Analyzing from the Airwaves with Trinity Lewis

Today we welcome Trinity Lewis - an Ag Broadcaster! She is doing her part to share her view on agriculture!

Hey everybody and welcome to the Country Café of the Airwaves, well at least that’s how I begin my day! My name is Trinity Lewis and I currently reside right on the border of Western South Dakota and North Eastern Wyoming. I am the fifth of six kids, and our family reaches back as far as we can date as agriculturists, either farming, ranching or extension work of some kind. I was raised on a commercial cattle ranch where we had a large emphasis on sheep production as well, today though my life is slightly different.

When I was a junior in high school I had the opportunity to intern an ag broadcaster in Sturgis, SD. This experience allowed me a platform to discuss some of the real issues facing agriculture at the time. After that I was hooked and throughout the next bit of high school I grabbed a mike every chance I got and loved to share my passion for agriculture with anyone and everyone.

Following high school I had some unique opportunities that further solidified my faith in the greatest industry in America. I was able to travel every inch of my state as a Wyoming State FFA Officer and then I had the opportunity to cover a lot of the US as a collegiate livestock judger. Every operation visited in that time had something unique about it. One cow-calf operation we visited raised cow dogs too. Another unique facility that sticks out in my mind was a cattle operation that had hogs and corn and the thing that made it different was the numerous generations who had lived there. The family running the place then had the same last name as the family who had originally settled there centuries ago. Is there anything more American than that?

Speaking of families and generations, I am now married to a Western Wyoming guy who spends his days as a logger. We started Lewis Log Cutting and Clearing almost a year ago and we are blessed to be able to say it continually grows. Justin’s hard but close work with forestry has opened a whole new part of agriculture for me and I love to research and speak on behalf of keeping our forests sustainable and healthy now as well.

Today I have the opportunity to host a 54 minute daily radio program, “The Country Café of the Airwaves”, that reaches from Canada to Colorado, Bismark to Billings, Midwest Wyoming to Marshall Minnesota. I’ve heard it said that agriculturists do a great job of raising everything except their voice so that is my goal every day when I pull the mike down and click the “on air” button. I have to tell you, this longstanding program was started by a radio great in our region and he has fashioned the program to be a smorgasbord of topics. To keep our listeners tuned in I do the same but make it a daily goal to add a bit of agriculture, stir in some American patriotism and sprinkle some God talk on top of all the rest.

Although radio and speaking are my passions I also have the opportunity to do some freelance writing and blogging as well. You would be welcome to join me online anytime www.analyzingfromtheairwaves.blogspot.com where I do my best to share all of the good ag life brings and the ways that country people are some of our country’s best assets.

Thank you Trinity!!! Be sure follow her blog and check her out on Facebook www.facebook.com/AnalyzingFromTheAirwaves!

As Trinity said - we need all of our farmer and ranchers to raise their voice! You can tell your story next! E-mail us at foafeature@gmail.com to be the next FOA feature!

Missouri Farm Girl Deena Aaron

Today we welcome Deena Aaron from Lipstick, Camouflage and Farm Life as she shares with us her adventures of Missouri farm life! 

My story is about being a Missouri farm girl and loving every minute of it. My husband Richard takes care of the family farm with his 90 year old father at his side. The farm has been in my husband’s family for about 100 years and consists of 600 acres. From the time Richard’s grandfather bought a small piece of ground and slowly added other small parcels as they became available, there have always been cattle here. We now have around 100 cows and calves and Richard and I have another 80 acres where we live about 15 miles away which is my family farm where my Dad lived and where my Mother still lives. We run three bulls, moving them back and forth, a registered Black Angus, a registered Beef Master, and our newest bull just bought last month, a 10 month old registered Hereford.

 

If someone had told me 20 years, even 10 years ago that I would be this involved with raising cattle I would have never believed it. But you will now see me out nearly every night checking cattle on the four-wheeler when my husband can’t. We both still work full time, I am a Senior Secretary at the University of Science and Technology in Rolla Missouri and Richard runs his own business - Aaron’s Archery which he has owned since 1980. It is next door to our home which makes it convenient for him. On top of working full time I also do professional photography. 

