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!
Thanks for keeping your radio dial right here on Ranch Raised.
Regrettably, I don’t get back to western Nebraska and the area that I grew up at very often. However, this gives me the unique perspective to notice the little things, which coincidentally are the big things, when I am traveling that long stretch of black top.
The trip I took last week did squeeze my heart, if I’m being completely honest. What I noticed as I took off north out of Alliance, headed to Crawford, was a stretch of 40 miles where there was not a single strand of barbed wire. While this area of Box Butte County hasn’t typically ran gobs of cattle in decades, there were still some grasslands and pastures dotting the landscape. But those fences have all been torn out and the land has been worked to raise crops.
And so it goes. When the cattle leave the land, the people leave the land. There were farmsteads that once stood that have been dozed in and farmed on top of.
It is my personal opinion that the American native prairie is endangered and maybe so is the American cattle rancher. I have my own ideas about solutions that I will save for another time, but what is undeniable is that rural America continues to change at a pace that I would argue is not positive for agriculture or our nation.
I just want the independent farmers and ranchers to fight for all we have built, but I am afraid that corporations are going to win out and it might just be Washington DC that decides it for us.
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
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