The Fifth Annual Women in Agriculture and Ag Landowner's Conference is set for this Friday, March 14 at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Marshall. (More information is on page 6)

While "ag landowner" is easy enough to define, some women may ask, "If I'm married to a farmer, work an off-farm job and don't help in the farm's day-to-day operation, am I still a "Woman in Agriculture?"

Well, of course you are!

After all, our predecessors may not have worked at jobs in town (there weren't any for women) but they were the original women working "outside of the home." In a Feb. 4, 1916, "Missouri Ruralist" article written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (who later wrote the Little House Books) she noted that in her town of Mansfield over $117,000 was paid for poultry, eggs and cream in 1915.

She wrote: "Not only the care of the poultry, but the raising of garden products and small fruits is largely women's work; and in many instances the greater part of the labor of producing cream and butter. The fact is that while there has been a good deal of discussion for and against women in business, farm women have always been business women and I have never heard a protest."

How right she was!

Since selling eggs, cream and butter is not really a viable option for farm women, many (thanks to changing times for women) now work off-farm jobs to make ends meet, so the "Women in Agriculture" role has changed as well.

That being said, I've come up with my own test of whether or not you are a "Woman in Agriculture." (I'll call it WIA from here on out to save me from carpel tunnel syndrome.)

You are a WIA if you have ever co-signed a note for land, machinery or operating money (or ever refused to sign the note!).

You are a WIA if you have ever had to "take a minute" (i.e. four hours) and help move machinery, people or animals.

You are a WIA if you have ever had the price of something you purchased explained to you in the number of bushels or acres it cost!

You are a WIA if you have ever attended weddings, funerals, school plays and ballgames alone because "he's in the field."

You are a WIA if you have ever helped look for a wrench, cell phone, piece of the combine, etc. that is "somewhere" in the middle of an 80-acre field.

You are a WIA if you have ever served or at least had ready a meal at midnight.

You are a WIA if you plan social occasions, weddings, etc. around planting, harvest, calving, signs of the moon, or a number of other farm related activities or disasters.

You are a WIA if you have ever taken a meal to the field. (If you've ever been convinced the meal was a "romantic" picnic even if it was on the tailgate of a pick-up, you are what I call a "Hopeless, Perpetual WIA!" Okay, so I'm guilty.)

You are a WIA if you have ever had a "sick" calf, pig, goat, chicken or any other farm animal in your kitchen or bathtub so it could survive through the night.

You are a WIA if you know to be quiet during the weather forecast -- and the daily markets.

You are a WIA if you have ever written or answered a note in grease pencil (on the side of a barn).

You are a WIA if you know that planting, harvest, times of extremely rainy weather in the spring or fall or times of extremely dry weather in the summer are not a time to bring up important or delicate topics.

You are a WIA if you have ever had an important family discussion (i.e. argument) in the seat of a combine or tractor because it couldn't wait two more months.

You are a WIA if you've ever enjoyed a "romantic" walk in the pasture looking at the baby calves. (That may be another for the "Hopeless, Perpetual WIA!" Darn, guilty again!)

You are a WIA if you have ever "picked up" a machinery part, bag of feed, bag of seed or even a tank of anhydrous, etc., on your way home from work.

And last but not least, you are a "Woman in Agriculture," (or at least should be) if you managed to make it through this whole article!

So I hope to see you at the conference this Friday in Marshall.