Meet Stephanie Nash

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Nash. 

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Stephanie Nash… I am a 4th generation dairy farmer from middle TN. My story starts in central California. The largest agriculture county in the United States. My family grew up in the dairy farming industry. It is all I have ever known. I studied Dairy Science at Fresno state, I was dairy princess of my county and I was a member of young farmers and ranchers. Everything I am today is because of my past and my family’s love of farming. In 2014 we moved from the Central Valley to Tennessee. This move wasn’t taken lightly. We wanted to move to a state that had a firm belief that agriculture is needed. We knew we needed water availability and enough farmland to be sustainable. We are so happy to be here and we hope our family farm will provide food for many years to come. 

Last year I started a series called the life of the farmer. The series has been shown on RFD-TV new episodes come out once a month on my YouTube channel. I started the series to communicate with those that have not grown up on a farm. To share the stories of American farmers across the United States into educate those on what is going on in our agriculture industry. I believe in feeding the world and I know our stories should be heard. So, if you want to learn more about my passion go stream “The Life of a Farmer”. 

My second love that I do when I’m not farming is songwriting and singing. I always want to tell my story not only of agriculture but through my heart and I hope that it will influence those who listen to my music. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Moving cattle across the United States had its challenges. Our first priority was making sure our cows could transport safely and plan out a stop for them to rest. Once that plan was set, we just had to pray this would all come together… and it did. We started milking cows and have been farming here in TN for eight years now. The biggest fear all farmers face is fair pricing and weather. Two main issues in our industry that are unpredictable. Farmers do not set their price for their products and that can be a hard fact to face at the end of a long hard day. Currently, feed prices are 3-4x the amount, it has taken a huge hit on family farmers surviving or selling. There are currently not many dairy farmers left in America but we do the best we can to keep our cows happy and educate those around us. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I came back from college and started looking over our calf/heifer management team. I oversee all the newborns, from their mother’s first milk (colostrum) all the way up to them becoming milking cows. My daily routine starts at 4:30 am. I wake up and start the milk to heat up for the baby calves. Temperature is important here as this is their start to new life and gaining the right nutrition. Calves get fed twice a day along with clean water and a starter grain. From there… I make my way around the farm, cleaning buckets, feeding colostrum, and bedding straw. Many people don’t understand what I do. They see videos or comments on media and they assume dairy is bad. I can assure you any practice or task I do throughout my day is always for my animals. This is my life. This is my passion. Unfortunately, we have missed the importance of farming. We must get back to relying on the American Farmer…. Before we are all gone. 

How do you think about luck?
Good Luck… advocacy. Being able to educate and let people know that buying local always helps your family farmers. 

Bad luck. Activist. They get paid millions of dollars from celebrities and followers to lie about our industry. As a Farmer, this truly hurts. It hurts to dedicate your life to feed the world for people who have never stepped foot on a farm to try to diminish you. Marketing and labels also hurt our industry. Misleading information from big sellers/companies compared to local farmers. 

Pricing:

• Main example dairy farming for example. During covid, milk sales were up by 8% but what the farmer got paid was down by 23%. This is why we have lost over 40,000 dairy farmers since 2003. But the news won’t talk about that.

Contact Info:

• Email: Nashgirl88@yahoo.com
• Website: Stephanienashmusic.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stephanienashmusic?r=nametag
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCKkSYrqW_CfiEXcPDZQztaA
• Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRPp46nU/