As all cattle owners know there is always something to be done on a farm - fence to fix, hay to bale, tractors and equipment to be fixed, always something so we are always busy. Oh yes, and it seems pretty much always cows where they are not supposed to be. On top of all the cattle I have three sheep that come running when they see or hear me. Now that’s a funny story - mama sheep showed up as a stray sheep, I have always taken in stray cats and dogs, but stray sheep!! Really I’m telling the truth. Well after she had been there about a month I thought she was looking pretty fat and one morning I had left for work and Richard called me and said you might want to come back home and see what we have. She had twins and of course they are all here to stay. It took me several months to gain her trust and now they all three love me. She took the babies and ran off once and we looked and worried about them but she finally came back. I guess she didn’t like me locking them in the barn every night but they were so little I was worried something would happen to them. 

All of the property has been cross fenced since Richard started overseeing the farm. This year we had a drought as a lot of other people did so we have bought hay out of Northeast Missouri and had it trucked in. This has never happened before in our 28 years of marriage but no rain means no pasture like we usually have. We have worried and had a lot of sleepless nights figuring out what to do.

Baby O was the first calf born on our 80 acres and was very little, although her mom whom we call “Big O” is a big cow but Baby O was very weak. We found ourselves out in the field at 10:00 pm giving her a bottle. Now we probably worry more than we need to and are too over protective but we haven’t lost one calf at our place yet. By the way, Big O gave birth this spring to twins, which I will share later. Having said all that Baby O is now a momma and of course she had her baby in March when it was very cold and she had trouble. 

We were at the barn, got her in the head gate, Richard had his arm inside and had ahold of one of the hooves when she got loose, he lost his grip and I had to climb the corral to get away from her. That scared the heck out of me. That was my first time that a cow tried to hurt me. She just knew she was hurting and I guess thought it was our fault. We got her back in the head gate and finally Richard pulled her calf and he was a big one and both front feet were turned under so he made some braces and duct taped them on until the little guy could stand up and he is thriving and growing up like a weed. That was the second time Baby O beat the odds, she would have surely died and the calf too. The full story is on my blog. 

I also am in the process of writing a series of children’s books about our dog “Jake the Farm Dog” and am looking for someone to illustrate and publish my books. They are quite entertaining as Jake and his friend Bear get into a lot of mischief over their girlfriend “Lipstick”. More to come on that. I hope you have enjoyed our story and I have many more to tell. For instance I will just put this picture on and tell you this is Lucky Girl and we raised her on a bottle and now she is going to have a baby of her own. I’m sure when that happens it will be quite the occasion. Maybe we will have a “calf shower”. 

 By the way I am an avid Turkey Hunter and just had my picture and article published in the National Wildlife Turkey Federation “Turkey Country” October issue in “Women in the Outdoors” and have also been featured in the magazine Living the Country Life. 

 If you like my stories you can join my blog for more of my life as a Missouri Farm Girl!!

Thanks for sharing your story Deena! Be sure to visit her blog and twitter to learn more!  

If you or someone you know would like to be the next Face of Agriculture please contact us today, we need YOUR story! 

Jenkins Ranch since 1888

Today we welcome Jennifer Jenkins of Southern Alberta Canada!!

Hi Everyone! I feel so grateful to be a part of our awesome agriculture community that is showcased here on Faces of Agriculture. My name is Jen Jenkins and primarily I am a rancher living in Southern Alberta, Canada.

My family came to this area in 1888 and developed a ranch here raising horses and sheep. Over the years and now 5 generations later we are still living on the same land. Currently I ranch here with my father, Bob, where we raise both purebred and commercial Hereford Cattle calving approximately 300 cows each spring.

I have always loved ranching and the many rewards that come with this lifestyle. From an early age we were encouraged to have a great appreciation for Mother Nature and the land which sustains us which is something that is still very important to me. We are very lucky to live in an amazing part of the country, with a diverse population of plants and wildlife.

