BELLE — Osage, Maries and Gasconade (OMG) counties 9th Annual Women in Ag (WIA) event at the White Mule Winery brought in a slightly larger crowd than usual according to Brittany Clark with Maries County Soil and Water, and treasurer for the group.

“We had about 260 purchase tickets, even as late as this afternoon,” Clark said about the online registration for the 2024 event. “There were about five walk-ins tonight and 240 people present. It grows a little more every year.”

Clark is one of many women who plan to host the event with the help of White Mule Winery.

“Our event is put on by a slew of women,” she said. “The planning committee consists of agency staff from Osage, Maries, and Gasconade counties soil and water districts, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency, University of Missouri Extension, Farm Credit Services, and local landowners. The easiest way to address our group would be the OMG Women in Ag Committee.”

The keynote speaker this year was Kylie Epperson, a self-described farm wife and fellow woman in ag. The mother of three, entrepreneur, rural community builder, farm advocate and public speaker shared her battle with learning to be a farm wife, mother, and helpmate while setting boundaries.

“Farm life can be lonely,” she told the large group of women who nodded their heads in agreement. “I needed to talk to someone.”

Epperson’s presentation Grow Through What you Go Through talked about her journey to acknowledging that she was taking on too much, spreading herself too thin, and ruining her mental health in the process.

“My mother-in-law is an amazing farm wife,” Epperson told the crowd. “She could raise three children on the farm and have a job and I thought ‘I can do that, too!’”

However, by the time the couple had their third child and all three children were coming to work with her on the farm, Epperson said she felt like an utter failure. When she was working she worried she was a bad mother and when she was mothering, she worried she wasn’t pulling her weight on the farm.

She added that her well-meaning husband tried to lend her support by offering to hire out her duties as a bookkeeper, but she heard instead that she was an awful bookkeeper and the worst of mothers. Even as her peers laughed, they nodded in agreement, each having been there at some point.

Even when her loving husband told her he just wanted her to be happy, Epperson said she didn’t know what that would be anymore.

“I told him, ‘I think I need help,’” she said. “So many ears turn off right away when they hear ‘mental health’ because we all just power through it. Sometimes, we need to talk to someone.”

Epperson was eventually able to face the facts that she had taken on too much.

“What happens when we over-plant our gardens?” she asked the group.

The group shouted that the garden doesn’t grow.

“It gets stunted,” one woman said.

“It chokes,” said another.

“Nothing,” Epperson agreed. “It can’t grow to its full potential. “You have to Simplify to Amplify. Repeat it.”

Epperson told her peers that they can’t be successful if they are over-planting their gardens. Something has to give. Weed out the things that are done, that can go to someone else who is willing to take it on. That way there is room to grow into new projects with past successes and failures.

“There are three steps to Simplify to Amplify,” Epperson said. “Grow, Hoe, Sow.”

Growing represents putting in the work to start the garden. Hoeing represents weeding through the garden to make room and sowing represents planting new things to move forward.”

Epperson’s audience was provided with a worksheet to use to work through their workload and decide what they could grow, hoe, and sow to simplify their work and amplify new opportunities.

There were two additional guest speakers throughout the evening.

Dr. Sherri Russell, MDC State Veterinarian, presented Wildlife Diseases: What you should know and Mike Wuerffel presented Introduction to Beekeeping.

Roughly 10 vendors were present selling locally made products. White Mule Winery provided the meal.