PEWAMO, Mich. – Terri Hawmaker was already a fifth generation dairy farmer when she toured some dairy farms in Pennsylvania. While there, she met Rick who was working at one of the farms and they later married. They then purchased one of Terri’s father’s dairy farms in 2002. 

Together they started Grazeway Dairy Farms in Pewamo, Mich. They started with less than 50 head of New Zealand Friesian Holstein cows she already had on the 120-acre property. Gradually, Terri said they began adding to the herd strictly from breeding along with more acres. They also started a family and the children were home schooled. Her five children ranged in age between 3 and 13 when Rick died suddenly in 2016. 

Terri decided to keep the farm going and keep homeschooling her children. Her hard work recently earned her a Women in Agribusiness Demeter Award of Excellence. She was one of four women nationwide chosen for this award. 

The Demeter Award is the organization’s top honor recognizing outstanding women leaders in the food and agriculture industries for their exceptional achievements and roles in advancing opportunities for women. There were more than 60 nominations for this year’s award now in its 14th year. 

“These women represent the very best of talent and accomplishment in agriculture and we’re thrilled to celebrate their achievements alongside peers and hundreds of others from across the ag value chain,” said Svitlana Synkonska, portfolio director for Women in Agribusiness.

Hawmaker said she considered placing her children in a public school and getting a job away from the farm after her husband’s death but decided to continue home schooling for the sake of stability for her children and growing the Holstein herd.

“They already had a big enough change so keeping everything else the same was really important,” she said. In addition “a farm is an excellent tool to raise kids on.”

Hawmaker, who has also been recognized by other groups previously for the quality of her milk and focus on limiting operating expenses to maximize profits at the farm, said she was surprised at receiving the award she called an honor and a blessing.

“It’s good for my kids to see because this has been challenging since their dad died and we had to really come together.  It kind of shows them that tenacity and working hard and sticking to it and not giving up matters,” she said.

Hawbaker was described by WIA as embodying the full spirit of the Demeter Award as a “proven leader, a woman of notable achievement and a mentor lifting up others while leading with purpose, faith and unwavering determination.”

Today Hawmaker keeps half of the roughly 70 heifers born on her now 337-acre farm each year to replace dairy cows aging out and sells the rest.

Hawmaker said her cows are let outside for 12 hours a day when the weather is warm enough to graze in a pasture. They’re given conventional feed only when they’re kept inside during the winter.

Hawmaker said the results are lower input costs and higher quality milk from cows being healthier from being outside and consuming pasture grass, which she feels is more nutritious than feed.

Calving is strategically timed for births to occur strictly during April and May. “We do that so the cows are at peak production when the grass is at its peak production in Michigan because cows need the best feed when at peak production,” she said.

She has received many Grade A perfect score awards for milk quality from the Michigan Milk Producers Association.

Her pasture based dairy model has also drawn national media coverage that included an article in the USA Today.

She said her pasture based dairy model was influenced by her father switching from being a conventional dairy farmer to grazing in 1993. Hawmaker said grazing also saves time by not having to bring feed as often to the animals, who have plenty to eat naturally in the pasture.

“It’s not about getting as much milk as you possibly can out of that cow.  It’s about margin and profitability. You can spend a lot of money to get milk and end up not keeping very much of it at all,” she said.

The recipients were recognized on stage during the 2026 Women in Agribusiness Summit in New Orleans.