CORTLAND, New York — The current layout of Fouts Farm is a vision from her father, written on a napkin when he first became a partner almost 30 years ago and fully realized only recently. It was a vision for a farm that sits in one of the most productive dairying regions in New York.
Nestled 30 minutes from Cayuga Lake and Cornell University, Cortland County offers rolling hills for pasture and fertile ground for silage. It’s an ideal location for Fouts Farm — painted yellow in its early years so businesses could find them easily, a barn and house still bearing that color today.
The dairy farm is where Julia Fouts grew up. She later attended nearby Cornell University to study dairy science. Her upbringing had a legacy attached: Three generations of parents and grandparents before her have worked full-time on the farm, as partners.
But after attending college locally, Fouts and her brother left for careers in the sciences, with no exact plan of returning.
“I wanted to go as far away as possible,” she said, reflecting on that time.
Choosing between the lab and the land
After her 2020 graduation from Cornell, she worked as a research intern at the Miner Institute, a private research farm in the northeast corner of New York. A year later, her bags were packed to begin a graduate school program at the University of California-Davis in animal biology. With prerequisites complete from her undergraduate degree, she enrolled directly into a doctorate program.
“I was looking specifically for labs that focused on environmental management and allowed me to work with cows,” she explained. Her research in college worked directly with on-farm sustainability consulting and nitrogen efficiency.
In California, her work wasn’t on the research dairy on campus but directly on a commercial dairy farm in Modesto. She studied the use of essential oils and feed additives to reduce cattle methane emissions. In her first year of Ph.D. exams, she passed with flying colors.
“A year into school is when my parents reached out saying our old parlor was falling apart,” she said. The decision from the parents was clear and logical: Either they were going to sell the farm or invest in a brand-new parlor. The investment, however, required someone to come home as the next generation.
Fouts tested what many who grew up on a farm have had to decide: Pursue further education or return to the farm.
The farm wasn’t in critical condition; rather, the decision in front of her was entwined in generational planning. Both she and her brother — who consults for midstream natural gas utilities — had the year to decide.
“I always knew I would have to make some sort of decision. And I was always very 50/50 on it,” Fouts said.
While both paths demand deep commitment, Fouts said they sit in different parts of the dairy supply chain and point toward different end goals. After internalizing a long battle with work-life balance — from her undergraduate experience, to being a farm kid, to passing her first doctorate exam — her time in California taught her that “I’m capable,” she said.
She decided it was time to come home. Fouts knew being a part of the team designing the parlor couldn’t happen from California. To speed up getting home, while still completing her experience in California, she finished a masters in animal biology and was back in New York in 2023.
The construction plans written on the napkins by her father were completed in 2025. Seeing a vision finish in her lifetime, she was ready to make plans of her own.
A new generation at Fouts Farm
The new double-15 parlor brings expanded capacity for their 670 milking cows, with room to grow. Red, black and white cattle roam the row barns — mostly Holsteins, along with some Jerseys and Norwegian Reds.
The newest junior partner, Julia, joined her parents, Paul and Laura, in working full time.
All three manage the cows, with her mother focusing on finances while also taking turns with calf feedings. Her dad manages crops and feed production for the herd. Along with 10 employees, Fouts Farm continues into the next generation with new ideas.
“As we get bigger, I want us to also get better,” she said. That includes improved cow comfort, stronger workplace culture, and making sure the farm remains engaged with its community through outreach programs.
New management didn’t require massive change, but rather small improvements — and a researcher turned farmer to help lead the industry toward new forms of workplace culture and sustainability on the farm.
“I want us to be progressive in how we take care of our animals and land,” she said.
Her first step was workplace culture. Instead of assuming how people felt working there, Fouts wanted to gain a baseline understanding. She used a program called Vital Insights, a third-party employee survey from Phibro Animal Health to learn how recognition and feedback were incorporated into daily work life. “I want people to enjoy working here as much as you can enjoy working.”
With a mix of local and Guatemalan workers, she used the insights to celebrate all birthdays and conduct annual reviews.
In the community, her happiest role is simply as a resident. While work-life balance can be hard to find in dairy farming, she said it is more than possible with good management and structure—though it took some convincing from her parents.
Fouts spends that time participating in book clubs, spending time with friends, serving on the Cortland County Farm Bureau Board and as a new board member on a local health coalition.
You’ll also find her in the conference room — with a wide, clear viewing window — hosting school tours and participating in an Adopt-A-Cow program, never really leaving the classroom behind.
Jake Zajkowski is a freelance agriculture journalist covering farm policy, global food systems and the rural Midwest. Raised on vegetable farms in northern Ohio, he now studies at Cornell University.
