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!
Breaking in the baby! Welcome back to Ranch Raised.
This last weekend, at one month old, our new little cowboy got packed along to his first cattle show chasing his sisters. There were lots of oooos and ahhhhhs, and well wishes from adoring friends.
Seeing that it has been a few years since I have traversed the baby stage of life, it almost seemed daunting to me how much work it is to leave the house with a newborn, let alone to go to an event and of course try to pull off the illusion that I was mature woman who had my life together.
By day #4 my exhaustion had won out and I was doing good to swipe on some mascara and wear matching shoes out of the house.
Nothing could be clearer to how rusty I had become at infant child rearing than what would occur back at our cattle stall on the last day. I had parked the stroller in the alley behind one of our heifers that apparently wasn’t feeling very well. The barn was dusty and as she coughed, I could not react fast enough to what would fly out of her rear end and splatter my stroller with her excrement. My family looked at me with shock! Luckily, none landed on the baby who was tucked safely in his car seat. We tried our best to get it wiped off. No sense in crying over spilled milk or in this case cattle feces on my stroller. This stroller had been through 3 of my nieces and nephews and was a hand me down to us. And this is why families like us have a “barn stroller” and a “going to town stroller.”
Not to worry, my mom called and said she found my nice stroller stored away in her garage. No harm, no foul, heifer! And that is exactly why we call this program Ranch Raised!
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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.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
