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!
A few years ago my daughter did her history project on the Omaha Stockyards. So I give her credit for these facts Im going to share this week!
Before there were livestock markets and sale barns dotted the Midwest prairie towns, the big ranches were sending their market stock to the huge livestock market in Chicago, IL. They were shipping their livestock, mostly cattle, on rail cars by train.
In 1883 Wyoming rancher Alexander Swan came to Nebraska to persuade investors to build a stockyard which would soon become the Omaha Stockyards. He talked with Omaha business people, including John A. Creighton who had helped his brother Edward build the first transcontinental telegraph line alongside the Union Pacific. Swan convinced the businesspeople that a livestock market in Omaha would be a good idea, and a year later building began.
He wanted to build the stockyards in Omaha because it would save his cattle nearly 70 hours on a train from his Wyoming ranch to the Chicago Stockyards. So the Omaha business leaders began creating a massive drainage and pen system for livestock. Once the pens and stockyard were up, it didn’t take long for the meat packers and slaughterhouses to come and build right alongside. And then we would see banks, cafes, hotels and more businesses be built around the stockyards in South Omaha.
Cows Build Towns!
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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.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
