What is the Farmfest Woman Farmer of the Year Award?

The Farmfest Woman Farmer of the Year Award honors the hard-working female farmers across Minnesota who selflessly give their time to growing the crops and raising the livestock needed to feed the world. So many times, women on the farm wear multiple hats, tirelessly contributing to the farm but also participating in community events, raising children or working outside the home. And for that commitment, we want to say thank you.

Meet the 2026 Finalists

Congratulations to the top five finalists for the Farmfest Woman Farmer of the Year award. Read on for more details on these five amazing women!
Clockwise from top left:

Trisha Zachman, Belgrade, MN
Erica Sawatzke, Kensington, MN
Christina Traeger, Avon, MN
Meg Stuedemann, Belle Plaine, MN
Mary Joyer, Lino Lakes, MN

Join us at Farmfest on August 6 for the Women in Ag Event to honor our top 5 finalists and name the Woman Farmer of the Year!

Trisha Zachman, Belgrade, MN

Trisha Zachman was raised on a dairy farm in central Minnesota, where she learned early the values of hard work, responsibility, and animal care that would anchor her life in agriculture. She went on to study Agronomy and Agribusiness at North Dakota State University. After, she spent a decade in the crop protection industry, where she gained hands-on experience with seed, precision agriculture tools, and the wide variety of ways farmers make decisions for their operations. The combination of Trisha's farm upbringing, education, and industry experience gave her a well-rounded foundation that she would eventually bring back to the land.

Today, Trisha channels everything she has learned into Feathered Acres Learning Farm and Inn, a working regenerative farm, farm stay, and educational destination that she has helped build from the ground up alongside her family. She is involved in every dimension of the operation from livestock care and pasture management to marketing, farm tours, classes, direct-to-consumer meat sales, and business planning. One of her greatest strengths is her ability to welcome guests, families, students, and chefs onto the farm and connect them to agriculture in an honest, approachable way. Trisha also opens Feathered Acres to local schools at no cost, giving children hands-on access to working farm animals and the daily realities of raising food, removing barriers for families and schools who might not otherwise have that opportunity.

Trisha's has traveled to Washington, D.C. four times to advocate for small and family farms, speaking directly with policymakers about how decisions made at the federal level affect real farmers, rural communities, and consumers. She has lent her voice to support niche livestock practices and protect family farm opportunities with the same passion she brings to her daily chores. Trisha is a farmer, educator, advocate, and business builder who represents both the roots and the future of American agriculture.

Erica Sawatzke, Kensington, MN

Erica Sawatzke is a sixth-generation farmer at Oakdale Turkey Farm in Kensington, Minnesota, a farm with roots stretching back to 1866 when her great-great-great grandfather broke ground on 160 acres. Erica grew up immersed in daily life on the farm. She earned her Animal Science degree from North Dakota State University in 2012. She returned to Oakdale in 2017 alongside her husband Eric to farm full time. Together they raise approximately 132,000 light hens per year with 32,000-33,000 birds on farm at a time. Erica leads the daily care of the turkey flocks, from the brooding barn through the finishers.

In November 2023, Erica lead the farm through an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). She oversaw every stage of the response from diagnosing the disease, composting euthanized birds, cleaning barns, and preparing for restock. Erica has used this experience to work directly with state and federal lawmakers, advocating for science-based solutions to HPAI. That same steady leadership defined her eight-year tenure on the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, where she served as Board President for four years, guiding the state through some of the most challenging animal health crises in recent memory. Beyond policy, Erica has made it her mission to connect consumers to agriculture through Oakdale Farm's Facebook page, which boasts over 6,500 followers. Their farm hosts through Minnesota Ag in the Classroom's an annual Thanksgiving virtual farm tour that reaches students across the nation. Erica also teaches an online poultry course at Ridgewater College each spring and fall. Oakdale Farm has even been featured on Dirty Jobs and RFD's FarmHer.

Erica is a dedicated mother, skilled producer, business manager, and respected policy leader who has given as much to her industry as she has to her own farm. Whether she is testifying before lawmakers, mentoring youth through 4-H, or guiding her flocks through difficult seasons, she leads with tenacity and integrity.

Christina Traeger, Avon, MN

Christina Traeger grew up on a dairy farm just a mile from where she farms today. After earning a degree in Farm Business Management, she deepened her agricultural education through grazing schools and cattle selection training. Christina has built her operation from the ground up with the help of her parents, grown children, and grandchildren. Her work centers on regenerative agriculture by taking marginally productive acres largely passed over by row crop farmers and restoring them to robust productivity under adverse conditions, all with minimal tillage and heavy equipment.

