LE ROY, N.Y. — Farming has been a part of Jamie Mowry’s life since the very beginning.

“I was raised to work here. I’ve been having responsibilities since I was about 6 years old,” Mowry said.

Now she helps her father run Mowacres Farm in Le Roy, though her role is changing by the day.

“I’m just entering my seventh month of pregnancy, so I’m starting to take a step back a bit, but prior to this, a little bit of everything, really," said Mowry.

The dairy farm was started by her grandfather in 1959 in Vermont, and Mowacres Farm was built in Le Roy in 2003.

“He moved out here with about 60 cows, and today we’re milking about 1,500 cows with about the same amount of young stock,” she said.

As she nears the end of her pregnancy, Mowry is mainly involved in calf and cow management and works as the go-to person for many of the employees at the facility, though she prefers to be hands-on.

“In the spring, summer and fall, you can find me out in the field doing just about everything; the only thing I can’t do is operate the chopper," said Mowry.

And Jamie isn’t the only woman of her kind across the state or even the country.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life and as a woman in agriculture, I’ve seen it evolve just so, so, so much. You find so many more women in agriculture now than you did even 10, 15 years ago,” said Mowry.

According to the American Farmland Trust, women are significant drivers of sustainable agriculture, with almost 40% of New York farmland and more than half across the U.S. owned or co-owned by women. The number is only expected to grow as 400 million acres change hands over the next two decades.

“I think agriculture is just a lot more welcoming to women now," Mowry said. "Not to say it doesn’t have its challenges, but I’ve just always had the mindset that I’m gonna wake up every day and just try to do my job better than the men that work alongside me, so it's worked well for me and it's gotten me to where I am now."

It's a mindset she plans on passing down.

“Just like we were raised on the farm, my husband and I fully expect that we’ll raise our son or daughter on the farm," said Mowry.