Raising cattle is one of my true life passions. Never content to just “own cows”, I am always working toward creating a more profitable, efficient animal that meets the demands of today’s livestock industry. Equally important to me are those people who are connected to the agriculture industry.

check out Jennifer's youtube interview here!

I see in others who make their living from the land so much passion, pride and care for their product and what it is that they do. There is a certain amount of negative media around our food production systems and I often wish that those people who eat the food we produce could experience this way of living for themselves.

My love for those people involved in agriculture has provided me with new opportunities through the Green Hectares and FarmOn Foundation where I am now working as an online business facilitator for farmers and rural communities. Working from home in this role has allowed me to give back to the agricultural community who has offered me so much encouragement and support throughout the years. As a facilitator I am available to listen to your goals, dreams or even your challenges and help you utilize the resources which will make your business successful. 

Ranching today has a number challenges but I also believe that it has tremendous rewards and I strongly believe in providing future generations the same opportunities that I have had in this business. I thank everyone who has also chosen to share a bit of their story here at Faces of Agriculture, through these story’s we are all helping protect the future of agriculture.

As I read through the various pages here, there is no doubt that we are all connected regardless of our location, occupation or age and I look forward to reading more from others here at Faces of Agriculture! Happy Trails -Jen Jenkins

Thank you Jennifer for a great feature and great work that you do! We encourage you to visit the websites Green Hectares and FarmOn to learn more about other farmers and ranchers. You can also learn more about the Jenkins Ranch on their website and Facebook page. Jennifer also has this great interview on Youtube.

Do you come from a long line of farmers and ranchers? We would love to share your story! Contact us today!!!!

Homestead Hill Farm

Welcome Tom & Barbara Womack as our first farmers from Virginia to share their story! Tom and Barbara have a small diversified farm where they sell their produce at the farmer's market, but their real passion is for growing food!

Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia! 

We are Tom and Barbara Womack of Homestead Hill Farm. We own and operate a small, diversified farm specializing in seasonal vegetables, lamb, chicken and eggs. Our products are available for sale at the Staunton/Augusta Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings. Since we are located just 12 miles from town, we can assure you that everything we sell is truly LOCAL.

If someone had told us twenty years ago that we would be able to make our living at the Farmers’ Market, we would have laughed. I don’t think we had even shopped at a farmers’ market twenty years ago. But, when life events caused us to begin from scratch in 1997, one thing led to another…and here we are. Our girls were very little when we moved here, and they had the experience of a lifetime growing up in the country on a small working farm. There have been some true learning adventures along the way. We have always worked well as a team, and now that our daughters are all grown-up, married and living elsewhere, it’s just the two of us working together here on the hill. While there are days when the work is hard and frustrating, I cannot imagine any lifestyle more rewarding than growing food.

Our farm is an ever-evolving entity. Over the years we have raised eggs for wholesale, sold vegetables to fancy restaurants, and baked well over 15,000 loaves of bread. (for ten years we sold bread at the Market) We have had milk cows and pigs and LOTS of chickens, for a long while our youngest daughter had a pony…and we even had a llama and a herd of goats for a while. We’ve been shepherds for the past ten or eleven years. But, the Farmers’ Market has been the one constant during all these ventures. Presently, we focus on our large gardening operation, two hoop-houses in which we grow greens year round, 2 small greenhouses for propagation, a layer flock, pasture-raised broilers in the summer, …and a flock of sheep. Our small farm is nothing, if not diverse.

Being vendors at a Farmers’ Market means that life around here revolves around Saturday morning Market. Our schedule and routine is far from typical. While most other folks are still in their warm and comfy beds, dreaming sweet dreams, we are up and packing our wares to get them to the Market. It’s still very dark at 5am when Tom heads out to the Market. He is also the Market Manager, so he gets there earlier than most of the other vendors to get things ready for the day. It’s my job to feed all the critters and make sure the farm is tended before I head into town as well. We may have the only sheep in the county that come running when they see a flashlight! 

