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!
It’s the circle of life kind of week here on Ranch Raised.
A few weeks ago I updated you about our new arrivals. 8 rolly, polly Border Collie puppies born to our Dixie! Dixie is out of our Border Collie matriarch, Diego. I know the name throws you. Our daughter was in a Dora The Explorer fad 10 years ago when we brought Diego home. While I have mostly shared about my girl’s success in the show arena with our Border Collies, this week I want to talk about the matriarch of our Border Collie family and the one that never made it to a show arena because she shined in the cattle corral!
I still remember the day we picked her out. It was a warm spring day and we had two really excited little girls. They had their picks out of the litter but Marty and I kept watching this scrappy little runt that kept biting the ears and tails of her littermates. She was no wallflower and seemed to be such a little firecracker, just the kind of cattle dog we like!
So many of those personality traits we saw in her as a puppy proved her to be exactly what we expected! She was a fierce cattle dog and one look at her face showed it. Diego wore her battle scars proudly and one look at her mouth made you respect that she didn’t sit back, she was in command in the cattle pen and went in for the kill shot, losing many teeth in the process. She was such a scrapper no beast whether domesticated or wild intimidated her.
She was that typical Border Collie workaholic! If you didn’t have a job for her she was finding her own work.
She was the dog that made us fall in love with the Border Collie breed even deeper and I’ve got a lot to tell you about my ole girl, Diego! So come back tomorrow!
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children 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, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and 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 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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