🌾 Check out Sidney Abbott’s profile on LinkedIn
🌾 Join the Yard Yaps Facebook Group
🌾 Follow Abbott Hay Co
🌾 Learn more about the Walk to Emmaus
What do you do when life in agriculture feels completely out of your control?
Between drought, volatile cattle markets, raising babies, managing a career, and navigating relationships, rural women carry a lot. In this episode of Faithful Harvest, Angela Scott sits down with Sidney Abbott—a farm wife, mother of two, feedlot research director, risk-management professional, and co-founder of Yard Yaps—to talk about how faith can anchor us when life feels chaotic.
Sidney shares what she has learned about motherhood, career, community, female friendships, and navigating the ups and downs of agriculture without allowing circumstances to dictate her peace.
One of the biggest lessons from their conversation?
Respond, don't react.
Whether you're dealing with a difficult relationship, a challenging business decision, a toddler meltdown, a volatile cattle market, or a season of drought, Sidney encourages us to pause, pray, seek wisdom, and respond instead of reacting from fear, anger, or frustration.
And for the rural woman who sometimes feels like she is carrying all the things? This conversation is a reminder that you were never meant to do it alone.
We cover the whole spectrum!
- What it's like to be a mother, farm wife, and career-driven woman in agriculture
- The importance of finding community as a rural woman
- Why women in agriculture need relationships with other women
- How Yard Yaps is creating opportunities and community for women in the cattle industry
- Navigating hurt and disappointment in female friendships
- Learning to respond instead of react
- Applying faith to business decisions, parenting, relationships, and agriculture
- Staying grounded when facing drought and volatile agricultural markets
- How motherhood changed Sidney's perspective and deepened her faith
- The power of simply praying over your day
- Why we need to turn to God before we reach our breaking point
- Building community even when you live in a tiny rural town
Sidney and her husband are first-generation farmers navigating drought and the challenges that come with an uncertain agricultural economy.
Instead of allowing those circumstances to paralyze them, Sidney talks about the importance of educating yourself, seeking out experts, using the resources available to you, and making adjustments when circumstances change.
Sometimes the answer isn't to make a drastic change. Sometimes it's simply time to adjust your sails.
As Sidney says, agriculture has a way of reminding us that seasons change. When things are good, prepare for the storm. When things are difficult, remember that brighter days can come.
And through it all, stay grounded in your faith.
Sidney opens up about the anxiety she felt when she first became a mother and wondered how she could continue progressing professionally while also being the mother she wanted to be.
Rather than choosing between motherhood and her career, she has experienced what she describes as a hybrid life—with supportive employers, a supportive husband, and a willingness to pray and trust God with her schedule.
Her encouragement for other career-driven mothers is simple:
Ask God to help you with your schedule.
You don't have to have the perfect plan before you bring it to Him.
Living in a community of roughly 200 people doesn't exactly make it easy to find your people.
There isn't necessarily a coffee shop, yoga studio, or gathering place where you can casually meet women in the same season of life.
Sidney and her co-founder, Diane Hayes, recognized that need and created Yard Yaps, a community designed to connect women across the cattle-feeding industry.
Whether you're a young mother on maternity leave, a woman working in a feedlot, an agricultural CEO, or simply someone interested in learning more about the industry, their goal is to create a place where women can learn, ask questions, network, and build relationships.
Near the end of the conversation, Sidney shares one of the simplest practices that has made the biggest difference in her life:
Praying over her schedule.
Instead of waiting until she is overwhelmed, she tries to begin her day by asking God for help with everything ahead.
It doesn't have to be complicated.
Sometimes it's simply:
"God, please help me get everywhere on time. Please help me get everything done today."
That simple prayer gives her a moment to pause, surrender her day, and create space to respond instead of react.
And perhaps that's something we could all use a little more of.
If Sidney's story encouraged you, be sure to connect with her and learn more about the work she's doing in agriculture and for women in the cattle industry.
Yard Yaps — A community for women in agriculture, with a particular focus on connecting women across the cattle-feeding industry.
Abbott Hay Co. — Follow along with Sidney and her husband's agricultural operation.
LinkedIn — Follow Sidney for more conversations about agriculture, risk management, cattle markets, and opportunities for women in the industry.
Questions to Think About
- Where am I reacting instead of responding?
- What situation in my life do I need to surrender to God?
- Am I trying to control something that is outside of my control?
- Who are the women I can turn to when I need encouragement or wisdom?
- Where could I be more intentional about building community?
- Am I waiting until I'm overwhelmed to ask God for help?
- What resources or people could help me grow in my agricultural business or career?
- What "storm" could I prepare for while things are going well?
You don't have to control every circumstance to live a grounded life.
You can pray.
You can seek wisdom.
You can educate yourself.
You can build community.
You can prepare for difficult seasons.
And when something unexpected comes your way, you can pause and choose to respond instead of react.
That's where faith meets everyday life.
And that's what Faithful Harvest is all about.