Christina's passion for building better soil and re-mineralizing the land extends well beyond her own fence lines. She brings her farm products directly to urban consumers, drawing attention and revenue back into her rural community while educating people about the why behind regenerative farming and how they can be part of the change. Her own food sensitivities have shaped the way she raises meat proteins by prioritizing clean, diverse, organic production for those who seek to eat healthier. Christina is equally committed to sharing her knowledge freely, dedicating countless hours each week to consulting with farmers facing challenges in animal nutrition, husbandry, and land management, fielding messages from new and experienced producers around the world. She has coordinated cattlemen's schools in conjunction with the British White Cattle Association of America, participated in heifer give-away programs to help young people start their own herds, and regularly brings farm animals into community events so people of all ages can connect firsthand with agriculture.

Christina is a farmer, educator, mentor, and community builder who leads with generosity and a deep, lifelong bond with the land and animals in her care. Whether she is mentoring a first-generation farmer, advocating for cleaner food systems, or standing in the cold tending her livestock, she does so with unwavering devotion.

Meg Stuedemann, Belle Plaine, MN

Meg Stuedemann grew up in the cities of Milwaukee and Nashville, never imagining a life in agriculture. That changed after college when she served two years in the Peace Corps in a rural farming community in northern Thailand. During her work she helped launch a village pig bank, assisted a school duck-raising project, and witnessed firsthand how agriculture could be both productive and deeply intertwined with community. The experience moved her profoundly, inspiring her to pursue a master's degree in Agronomy from the University of Minnesota. After graduating, Meg joined the Minnesota Department of Agriculture as a Diversification Specialist in 2002. She and her husband began farming together on his family's land establishing Derrydale Farm. They run a 170-acre certified organic dairy operation in Le Sueur County.

Meg manages a 70-head dairy herd, cares for and vaccinates calves, maintains pastures, operates field equipment, cuts and bales hay, spreads manure, and handles all bookkeeping and organic certification paperwork. That operational load was tested in 2016 when the farm lost its organic milk buyer, forcing her husband to leave the state for six months to work as a truck driver while Meg managed the farm almost entirely alone. She navigated daily challenges overcoming them, but not without some scars. Meg also experienced the anxiety, depression, and isolation that so many farmers quietly endure. That experience became the seed of what would grow into some of the most impactful work of her career.

Upon returning her focus to MDA, Meg surveyed Minnesota's farm population on financial and mental stress. She was driven by those findings to spearhead a suite of programs to address farmer wellbeing, including the MN Farm and Rural Helpline, a 24/7 confidential resource connecting farmers to mental health, financial, and legal support. She manages funding for three agricultural mental health specialists across the state and writes and evaluates grants to sustain these programs.

Meg has served as president of the Organic Farming Research Foundation and has held board positions for several other organizations. She currently serves on the Organic Farming Stewardship Council and on the grant review panel for Lakewinds Food Cooperative. Meg also contributes to research advisory teams for institutions like New York University. Meg Stuedemann is a farmer, a scientist, a policy leader, and a quiet lifeline for countless people who work the land. She has turned her own hardest season into lasting change for farmers across Minnesota.

Mary Joyer, Lino Lakes, MN

Mary Joyer was raised on her family's farm in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, which is the same land her grandparents homesteaded in 1916 and the same land she tends today. After graduating from Totino Grace High School, she worked alongside her parents and her siblings at farmers markets around the Twin Cities, selling locally grown flowers and vegetables to pay her way through college. She earned a degree in Special Education from St. Cloud State University, and in 1974 married her high school sweetheart. The two returned to the farm, where Mary also took Greenhouse Management courses at Century College. This led to the first greenhouse off Lake Drive being built in 1990 which has become the beginning of a decades-long expansion that would transform a roadside vegetable and flower stand into a thriving farm, garden center, and agritourism destination.

Mary raised six children on the farm, all of whom worked the vegetable fields and raised animals as members of the 4-H club her parents founded. The tradition and generational love of has been fostered by Mary fiercely throughout her life. Under Mary's leadership, Waldoch Farm has grown into one of the most beloved agricultural destinations in the region, operating Minnesota's longest-running pick-your-own farm. They welcome approximately 5,000 children each year through YMCA and school field trips to the farm.

Over the years, Mary has been a top driver for innovation on the farm by introducing biological pest control in the garden center to planting the first corn maze, and most recently giving the green light on a four-acre high-density apple orchard. Waldoch Farm holds longstanding memberships in Minnesota Grown, the Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association, and the International Agritourism Association NAFDMA, among others. Mary has also been a steadfast supporter of 4-H for over 25 years as a club leader and committee member in the Anoka County program.

Mary Joyer has spent her life proudly building and preserving her grandparents' land, growing her parents' business, raising the next generation of farmers, and opening her fields to her community.