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!
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Yesterday started some of my girls most favorite work, AIing their cattle. It was a big surprise to have one of the heifers that was just shown 48 hours earlier and earned some top honors, come into heat yesterday. But that is the priority, making cows first and doing some showing on the side.
With enough hope and prayers this will be the beginning of the story of their next generation of show stock. The girls have spent countless winter nights studying semen catalogs. Let me tell you, their prospective sire list is longer than the number of females that they have to work with.
It is honestly inspiring to watch the girls make plans and dreams with such unabashed hope. My husband and I are taking a year off from AIing our big herd. With the increasing cost of inputs, this is one of the areas that we have chosen to cut costs. With having to reduce our cow herd numbers because of the drought, we have plenty of bull power to cover our herd.
So, we just live vicariously through our kids, this year, watching them scheme and dream of their AI mating, future plans, and goals. With tough times in agriculture weighing us down, sometimes I think the best thing my husband and I can do for our mental health is watch as our young girls march forward with such hope that they don’t have any plans of failure. And I guess this is how those eternal agriculture optimists are born and shaped.
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Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 3 daughters 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 that is broadcast on 60 radio stations with coverage in 9 states, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and highlights R-CALF’s work on 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 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
