At the FAIR!!

Fair time is one of my favorite times of the year - friends, family, fair food and of course, showing livestock. This summer, I spent over 20 DAYS at fairs in South Dakota. Most of them were spent sitting at the Ag United informational booth, talking to people about ag.

My favorite part of all the days of the fair came at the South Dakota State Fair this week. Our sheep were stalled right by where people walked by. When I was fitting my ewes, several people would stop to pet them and ask about them - me and moms's favorite part of fair! We both love promoting the sheep and lamb industry, and the fair is a great opportunity to do so. Later, we walked the ewes to a different barn, and were stopped by several families that just wanted to pet the pretty sheep. It was so awesome to see the little kids faces when they realized how soft her wool is and how much she likes people.

Fair time always reminds me about how we can take advantage of everyday opportunities like showing our livestock to promote agriculture to consumers. It also serves as a wake up call to remind me about how many are removed from agriculture.

The Cattlemens Story

Recently at Mom's Day Out on the Farm, I took some video at the cattle stop, which was Doug VanDuyn's feedlot. He doesn't usually speak to groups of people, but he had me fooled - Doug is awesome at speaking about the beef industry!  I hope you enjoy - I know all the participants of Moms Day Out on the Farm did!

To learn more about Mom's Day Out on the Farm and other Ag United Events visit South Dakota Farm Families on Facebook, find us at @agunited4sd on Twitter or visit our website at http://www.agunited.org/

Almost the end....

It was with some sadness and some excitment that I realized next week, I move back to school. (ok more excitement than sadness!!)

Look out Brookings - I'm coming back!!

  

I was lucky enough to intern for a awesome place this summer, and got to live with my Grandparents, so I am sad that the summer is coming to a close.

As usual, I didn't accomplish half the things I wanted to - projects that are getting put on the snowy day list!

He's my baby. And he knows it.

  I did get to spend lots of time with the man in my life - the Sparkster himself.

Run Bunny Run!!

And I got to go barrel racing on Bunny! After a summer off, I realized how much I really do love can chasin.

Belt for the bestie!

I beaded like crazy when I wasn't doing homework. 2 belts, 2 hatbands, and some bracelets later - I have sore fingers. Now just to get the belts to the lady sewing them in and they will be alll done!! And pictures will be posted as soon as I get the belts back! I am taking orders, so if you want one, let me know!

I got to go to Jerrod Neiman with my best friend. We had a great time - much needed stress relief.

So now what? I have under a week of summer left, and have plans for everysingleday of it. At some point in time, I have to pack everything up into my car and haul it up to Brookings! And to put busy into perspective - I get to Brookings for work training Thrusday and Friday, move into the apartment Friday, have event for Ag United on Saturday, Mom brings my furniture and Gpa brings Sparky on Saturday and Sunday, start classes Monday and then its off to work State Fair for a week starting Wednesday!!

The Writing on the Wall

 As the Ag United Intern, I get exposed to lots of opportunities to educate people about agriculture at different events. At last month’s Moms Day on the Farm events, 60 Sioux Falls area moms toured  beef, hog and dairy farms to learn more about where their food comes from. While all the farmers, industry representatives and speakers did a fantastic job of talking to the moms, one thing said at lunch the last tour really stuck in my mind as something to blog about. We were eating at the Tri-Valley School, and Dr. Stacy Scramlin, meat scientist from SDSU, looked up at the wall in the lunch area where the words PRIDE, PURPOSE and PASSION were painted underneath the school’s mascot. She said to the crowd “If you only take one thing away from today, look up at those three words and remember that farmers take pride in what they do, they have the purpose of feeding the world, and as you have seen today, are passionate about their animals and way of life. "



Brian Alderson

 We all know the farmer’s Purpose – feed the world. And with the world growing at 222,239 people PER DAY, farmers strive to produce more food with less land. On average, one farmer produces enough food to feed 155 people!

