Milford farmer’s daughter comes into her own with Farm Bureau award

Madison Mood, 22, is the new face of Bucks County farming: she’s social-media-savvy, multi-talented and tuned in to today’s customers.

Mood is the 2022 winner of the Bucks County Farm Bureau’s Jerry Harris and Paul Hockman Young Ag Professionals award, a grant that supports young farmers with a project to advance their career.

Mood lives and works where she grew up, on Windy Springs Farm, 175 preserved acres on Myers Road in Milford Township. The farm is owned and operated by her father and uncle, Matt and Tom Mood. Its products are cereal grains, beef and fresh produce. Altogether the Moods farm 2,000 acres.

Mood looks forward to eventually taking over the farm, making her the fifth generation to do so. “It’s in the bloodline,” she laughs. The oldest of six children, she graduated in May from Delaware Valley University as an Ag Business major, minoring in Ag Marketing. She’s finished school, but not her education. On the farm, “It’s watching how it’s done. I take it all in, every moment — and I learn from my dad and uncle every day.”

Though she started farm work as a youngster, in the barn, it’s only been six years since she decided to pursue a farm career. When she got her license Mood realized, “I love running the heavy equipment.”

She gets a kick out of driving a 275-HP tractor down the highway, astonishing motorists who spot a young woman in the driver’s seat.

She helps maintain the equipment — trucks, tractors, all the pieces that get pulled, towed and turned on and off. At Windy Springs, if it can be done at home, it is, to reduce costs and to control quality.

The 150 head of Simmental beef cattle were born at Windy Springs; they’re fed grasses and grain that are grown on the farm, roasted onsite and mixed in proprietary proportions. “If you want to have great products you have to be there every step of the way,” Madison explains.

Roasting the feed makes it more digestible and cuts down gas byproducts, which is healthier for the animals and the planet. (Bovine methane is a large component of greenhouse gas emissions.)

Vegetables are grown on 30 acres, using black plastic to keep down weeds and keep in moisture supplied by drip irrigation. There are 80 acres of sweet corn, too. The family raises chickens and grows horse-quality hay and straw. Mood works on all facets of the farm, which means 18-hour days in July and August.

“It’s back-breaking work and your hands turn black from picking, but it’s a blessing to know how to grow your own food,” she says. “You gotta love it to do it.”

Products are sold at farm markets, at wholesale and at a farm stand on John Fries Highway, which was established decades ago by Mood’s grandfather. The family is building a new enclosed road stand for year-round sales. Mood will put the Farm Bureau grant toward creating the store’s “aesthetic,” to make it feel like, well, a farm, because “display sells products.”

Mood virtually displays farm products on the Windy Springs website, which she runs. She also shares the joy of farming via her Instagram account, The Farmer’s Daughter 275. There you’ll find videos that feature mouth-watering closeups of fresh-picked vegetables and footage of the hard work required to grow and harvest them.

Mood relates that the family saying is, “The farm is offered to you, not demanded of you.” No doubt her father and uncle are delighted that this farmer’s daughter has chosen the farm.

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