Experience,
BY DORIS HENRIQUE
NEWARK, Del. - During
a recent panel discussion
sponsored, by the
Agricultural College Council
of the University of
Delaware, five women
graduates of the Univer
sity’s College of Agricultural
Sciences talked about their
present careers and
described how they got the
jobs they now hold. Included
on the panel were a soil
conservationist, a
veterinarian, an en
tomologist, a farm loan
officer and a laboratory
Lea Tammi and her friend, a pet mackaw,
Tammi, who runs a small animal hospital near
Newark, is one of several women vets practicing in
New Castle county.
As soon as the red tape and details are
completed we are planning to have on
OPEN HOUSE
on a farm In Lebanon County, hopefully
during the latter days of May.
We will be showing tractors, trucks
and furnace using all ag fuel produced
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Please don’t ask to see the equipment which is
operating now, before Open House. We are too busy
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Women finding ag careers
persistence and training
researcher with a major
chemical company. They
said it took good preparation
and lots of persistance to get
where they are now Plus
knowing the ropes, when it
came to job-hunting m their
particular fields. But the
effort was well worth it, they
all agreed.
What kinds of careers
exist for women in
agriculture’ A wide range of
challenging opportunities,
both indoors and outdoors,
said panel members.
Soil specialist Debbie
Tarburton works out of the
m
U.S Soil Conservation
Service’s Dover field office,
helping local governments
and individuals solve soil
related problems. A 1976
graduate of the University
with a B S. m plant science,
she surveys, designs and
stakes out sites for the
creation of ponds, dams and
ditches. She began as a part
tune student trainee for SCS
while still m college. She
took a number of
engineering courses then
which gave her much needed
skills for the work she does
today.
One of her present
assignments is to survey
agricultural waste systems
in Kent count} F u > , L i ,n
meeting pollution-control
standards. She said she
spends a good bit of her tune
in hip boots on this all
weather, outdoor job. The
work is strenuous but
satisfying.
Tarburton is Delaware’s
first woman soil con
servationist. But the field is
opening up more all the tune
to women, she said. Ad
vancement m this profession
requires considerable
mobility. You could be
assigned a post anywhere
from Tunisia to California.
For some women, this may
be a limitation—especially
if, as she is, they’re married
to a farmer and thus more or
less tied to the land.
Another panelist, Mane
Stuart, holds an M.S. degree
m plant pathology from the
University of Delaware, as
well as certificates to teach
both English and biology. At
one tune she considered
becoming an extension
agent. “But coming from
urban north Wilmington, I
didn’t think I’d have the
necessary rapport with
farmers,” she explained.
land ag jo
Instead, she nailed down
job as a researchei
screening agncultur;
chemicals for the duPoi
Company. Over the pai
three years she’s seen
growing number of worn*
enter her field.
Pregnant now, she sa:
she plans to re-enter the j
market after her baby
bom—possibly working
the registration of ne'
agncultural chemicals f»
EPA.
Entomologist Lyn
Harrison took two and a hal
years to find the job she’s g(
with Delaware’s Depai
ment of Agriculture, but
glad she persevered. “It
not a job for fancy clothr
and hairdos,” she told t!
young women gathered
hear the panel talk abou
career possibilities in
agriculture. “But it’s great
for a woman who’s not in
terested in being tied to a
desk.” About half her tune is
spent with agricultural
crops. The other half is
devoted to dealing with
insect problems on garden
plants and nursery stock.
This summer she’ll be
working on several
biological control programs,
including one aimed at
control of the Mexican bean
beetle on soybeans, another
designed to prevent the
spread of the gypsy moth in
Delaware, and one for
control of cereal leaf beetle
on small grams.
Harrison and her husband
recently bought an 88-acre
farm outside of Kenton. In
her free time she helps him
work this. They raise com
and soybeans, as well as
some livestock.
There are many op
portunities for women en
tomologists at both the state
and federal level in the areas
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 10,1980—A23
Entomologist Lynn Harrison finds her post with
Delaware Department of Natural Resources a
welcome challenge. The job involves helping
control insect pests on field crops and nursery
stock. She says more and more women are seeking
careers in agriculture.
of conservation, forestry and
mosquito control, she said.
But you need to be willing to
move around to get them. In
many cases, that’s also the
only way to advance. For
those interested in entering
this field, she recommended
a college degree m either
entomology and plant
pathology, or entomology
and applied ecology. Other
possible jobs available with
this training are lawn and
garden center work, sales
and research, pest ex
termination, or work with a
chemical, fertilizer or seed
company. But based on her
own experience, it can take
tune to find what you want.
Eleanor Laws’ ag degree
got her a job as a farm loan
Mash dryer, small hammer or roller
mill, prefab insulated building, grain
storage, transfer augers, fuel tanks and
pumps.
officer with the Fanners
Home Administration’s
Dover office. This rural
credit agency makes low to
moderate income housing
loans and also lends farmers
money to buy and operate
farms, install imgation,
ditching and make other
improvements.
!f she had it to do over
again, she said she would
probably take more
agricultural economics
courses—her major was
animal science. Even so, she
has done well on the job and
recently was reassigned as a
district supervisor stationed
in the FHA office in
Chestertown, Md. She said
more women are entering
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