When I moved to Kansas City in May, I packed everything I owned in my car and headed to the Midwest. Coming straight out of college meant what little furniture that I did owe was a Target special and was not worth packing 1,100 miles.
When my sister and I arrived we went on a mass search for bargains and treasures of furniture. We found an amazing original Sears and Roebuck dresser and mirror. It needed some love along with the end table and small bookshelf I found.
I ran with a junk gypsy theme of brown, turquoise, and mismatched knobs. My headboard took some serious time to put together. I couldn’t find the materials ceiling tile (under 50 dollars) and windows with glass that would fit the ceiling tin.
Dresser and mirror.
End table
Bookshelf. This piece took a total transformation, it was an awful green.
This is my pride and joy!
This is the start of the major refinishing of the dresser and mirror.
In lamen terms, judging livestock involves evaluating livestock to sort the bad from the good, and placing emphasis on traits that have more value to the breed, breeder or industry.
If you have ever walked into a judging contest, it may appear fairly strange to an untrained eye. As there is likely to a handful or several hundred people dressed in suites circling pens of the livestock stenos in hand. For those of us that fell victim to the addiction, it was nothing but normal.
I judged in high school and in juco. I can’t say I was ever a rock star, but I had a lot of fun judging. Some of the best memories come from judging trips in high school and college. I can honestly say without my time on the team at Linn Benton Community College I would not have accomplished all that I have to this point. The skills that a person gains from this extracurricular are endless.
This post comes on the heels of walking through the American Royal contest with one of my past teammates and best friends. I got a fresh dose of livestock, friends and some old memories.
Now, here is one of my favorite videos describing an outside perspective of this event. And these guys crack me up, as there descriptions are hilarious, and abstractly accurate. “It’s like 300 mindless zombies with clipboard” and “they are pig piñatas” are two of my favorites one-liners.
But it depicts youth and collegiate livestock judging to a tee.
Any favorite livestock judging memories? I can’t pick just one out, but they definitely make me laugh all the time…still.
Forest fires in the Northwestern states, hurricanes in the South, a continued drought in the Southwest, all summer events directly effecting agriculture. A not so typical summer event is the continued drought effecting a majority of the country.
Side note: My labor day weekend adventures were random, and I love random. My random adventures landed me into a Vegas style pool party on the Lake of the Ozarks with another friend who loves agriculture as much as I do. And is didn’t take us long to be launched into in-depth conversation about the nation wide drought and the impact on agriculture. I think we need more hobbies…not likely to happen.
Here are few photos from the summers impact on agriculture.
Hay donations after massive wildfires in South Eastern Oregon. Photo credit Stephanie Falck.
Pair trying to find a dry spot after hurricane Isaac, photo credit Jessica Lester.
My question: How can we be better prepared for these crisis situations in agriculture?
It’s official, I am done with grad school! I am regretting not walking last weekend, but my fabulous committee chair tagged me in my a photo on Facebook of my name and thesis title in the program.
Thank you Dr. Meyers!
Have questions about agricultural commodity blogging trends, let me know!
It is no secret; I am working for a PR agency. Our client base is agricultural organizations; my focus is on the animal health world. I took this job due to the fact I could combine my passion for the cattle industry and communications every single day.
Now, let’s get this straight, all of my opinions are my own on this blog. I have gained access and knowledge to many more resources, but as you have noticed I haven’t had the time to blog a lot recently. Work has kept me really busy.
I wanted to share a few resources about talking with consumers, these resources come from studies I had heard about, but I hadn’t the slightest idea of where to start searching for them. Seeing that most Americans (I mean like the other 99 percent of the population) is three to four generations removed from the farm or agricultural production having the ability to connect and articulate with consumers is becoming harder. These two studies showcase terms that consumers like, and can easily relate too.
Below is page from one of the studies that I found highly interesting, and I reference it every single day.
Well one year ago, I was sitting in Lubbock, Texas at Texas Tech University working on my master’s degree. One of my agricultural communication classes required that we blog for the class, I had already started a blog, but I hated it. I didn’t like my layout, it was unprofessional and I just wasn’t comfortable blogging.
Following that class, I got started writing my thesis about blogs use by agricultural organizations. Needless to say I got over my fear of blogs.
The top two posts were hot topics in the media this year. I will be honest, these topics were so hot at the time and I didn’t have time to put together a solid blog post, so I did what I am good at…I provided resources. These resources were from highly credible people and others who were very active with these media discussions. I also made sure to continually update posts with the latest information that I found. This is something that all of my thesis research pointed out that blog authors don’t do. I hope that some of you found these posts as valid resources.
The blog post that I am the most proud of and I will continue to stand by is Good Question McDonalds, “Where does breakfast come from?” I could not stand the McDonald’s #MeetTheFarmers and #McDStories PR campaign, you can argue both sides of this campaign, but I couldn’t handle it.
There was some great discussion that started with these posts, and I have liked seeing what people are searching for and being driven to my blog.
Thanks for reading!
I can’t I have been the best blogger, but it has been a good year!
Some of my favorite memories all are tied to songs.
There always seems to some fun, rather stupid song that just kicks me summer off. This year, I claimed, Call Me Maybe to be that song.
This was followed with my parody of the Harvard Baseball team.
How many great plays on words can there be…I mean it is breeding season and all!
From the Montana Stockgrowers Association
Sexy and I Know It has just continued to be a song that you can help, but to like it…or just sing along with it. This song has become a summer phenomena especially, for my love of agriculture. The Peterson Farm Bros from Saline, Kansas have become a viral YouTube sensation with “I’m Farming and I Grow It.”
I had the opportunity to spend most of the week with the Kansas Livestock Association, Young Stockmen’s Academy, which was a great experience! Being on the road much of the week put me a few days behind my typical social media monitoring. The texts, emails, and Facebook posts were pouring in so I knew I had to watch this video at the first chance I got. I fell in love with this video, it is s catchy, funny, and yet so real.
Real of the summer life on a farm, an ALL AMERICAN FARM.
If you haven’t checked out this video, I encourage you to do so.
#ChallengeFriday
What is your favorite advocacy video on YouTube? Mine is a close tie between the Peterson Brothers and another video that got 30,000 views…and is done by (coughing *Texas A &M). Both are great videos, show casing agriculture…what are your opinions on social media and agriculture?
