Stephanie Bos
Family: Parents, Alby and Angela Bos; and sisters, Sara and Alison.
Hometown: Billings, Mo.
What is your involvement in agriculture?
“I grew up on a dairy farm. We milked 50 to 70 cows right up through 2003 when my parents finally sold. My grandparents still milk 60 to 80 head of dairy cattle. We didn’t get out of showing though. I show at the Missouri State Fair with some of our Brown Swiss. They are the second largest breed of dairy cows, just behind Holsteins and they have great longevity. They are a really sturdy breed and take the summer heat well. They’ve just always been in our family.
“The best part of this industry is representing dairy farmers at fairs like this and all the people you get to meet along the way. Unfortunately, the public often gets the wrong impression of who we are and what we do. Today, we are the ones who have to teach the public why we are here and that we raise our cattle and produce our milk without antibiotics. We are the ones who get to tell the public how safe our product is and what we are really all about.
“The worst part, of course, is that dairy farmers do not get paid enough for the milk they produce and all these dairy farmers who are going under as a result.”
What are your plans for the future?
“I plan to go into ag education and teach high school ag students, hopefully somewhere here in southwest Missouri. My dad ran the FFA program at my high school and he taught me a lot about responsibility and the life lessons that go with that. It [working in agriculture] gave me that pride that got me through a lot of things in high school. I want to further that in the next generation, to teach them where there food and clothes come from because this is where it all starts. I just want to follow in my dad’s footsteps.”
