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!
The turning of a page. Thanks for joining me today on this last day of 2025!
I think as I age, I am more aware of the melancholy cloud that hangs over most adults during this time of year. There seems to be a higher probability that the year we are leaving behind was not as kind as you thought it would be. That can leave us with hope that the next year will be all that our dreams are made or give us more anxiety that we are just trying to white knuckle it through life and all that it throws at us.
2024 may have “lowered the boom” on my family, as the kids say, but 2025 changed everything for my family, like everything. It required that we lean into a new level of bravery and trusting our faith walk like we never knew we were capable of, as we took on and moved to a new ranch 4 hours away, in a completely new environment, while hanging on to our old place. I would say that 2025 was a year of pruning and surrender. There is not a plant alive that doesn’t lose its leaves or become healthier when pruned. It is just part of life. We pruned people and things from our family’s lives that do not bring us joy, nourishment, or are life giving. Life is too short to have people you can’t trust or people who don’t support you in your circle.
So cheers to building stronger support systems. Cheers to supporting those loved ones around you. Cheers to letting go. Cheers to being brave. Cheers to 2026!
Stay warm! Be safe! And have a happy New Year’s Eve!
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children near Merriman, 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 former role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the Jones Ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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