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 start of a new week and I am so happy to share a moment of your day, right here on Ranch Raised.
It seems like I have so much I could say but yet nothing that will make the situation any better. We have a lot of people in the farming and ranching worlds facing trouble right now. Winter battered the north and starved the south of moisture. But spring has beaten us all with unrelenting wind.
As I said last week, our old friend the Red Flag Warning has been back in full effect. But, that doesn’t stop life from happening, fires from starting, and devastation from occurring. Feed supplies are getting razor thin and the grass just isn’t coming. The state of the world isn’t much different with uncertainty.
I think we are all hanging by “faith”. So I wanted to share these words by Adrian Wait.
Faith is the light of the next step,
Illuminating the way ahead.
Without revealing the direction,
Faith will sustain and comfort
Through our darkest hours.
Faith upholds the unseen hope.
Faith is a light in the darkness.
Surrounded yet not consumed,
By the storms in our lives.
Faith is the stillness seated
At the rear of our boat.
I wish I could fix all that needs fixing and help all those that are in need. If this life were easy everyone would be doing it. With every passing year, I think it becomes easier for us still left in farming and ranching to see why so many are leaving.
My husband just said this weekend, “if the markets don’t take us out Mother Nature will.”
I know we are clinging to our faith a little more these days and ourselves here at the Jones Ranch included. But, I will send some prayers up for all of us tending to our herds, planting the fields, and trying to feed out neighbors.
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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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