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!
When truckers become family! Thanks for ending your week with me right here on Ranch Raised.
I think every rancher will tell you that their mind eases when they see familiar truckers pull into the yard. Over the years, you just develop a bond with ones who carry your precious cargo up and down the black top.
It was a heavy moment last fall when told a couple of our favorite truckers that we would soon be moving out of the area due to circumstances out of our control.
We made a call to our truck dispatch in February ordering 9 trucks to haul bred cows to our new ranch. In usual fashion it was one of our local guys who was backed up to the chute first. I knew that they wouldn’t let this opportunity escape them to be on the last big run out of there! But then I kept looking for the big grey Peterbuilt driven by our other local driver to come through the yard. And the lump in my throat grew when we got everyone loaded but that certain trucker was not in the line up that day. I told myself he must have been on another run or maybe he hung up his keys.
Well last week we need 1 truck to haul some odds and ends to our new place. The bulls, a few pairs, and the show heifers. My heart did a backflip when I saw that grey Pete I had been looking for in February sitting on the road, a half hour early, no less. It was a fitting way to close a chapter that has been painful. Sometimes you just need your favorite truckers to get you home!
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.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
Follow Karina Jones on Facebook!
