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!
Christmas with cows! Thanks for stopping by to listen to this mid week edition of Ranch Raised.
Christmas is Christmas all around the world, right? Except I feel like Christmas is different when you raise cows. Let me explain myself just a little. So many are making their lists for groceries and gifts and checking them twice. They are planning their holiday parties and gatherings. Sitting down in the evening to catch a Hallmark movie, perhaps.
Me, I’m over here like the holiday Humpty Dumpty wondering which part of my ranch life is gonna fall next. We have a church program tonight. One kid has an orthodontist appointment in the morning. I have my family arriving tomorrow afternoon. A husband leaving tomorrow to go start rounding up cows to bring home. The trucks are called to bring the last of the said cows home from their far-off grazing land on Friday. Yes, we literally schedule cattle work, despite having a house full of visitors. Don’t worry, they have come to expect it. They know if they don’t come to see us, there will likely be no seeing at all. A classroom party also on Friday. And a partridge in a pear tree.
This is on top of the barn chores, the chickens gotta eat too you know. Lots full of weaned calves and other cows that need water checked and bellies filled. The ranch hub-bub leaves me scrambling to hit the grocery store in the morning and local gifts shops to grab all that I need before the weekend. Forget the hours passing like the sands of time, the hours around here are passing like scurried rabbits, zig-zagging and over the horizon before I can even catch them.
Okay, I’m off to do the next thing! Keep Calm and Christmas on!
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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