It’s hard to figure out how to stop it.”
However, Kovarik remains hopeful that the growing interest in sustainable farming and ranching could lead to meaningful change. “I think it’s an exciting time, though,” she said, “because people are starting to care about these issues. It’s not just the two percent of the population involved in agriculture anymore. There’s a much broader interest in how we produce food and the impact it has on our lives.”
RELATED: Leading Harvest President & CEO Kenny Fahey told American Farmland Owner about the need to make food production more sustainable. He explains how that could happen here.
