Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
Welcome to ice chopping season and welcome back to Ranch Raised.
Normal people consider summer, fall, winter and spring the seasons that they turn their calendar too. But, if you have ever spent much time talking to farmers to ranchers and you know that our seasons haying, weaning, ice chopping/feeding, and calving season. With in those seasons there are what I would call “sub-seasons” like branding or fencing season, and preconditioning season. Of course for farmers there is planting, irrigating, harvesting, and resting season….okay, I’m just joking about that last one.
We are in ice chopping, cow feeding season! Some years ice chopping starts in early October, this year we were blessed with a mild fall and tanks stayed ice free for most of the fall.
It is that time of year when you go to check cattle daily you double check to make sure you have your good dog and your ax. Water is very important to cattle this time of year because they are eating more in order to stay warm and they need water to aid the digestion of all of that hay and dry matter. So a chopping we will go to keep cows happy & healthy! Because that is what ranchers do.
Tune in tomorrow and I will share with you one of my ice chopping, coping mechanisms, just like grandma taught me!
Follow Karina Jones on Facebook!
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 3 daughters near Broken Bow, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her current role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
You can hear her almost every Friday on Your Ag Network’s Hot Barn Report that is broadcast on 60 radio stations with coverage in 9 states, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and highlights R-CALF’s work on industry reforms. Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
