Protecting consumer confidence in beef. That is the the main goal of the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program and I had the opportunity to become BQA Certified last week. BQA is an educational training for producers to build awareness of industry standards based on recommended national guidelines and research from USDA and the beef industry. […]
Beef agvocacy (agriculture + advocacy) does not take any special skills, science or art. It takes your effort to share about what you are doing as a beef producer and explaining production practices that make it easy for food-eaters to understand. As agriculture, we’ve come to a point in time where it is not enough […]
Today is National Ag Day during National Ag Week! So I thought I’d celebrate with a few cattle pictures and updates from the ranch. This was our first calf born on Valentine’s Day – so you can guess what his nickname is. We typically do not start calving until first part of April, but we […]
My mom and I had the awesome opportunity to “appear” together in a video about how we care for our cattle. In being a CommonGround volunteer and speaking about farming and food, the national coordinators of CommonGround brought a camera crew out to the ranch on a snowy, COLD December day to get a glimpse […]
I posted previously about how ranchers prepare for a snowstorm. I posted a picture of this heifer who was getting ready to calve. And yes, she thought the snowstorm was a perfect time to have a calf.Thankfully, we got her into the barn before the foot of snow dumped. She and the heifer calf are […]
I think I now realize where people’s perceptions of farm animals come from. Kids toys. Books. Puzzles. More toys. Do you know how many kids toys there are revolving around farm animals! Now that I’m a mom to a busy one-year-old boy, I realize the extent to why kids love farm animals. Because they are […]
Nestlé, the largest food company in the world by revenue, has announced industry-leading changes to its animal welfare program intended to eliminate “many controversial-yet-currently-standard practices within its worldwide food supply chain.” Not surprising, but the the “Big Business” has pledged to overhaul the following practices: “confinement of sows in gestation crates, calves in veal crates […]
I subscribe to the Humane Society of the U.S.’s email blasts – mostly just to watch what they are saying. Like when they tried talking about saving coyotes and free-range chickens in the same sentence!? That one made me laugh. Anyways, most of them I just glaze over, but yesterday’s email brought out my inner […]
“Beef’s Raw Edges”: a series of 16 stories that ran over three-consecutive days recently in the Kansas City Star. This series raised plenty of serious issues including beef safety, nutrition, the use of antibiotics and growth promotants and the environmental impact of feedyards. These issues are all important to their readers – however they have […]
During the widespread heat of summer, how do cattle in feedlots stay cool? To answer that question, this video is from my friend, Joan, who owns and operates a beef feed yard in Nebraska. She told me that there is always plenty of room for the cattle in the yard to move around, but they […]
