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!
Cattle work and all the Christmas feels! It’s a busy time of year on the ranch, so let’s catch you up on Ranch Raised.
Whenever the question was asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I never had a definitive answer. I just knew the only thing that was ever stirred in my little heart was to take care of cows and at the time, I didn’t know if that was a safe answer or if that was normal. As I’ve grown older and I don’t really care to be normal, I know that what I felt when I was little and what I feel now that I am big is known as a “calling” and I find it to be very spiritual.
I think my spiritual connection to ranching is amplified during the holiday season. I know in my heart that miracles happen in a barn. I know that it is of noble profession to take the best care of animals and livestock that are defenseless and can’t always take care of themselves. I know that it is honorable to produce food to nourish my neighbors and the world.
Today we will receive another load of bawling calves to wean. When most people are looking at their holiday schedules, zig zagging around the country, people like us are just taking it day by day, working through the tasks that have to be completed in order for all beings, both 2 and 4 legged to be happy and healthy because it is what we have been called to do.
So I salute all that doing the same this holiday season, if it were easy more people would be doing it!
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 former 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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