As the Kronen Zeitung reports, a farming family from Aflenz in the Bruck-Mürzzuschlag district in Styria, Austria, has been hit hard. But the stroke of fate also tells a story about female power and the many strong female farmers on local farms. Farmer Margret (44) is now a widow. Her husband and father of three small children was suddenly torn from the middle of his life. But the woman didn’t give up and continued to run the family dairy farm. Especially for her three children. Now she has been honored by the Chamber of Agriculture – as a court heroine.
Farmer dies in forestry accident: wife and 3 children remain on the farm
Margret has been running the farm for eleven years now, as she tells the Konen Zeitung. But that wasn’t actually planned. She was never interested in agriculture, even though she came from a family that had a part-time hay dairy farm. She preferred to be a nurse, but then fell in love with a farmer. Life was good for both of them – they had three children. Until that fateful day when your husband died in a forestry accident at the age of just 35. What should she do now? Give up? Continue?
Children grow up in the stable: farmer’s wife runs a dairy farm
She decided to continue running the farm. Her children were two, six and nine years old at the time. The farmer’s wife tells the newspaper that she didn’t want to take on a burden and wanted to hold on to it no matter what. But: The children grew up in the stable and were interested in it. “Otherwise I would have needed a lot more childcare,” she says pragmatically. It wasn’t easy by any means, but there was no question of complaining for her. And she passed this attitude and her current love of agriculture on to her children. One daughter is an agricultural science student and reigning Styrian dairy queen, and one son is also a passionate farmer and enjoys helping out on the farm.
Men’s dairy industry: female farmer prevails
According to the newspaper, Margret made her way in the men’s dairy industry and always wanted to do as much as possible herself. Why shouldn’t women be able to drive tractors? She is still making ends meet with her business today. In the Kronen Zeitung she says that you can make a living from a farm if you run it carefully and economically. It simply wouldn’t do any good to complain. She can’t show her children that everything is bad. She wants to do her best for them every day. Source: Kronen Zeitung, Austrian Chamber of Agriculture
