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!
Welcome to a fresh new episode of Ranch Raised. Since yesterday was National Iced Tea Day, which you have my permission to celebrate all summer long, I wasn’t able to tell you about our weekend.
This weekend our 3 girls showed at the Nebraska State Hereford Show. Some would think that I am most proud of how many banners and awards my kids bring home, but honestly that pales in comparison to what really makes my heart swell.
My oldest daughter is on the NE Junior Hereford Board that puts on this show. I get a backseat view watching her and her peers work all year long to plan. They jump on ZOOM meetings after sports practices. They keep a text thread going with updates to the team. They write sponsorship letters and then lots of thank you notes. They pick up the phone and make lots of calls.
They arrive to the show a day earlier than everyone else to set up around 400 panels for stalls and tie outs. After they have taken care and showed their own cattle, they stay far beyond the last trailer leaving tearing down those 400 panels. It is a level of tiredness some kids will never know.
And that’s it, that is what I am the proudest of! Watching a team of kids selflessly serve their peers who love doing what they do. Never asking for a thank you and rarely getting one. Walking away with a sense of pride that few will ever know. Kids can do hard things! I wish all kids could experience this kind of service.
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.
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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