15 minutes with Mary Pat Sass

Mary Pat Sass farms with her husband, his parents, his two brothers, and their families. They raise corn, soybeans, and wheat. 

She grew up in Wisconsin on a dairy farm and worked after college for an agricultural technology company. When she decided to leave her corporate job to be full time on the farm raising her son and daughter, she created a cheese marketing business that she recently transitioned to her father after he retired from dairy farming. 

SF: Tell us about the things that fall under your responsibility on the farm.

MPS: My main jobs are helping with tillage in the fall and spring. I also do scouting and tissue sampling during the growing season. I have a background in agronomy, so anytime we need another set of eyes in the field, I’m there. 

SF: After transitioning to the farm full-time, you’ve found several opportunities to use your marketing skills. Can you share some of those?

MPS: I quickly realized I wanted something to do for myself that was farm-related but not day-to-day farming. I started a marketing business and a website sharing about our life on the farm and advocating for agriculture. Most recently, I started a new business called Grounded Journals, which are prompted journals for farmers and ranchers to help them write down their stories and capture their memories.

SF: Where did the idea for Grounded Journals come from? 

MPS: My husband’s grandpa had the best stories, and we loved sitting down and talking with him. When I was a young mother, I remember my grandmother-in-law telling me to write things down, because she always became frustrated when she didn’t remember all the details. That was the spark — the flame really didn’t light until a couple years later. So, selfishly, it was really for us in the beginning, but then I saw how it could impact other families. It’s become a passion project.

SF: What is included in the journals?

MPS: There are two versions. One is a 10-year journal, which is for people who are still actively farming. There are nine pages a year, organized by season: planting, growing, harvesting, and then a yearly summary. It’s meant to be easy because you’re given prompts and you’re not sitting down with a blank piece of paper. There’s also room for photographs. 

The other version is the memoir journal, which is for farmers or ranchers who have already retired. It’s a recollection of all of their years from childhood through retirement to capture the story for their families to pass down. Their families are so thankful to be able to capture the stories of the generations before them.

SF: Share a little bit about what you do in the ag advocacy and social media space. 

MPS: I call myself an ag content creator, and I document our life on the farm and share it. The main people I connect with are other women in ag and farm moms and wives. I hope I help them enjoy the life that we get to live. I really feel like it’s a privilege to be doing what we do. 

I started sharing online shortly after I left my corporate job when one day during planting, my husband called and said he had run over his lunch and could I bring a new one? [laughs] I just couldn’t believe that was my life in that moment. I felt really grateful to have the flexibility to be able to take care of him. I decided that this could be entertaining to others too, and it’s grown into something I could never have imagined it to be.

SF: What are you hoping your children learn from watching you on the farm and advocating for the industry? 

MPS: I hope to pass on to them what I feel like my parents instilled in me, which is whatever you set your mind to, you can do. You’re going to face challenges, but you can pivot and work through them to build a life that you want to be living

Background

Mary Pat Sass blogs at marypatsass.com and is active on Instagram and TikTok @MaryPat.Sass. Grounded Journals are her latest business venture and can be found at groundedjournals.co.