Laura Nielson: Images by Jeff Sampson Photography Dairy farmer Laura Nielson was “dinking” around on YouTube one afternoon when she typed in “Farm Girl” out of boredom to see what she could find. What she found left her appalled. “I was mortified,” said Nielson. The videos featured a girl making a mockery of farmers, “slaughtering” every term in agriculture, all while dressed like a “hillbilly” with cliché pigtails. Not only was Nielson in shock to see that people who commented mostly believed she was an actual farm girl, but each video had around 80,000 hits. That’s when she knew she had to do something. At first, Nielson decided to document daily activities, whether it was her chores to her nursing a sick cow, to use as a journal of sorts. “I thought, well, someday it will be really cool to look back in 20 years and see what our farm used to be,” she recalled. Little did she know the impact her YouTube channel would make (cleverly dubbed “therealfarmgirl”). So far she has uploaded around 50 videos with thousands of hits, and they have not gone unnoticed by the agricultural world. Nielson has spoken at several Ag United for South Dakota events and has been sent to St. Louis and Minneapolis to speak about her use of social media in agriculture (or “ag”). According to Kelly Nelson from Ag United, “Laura has become a leader in the ag industry at sharing her passion for agriculture and her with others.” “I thought, well, someday stories Along with her evit will be really cool to look er-growing YouTube Nielson does back in 20 years and see channel, what she can to help what our farm used to be.” spread the word about
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farming. The 3rd-generation farmer speaks in classrooms across the state, including Adopt a Farmer (a program that allows a classroom to get monthly updates from her on what she is currently doing on the farm). She also is part of the national movement CommonGround, which is a group of farm women whose main objective is to open communication with suburban and city women to help with the disconnect of modern farming and to “dispel myths” of “If you’re using Kraft… the process. Her exemplified passion it probably could be for farming might very well from our farm.” have been hereditary. Nielson is part of the 98 percentile of farms that are family owned and operated. Her father and uncle took over the corporation, Nielson Farms, from her grandfather. The 3,000-acre crop and dairy farm currently cultivates corn, soybeans, hay and milk. The dairy, which Nielson is in charge of, produces 1.5 million gallons of milk a year. The milk primarily goes to their biggest client, Kraft Foods. “If you’re using Kraft… it probably could be from our farm,” she said. If you asked her years go, though, Nielson would tell you she wasn’t sure she would end up back on the farm. But, after three years of working in Sioux Falls and attending a little college (she hopes to go back one day for a degree in business), she yearned for the farm life. “I found out pretty fast that my heart was definitely in ag,” she said. Nielson is currently the only one of her four siblings who has taken an interest in agriculture. When asked if she would take over Nielson Farms one day, she replied, “I’m
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