Karen Hofer shows moms a piglet

 

America’s farmers certainly have something to have Pride in. Producing the world’s cheapest, safest, most abundant food supply is a pretty big deal. Farmers love sitting down and talking to each other about their crops and cattle – and when one compliments another, their face lights up.

Laura Nielson

The final word on the wall is Passion. To every mom on the tours, it was pretty obvious that every farmer visited had passion about their operation. Brian Alderson held their attention for twenty minutes when talking about his hoop barns. Ferlyn Hofer and his family talked about their pigs and sheep, and even brought out some brand new baby piglets to meet the moms. Doug VanDuyn spoke to the women about his feedlot and beef industry – and all the women commented later that he really really loved his cows. After visiting the Nielson Dairy, moms commented that they could really see the passion in Laura’s eyes when she talked about her cows.

Doug VanDuyn

Telling the story of farming is so important, and through Moms Day on the Farm Events, moms saw the Purpose Pride and Passion in the farms they visited, and realized that every farm in America has those same qualities. Moms on the tours commented that “I have a face to put with where my food comes from, and I really like that”. As for me, I learned more about how to talk to consumers from all of our awesome farmers and presenters - and found three more words to talk about when people ask me about farming.

Baa-log

This is my first Baa-log. Thanks to my dad for the title ( sheep people like corny sheep jokes, don't ewe?) My goal is to do a sheep blog once a week, so to start out here is a little of my sheep background.

Wool drying at Mt. Vernon last summer

For the past eleven years, my family has had sheep. Currently, we have about a thousand head of ewes and their lambs on our commercial lamb to finish operation. Commercial means that we are primarily raising lambs to sell at market. We lamb our ewes in three groups, 450 head the end of January and beginning of February, 400 in March and the rest in April and May.

Lamb 100 this spring.

 Our ewe flock consists mostly of ewes we raised – only about 200 in the flock were purchased, and we raise our own replacement ewe lambs (ewe lambs that are not sold to market). About 700 head of ewes are bred to black face (black face means black sheep) rams. These are the lambs that we sell to market as they are fastest growing. The others are bred to white face rams, and hopefully have lots of white ewe lambs that we can keep for replacements! I love my sheep and really do miss working on the farm year round when I am at school. I try to go home and help whenever I can, and my parents like to plan working sheep, shearing and barn cleaning around when I am going to be around to help.

Little I ewe

I am a major sheep nerd - not only have a I shown sheep in FFA, 4-H and Little I.....

Reserve Round Robin and Grand Champion Sheep Showman at Little I

But I have also sewn with wool and competed in several different contests like Ladies Lead and Make it with wool. And knitted lots of wool things like bags and scarves.



Wool Peacoat



And I was on the wool judging team last year at SDSU. :)

Our Judging family at awards in Houston!

Moral of the blog: I love my sheep - look forward to more sheep blogs to come!! In the meantime feel free to ask me about sheep, wool or anything else!

Wordless Wednesday



I forgot how much I LOVE taking pictures. Until my little froggy friend showed up and inspired me to borrow grandma's cool camera to snap some new shots.





Inspiration!

So after catching Mr. Toad on the hop, I spent a evening wandering the place, snapping some new shots.





Mini Roses



Am thinking this one may get framed for the apartment

A perfectly clear SD night



Am calling this one Perseverance



My creativity came back: I ended up taking pictures IN the silo. Like as in hanging upside down in the silo.

Did I mention that grandpa has a gorgeous pony? This is Jerry. Jerry likes his picture taken.

Another part of my creative burst - my refinding my good friend, picnik! I did this picture right before the 4th - it was taken last year when I was in DC, but I kinda forgot about editting it. Until now! All in all? Bring it on open class photography!

Prince Charming?



Prince Charming?

 As I was walking past the fish tank the other night, I noticed this little guy hanging out with the goldfish. After checking to make sure he wasn't feasting on the fish I grabbed my camera and caught him on his way out. Should have grabbed him - could be prince charming!