In a former life, Ms. Noriko Sato was an urbanite and sports instructor. She is now married to a dairy farmer in Akita Prefecture, and is living a completely different life. She is now closely involved in the farming herself. While she had never before tilled soil, let alone taken care of cows, she is now working hard as a farming partner with her husband, Kiyoshi. Her role does not stop at that. She is a key person of a four-generation, eight member family, including her two children.

Ms. Sato says that she has gone through a lot of hardships while becoming accustomed to life in the countryside, which is drastically different from her life in the city. For example, when she moved onto the farm, she thought that the cows were scary because they are so big. However, milking the cows is now her main job. She also checks the state of cows’ health, and manages the feed for the cows. She also drives a tractor during the grass harvest season.

Providing their cows with good, high-quality feed is always a focus for the Sato farm. They feel that it helps to grow healthier cows. As part of this effort, they produce 100% of raw ingredients for the feed themselves. Despite having more than 80 head of cattle, they also call each of them by the names that they have been given, and they brush each cow one by one. Through this attention, they try to produce both a high quality and a high quantity of milk. These endeavors culminated in the Sato farm winning an award of recognition from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2006.

The Sato family members are concerned over the aging of their farm facilities. Therefore, they have said that they would like to visit other farms to gain new ideas on building a new, functional barn for their cows. Separately, their dream is to build a log house that they would use for retailing ice cream that they would make on their farm.