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!
If you missed my “heartcheck moment” at the Nebraska State Fair story, yesterday, you can check it out on the Your Ag Network App or Website. Thank to those who have listened and have made yesterday’s episode so popular.
I have another recent encounter that I can’t get off my mind and also tugs at my heart. I have had the pleasure of working with a New Mexico cattle rancher named Erica Valdez a couple of times now. Her stories of ranching on the US/Mexico border and the challenges they face will grip you, especially if you see her pictures that bring to life her story in her presentation.
Erica and her neighbors don’t have the freedom of walking out of their houses before daylight and saddling up. Their reality is someone or someones could have overnighted in their barn, so it is safer to wait until the sun is up and border crossers have cleared. While sweeping the big country with their teenage daughter and her friends riding the draws out, they are just as concerned with gathering strays as they are making sure they don’t startle migrants hiding in the brush.
Erica is so eloquent in reminding us up here in the greater US, that this drug and human smuggling crisis only comes across her ranch. Once they get to the interstates that criss cross New Mexico, those drugs and criminals are in our communities within a day or so.
I invite you to check out my full interview with Erica Valdez on Your Ag Network app, website and social media platforms including the Ranch Raised FB page. I have even included her contact information in case your group is interested in having her present on this border issue through her perspective as an American cattle rancher!
If you have group that would like to hear Erica present about the challenges of ranching on the US/Mexico border, feel free to reach out to her at Erica.r.valdez@gmail.com
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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