Amber Wood is the executive director of the North Dakota Livestock Alliance, but she wasn’t born into agriculture. “I’m kind of an outlier.” While in high school, she had friends who were farm kids. “I started hanging out with them and I was like, hey, this sounds like a pretty rockin’ lifestyle.” She had a job as a teenager as a milker on a dairy farm south of Mandan. “I was hooked and went to school and graduated with an animal science degree from NDSU. I was hired as the first employee in the United States by a Northern Irish family that came over to South Dakota to milk cows. So, and thankfully they taught me so much then and they’re still teaching me things today. We’re still the best pals.” That started her lifelong journey in animal agriculture. Wood is now helping to grow the dairy, livestock and poultry sector in North Dakota. “It’s an exciting career.” Watch the interview on the RRFN YouTube Channel.
