From an early age, the following six women have been involved with the dairy industry for most of their lives. Running around her parents’ dairy farm, Venae Watts, fifth-generation owner of Minerva Dairy, Minerva, Ohio, recalls her first job was to add up the milk tickets from the receiving bay. “We talked about the business at the dinner table and I was always included in the conversation,” Watts states.
Another farm girl, Pam Hodgson, who went on to become the first woman Master Cheesemaker in the country in 2013 and has been with Plymouth, Wis.-based Sartori for 19 years, started off her career as a Quality Assurance Supervisor at a cheese plant.