What's Your Dairy 'Why' | Melissa Freitas
From participating in 4H and FFA events to working as a milk tester for her family’s business throughout high school and college to now leading a team of farm performance consultants for VAS’ western region – one thing is for certain about Melissa Freitas. She has always had her heart set on serving the dairy community.
In her role as Western Farm Performance Consultant Team Leader, Melissa guides the western sales team for VAS while serving clients in her area. “One of the best parts of my job is getting that call from a farmer at 4 AM needing help fixing their down system. I’m able to hop on their computer or talk them through how to resolve the problem to get their farm back up and running again. Hearing how grateful and appreciative they are is why I do what I do,” Melissa explains. She also takes pride in building trusted relationships with farmers – becoming part of their team. “There’s nothing better than knowing the dairymen and women trust and respect your input to guide the future of their operation.”
When she’s not serving dairy farmers’ software needs, Melissa still finds ways to pour back into the industry. Having been shaped herself through experiences with dairy judging and showing, and having won many state and national FFA awards, Melissa believes in giving back to the future leaders in dairy. Currently, she serves as vice president of the United Dairy Women, a nonprofit providing all of New Mexico’s children’s homes with three servings of dairy each day. She is the dairy barn superintendent for the Curry County Fair and also volunteers to help local 4-H and FFA students select and care for show heifers every year.
Melissa still helps out at the family milk testing business when she can. “I would not be in this industry if it wasn’t for those long days testing with my father throughout my high school and college years,” Melissa remarks, “Dairy is part of my identity. It’s my heart and soul, in my roots and the people in the industry are my family.”
Want to help us celebrate June Dairy Month? Whether you’re a farmer, work in the industry or an agvocate, head to our social channels and comment on one of the weekly What’s Your Dairy ‘Why’ posts. For every comment left in June, we’ll donate to a dairy-related cause.
