25 / 44
Winter
2017
grainswest.com25
Lacey Owens combines her talent for marketing with her
passion for farming and has made a rewarding career of it.
As an adviser at Global Ag Risk Solutions, marketing and
communications professional at Emerge Ag Solutions and
co-founder of Connect Ag with her husband, Matt, her roles
reflect her passions.
“I identify with the fear of risk and the stress around it on
the farm,” she said. “I’m very passionate about farmers having
plans in place to prepare for risks, mitigate them and potentially
eliminate them altogether.”
Her work at Connect Ag also furthers several causes close to
Owens’ heart. “We are in the process of launching a clothing
brand with a purpose,” she said. “Our goal is to educate and
connect with consumers, as well as contribute an agriculture
package to a farmer in a developing country for every item
of clothing that we sell. Our mission is to connect through
agriculture all across the world.”
Closer to home, northeast of Chaplin, SK, is the fourth-
generation farm where Owens grew up. The family operation
seeds 10,000 acres of grain land and hosts a 260-head cow-
calf cattle operation. From a young age, Owens helped out
wherever she could.
At age 10, when her mother returned to work off the farm,
Owens took over preparing meals for everyone on the farm,
including her father, two older brothers and other family
employees. She also worked with the animals and was a “gofer”
before she could legally drive.
Although she has always been passionate about the farm,
her two older siblings were able to fill the available roles there.
“There wasn’t enough for me to make a life there, so I went off
the farm and found my own thing,” she said. “I’ve come across a
lot of women who can relate to this situation.”
Through her work, Owens said she is seeing many women
getting more involved in ag both on and off the farm, including
daughters who are staying on the farm. “I’ve also seen this
through the reps who visit Emerge Ag Solutions,” she said. “The
owners of the company talk about how it used to be basically all
male sales reps. Now at least half of them are women.
“I go into meetings and I know I’m not going to be the only
woman in the room, which was more common when I started
out in the agriculture industry,” she said.
According to Owens, not only are more women getting
involved in ag, but those women are also finally being
recognized for the tremendous amount of work they do in the
industry.
“Where I really see change is in the recognition of farm
women,” she said. “Women have always been involved in
various roles on the farm—driving the grain truck, running
the combine and more. I feel like we’re doing a better job of
showcasing that than what was seen in the past. And I think
women are becoming more trusted as having a part in the
management of their family farms.”
That being said, Owens added there are areas where the
industry needs to do more work in order to adapt to today’s
changing demographics.
“I don’t see enough female producers coming out to
producer meetings,” she said. “I think there is still a lack of
comfort to come out and be a part of them.”
While organizing events, she has experienced roadblocks
with potential sponsors who still cannot see the value in
targeting women as an audience. “They ask what they will
gain by investing sponsorship dollars into women when they
are not the decision makers on the farm,” she said. “Because
this is simply not true today, it’s an area that we really need to
grow into.”
She added that businesses should be very careful about these
kinds of assumptions because, “in many cases, women are
making the management decisions, and they’re really on point.”
In light of these challenges, Owens feels hopeful that the ag
industry will adapt to better recognize all of its players. “It boils
down to increasing awareness,” she said. “We certainly have
come a long way in recognizing the different roles people play
in this business. But there are areas where we still have a long
way to go.”
LACEY OWENS:
Connecting
with
passion
RECOGNIZING WOMEN:
Lacey Owens, an agriculture risk
management adviser and communications professional, is happy to
see that women are finally being recognized for the valuable work
they do in the industry.