Lessons learned!

I have a pair of wonderful people as parents, and they taught me a lot of important things from brushing my teeth to tying my shoes, forgiveness and treating others how you want to be treated. They taught my brothers and me these things through every day parenting, their example, and on the farm.

On our small operation, I learned valuable life lessons. I learned how to effectively communicate when yelling directions across the lot (fewer words=more likely to get the message). I learned hard work and responsibility in caring for the daily needs including feed and water for my calves. I learned how to wake up early to rinse heifers and put them in the barn; a lesson I'm not fond of applying in college. I learned to be proud of what I had done, not because of an award, but because I had done my best. Finally, I learned honesty is always the best policy. I had to " 'fess up" when I had let the wrong cows out, forgotten to fill the water tank, or started the fight with my younger brother that caused a trip to the emergency room. Openly admitting what I had done, or was doing, was not easy, but I learned the importance of integrity.

The above is an ad for humane watch, an organization that is digging through all the information and gathering the facts about the Humane Society of the United States. They are looking at the integrity of an organization with a huge budget and an emotional agenda. Humane watch is doing a great job, after all, an organization with that kind of influence should be held to the same standards of honesty I learned on the farm. Thanks for what your doing Humane Watch!

'till the cows come home

Ellie

Homesick!?!

Today I was feeling homesick. Not just for the members of my family (well maybe not my little brother ;), but also for the place. I don't have a big house, or a fancy, spacious bedroom, no my home is a small farmhouse in eastern Nebraska. I miss the cows, doing chores, seeing the new babies, and just sitting on a fence contemplating the meaning of life. I long for the quiet moments, the laughter, the peace, that just can't be found on a city street. I am a realist, and I know life at home is certainly not perfect, but my heart yearns for the simplicity of accomplishing something with hard work and dedication.

That is something many will never understand. It takes the real life experience of building fences, checking cows, and dumping feed to catch the passion. It's not temporary either. I recently wrote a list of goals and values for my life...They say it all

Values

1. Being Christ-like

2. responsibility/ hard work

3. Passion/excitement

4. Integrity

5. The rural life (the sum of all of the above)

Goals

1. Grow as a Christian

2. Have a family

3. Live in the country and run some cows

4. Advocate Agriculture

5. Be generally excited about my career

These goals I know aren't measurable, but things I will keep in mind as I make decisions about the future. I encourage everyone to make a Values and a Goals lists to focus their personal lives. In the mean time, I think a trip home might be necessary next weekend!

'till the cows come home

Ellie

Media Bias

Recently for my Journalism 101 class I was assigned to write a paper about an issue that is important to me and how the mass media treats that issue.l Of course I chose the beef industry. I admitted up front that I was a producer, so I may be harsh on the articles sometimes, but I did say that I demand the truth like any other consumer. What was interesting was not that the professor that graded my paper agreed that I was biased, but the questions that she wrote on the side asking about anti-biotics and E-Coli. She also wanted specific examples of where the media had been dead wrong, so this was the paragraph I added:

The media is often wrong about the stories they publish regarding the beef industry. They reflect my industry as cold money-hungry factory farmers. Often the stories they chose to print point out the problems of one specific operation and apply that problem to all producers.

For example in Michael Pollan’s article “Power Steer”, published in the New York Times on March 2002, he says about the industry as a whole: “And how cheap, really, is cheap feedlot beef? Not cheap at all, when you add in the invisible costs: of antibiotic resistance, environmental degradation, heart disease, E. coli poisoning, corn subsidies, imported oil and so on.” Each of the things he listed is an insulting biased opinion, not a fact. Beef Producers follow strict guidelines about withdrawal time, so virtually no antibiotic is in the meat. Producers are also mandated by the government to make certain their operations follow certain environmental guidelines. No conclusive study by an unbiased organization has linked heart disease and red meat. E coli poisoning is often caused by undercooked meat, something the rancher has no control over, and corn subsidies and imported oil are beyond the rancher’s ability to change. This kind of misunderstanding printed in the media leads to decline in consumers’ trust of the safest beef supply in the world. This is only one example from the New York Times, other magazines including Time’s “The Real Cost of Cheap Food” by Bryan Walsh (published in August 2009) are following the trendy vegetarian lifestyle, and printing opinion based stories. Newspapers and magazines do not often print stories of the positive events occurring in the industry.

I hope she is willing to email me again to hear more about what I do everyday. It just goes to show that consumers are curious, and want to know about the beef they love to eat. I'm excited she recognized my passion and wanted to learn more. So stand up for what you do, you never know where the next question is coming from.

'till the cows come home

Ellie

Lazy Dayz

A friend recently told me he liked going home from college because it gave him a chance to just do nothing. I kinda laughed in my head at that. When I want to do nothing, I stay at school! At home there are calves to feed, vaccinate, and break. Especially now that we are calving, the workload at home has increased. Getting up to check cows and making sure calves keep their ears is certainly not a "break."

I am not complaining. I love the life I have, and going home to help out is actually fun. We have learned to have fun while we work. A water fight when rinsing calves, a race across the lot, or even just sharing funny stories while working the chute. Living on a farm is fun, but it is also work. Farm families like mine don't get sick days, a closing time, or 2 weeks of vacation. Yes, we do take time away (my family vacation just happens to be a cattle show!), but we have to work days before we leave making sure that the cows will be ok in the pasture, and measuring feed for the neighbor to feed while we are gone. The days before vacation are a busy frenzy often including late nights. Once we leave, we keep the cell phones close in case something happens at home.

Ranchers and Farmers feed the world, and they do it 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and I am certainly one thankful girl who appreciates all the hard work they put in so I can enjoy a great meal. So for my "do-nothing day" I think I'll stay in town :)

'Till the cows come home

Ellie