Lindsey Jacobs is the current Ms. Agvocate USA and a passionate cattle farmer at Church View Farm in Millersville. The Ms. Agvocate program brings together women who are passionate about agriculture, providing a platform to share their stories and advocate for the importance of farming.
“Ag has always been where my heart is and my personal platform has been ag literacy and education,” she says. “My hope is to educate people about what we do and why we do it so that when they go to buy their items, they can make educated decisions based on facts rather than marketing schemes, misinformation or fear.”
Along with being Ms. Agvocate and a farmer, Lindsey is also a graduate student in Virginia Tech’s Online Masters of Ag and Life Sciences program (OMALS), double majoring in Food Safety and Ag Leadership. Her research project focuses on laws and regulations around food processing and handling in supermarkets and farmers markets. “The goal of this project is to create informative pamphlets that Virginia Cooperative Extension can use for consumer education,” she says.
A sixth-generation farmer, Lindsey grew up on the family farm, which laid roots in the early 1900s. Initially, her ancestors raised cattle and row crops like corn, soybeans and tobacco. Over the years, they settled on Herefords for their temperament and production traits. Today, the farm spans about 300 acres and is home to 60 cows, their calves, 25 bred heifers and five breeding bulls. Lindsey farms alongside her mother, Tara Baldwin-Jacobs, and her brother, Anthony Jacobs, while her grandfather, William Baldwin, manages the paperwork. The farm primarily operates as a seedstock operation, breeding cattle to create genetically superior calves for sale to other farmers and ranchers.
They focus on breeding polled Herefords to avoid the management and safety challenges horns present. “Animals with horns can hurt themselves or others and possibly get stuck in feed bunks or hay feeders. The American Hereford Association even offers DNA tests to see if an animal carries the genetic marker for horns, helping us make breeding decisions accordingly,” she explains.
From January to April, it’s calving season. The family takes turns checking the herd every three hours for cows in labor or having complications. Spring is breeding season, where they use artificial insemination (AI) and then let the cows and heifers out with the bulls. The vet visits every 30 days to check for pregnancies.
Summer is both show and hay season when they prepare calves for fairs and shows while also cutting and baling hay. “It usually takes three to four hot and sunny days for hay to cure and dry before it is baled. By the end of the season, we usually put up about 600 round bales that will get us through the winter,” Lindsey says. Fall is sale season, when the calves are old enough to wean off their mothers. They participate in multiple breeding sales and prepare for the next calving season.
Farm life is a full-time commitment, and Lindsey wouldn’t have it any other way. “The farm always has something going on so it is a 24-7 365 days kind of job/lifestyle, but I grew up in this life and I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Lindsey says.
Hungry for more? Read about cattle in Maryland. Learn more about Herefords.
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