In her slim jeans and red-tipped Ariat boots, Shelley is a new breed of rancher. Thirty-seven years old and well educated, she’s one of a growing number of female farm operators in North Carolina—in 2002 10 percent were women, and in 2007 women made up 13 percent of the total. She also happens to run the only United States Department of Agriculture-certified organic beef farm in North Carolina.