While the five hours that the Market is open may not sound like a long time, when you add time for set-up and clean-up, we get a pretty intense workout on Saturday mornings before all the goodies are sold and it’s time to head back to the farm. It is rare that we bring much home, but any leftover vegetables are later processed for off-season sales.

I love the camaraderie of the Farmers’ Market. Since this is our fifteenth year in the same place every Saturday morning, I suppose you could say we have become fixtures in the downtown scene. We have seen a lot of changes over the course of all those years. There are a lot more folks concerned with knowing where their food comes from, and knowing who grows it and how than ever before. Items that no one had ever heard of are now becoming sought after and some new things have become immensely popular. Many of our customers have become friends over the years and it’s always fun to exchange recipes and learn new things. Our Market has live music a lot of weekends, so the atmosphere can be quite festive.

The human interaction at the Market intrigues me. In recent days, it has been noted that most folks are two to four generations removed from the farm. Most of these folks have NO clue what goes into farming or food production. There are those who think that small farms must be better than “big ag”, but I beg to differ. There are so many different ways to raise food, and all of them are crucial to supplying the demand. I love sharing our own experiences, as well as attempting to clear up some of the mis-perceptions about agriculture in general. To that end, I started blogging about our farm (and other random things) several years ago. It’s always humbling to meet one of my “fans” at the Market. I hope you’ll read it as well… follow at Homestead Hill Farm or LIKE us on Facebook! 

At the end of each Market, it’s nice to head back to the farm for lunch and a restful Sunday before getting back to work with our focus on the next selling day. Because, we don’t just sell stuff on Saturday… the Staunton/Augusta Farmers’ Market is a PRODUCER ONLY market… so, we must grow everything we sell. That means we are almost always starting seeds, transplanting seedlings, harvesting, or removing spent crops in order to plant new ones. If we aren’t in the gardens, or the hoophouses, we are feeding sheep, gathering eggs or processing broilers. There is always something to do.

A number of years ago, one of our customers suggested we consider selling year ‘round. We talked it over, changed up our growing patterns, and developed a customer list. This will be our fifth year of offering all sorts of farm products for downtown delivery in the off-season to a group of loyal customers. It works well for everyone….the customers get fresh greens/lamb/eggs/chicken/vegetables all winter and we are able to have positive cash-flow…even in the dead of winter. 

As much as I love selling at the market, I must say that lambing season is my favorite time of year. Our ewes are bred to lamb in January, so that we can get the lambs on the ground while things are relatively calm in the gardens and hoophouse. This timing also allows the lambs to be fairly good sized before they are turned out on grass in the early spring. I have often likened lambing season to Christmas morning on steroids. You never know what’s going to happen. While there are the occasional losses and frustrations, the winter lambing barn is a great place to spend some quality time. The sheep keep the grass mowed throughout the summer and provide some of the best lamb products any non-vegetarian has ever eaten!

While the sheep are great, and have earned a special place in my heart, I wouldn’t want to overlook the chickens. Our laying flock is quite productive, and farm fresh brown eggs are one of the most popular items at the Market. We also run a several batches of “broilers” throughout the summer months to provide our customers (and ourselves) with pasture-raised chicken to use in all their favorite recipes. The chickens also do their share by eating weeds, spent crops and vegetable waste. 

Yes, we might have laughed twenty years ago if someone told us we would be making our living growing and selling vegetables, but this is the good life…raising food. We will never be big producers, and some folks might discount farms of our size. That’s okay. There are a lot of folks that depend on us to grow good food for them. We haven’t been doing this for generations, but our daughters learned a good work ethic that they have carried into their adult lives.

At the end of a productive day, there is a great sense of accomplishment knowing that what you do for a living really matters to someone. Add to that living in a beautiful place, being with someone you love, and having time to enjoy it all…this is the GOOD life.

Thanks for the fantastic feature Barbara! It takes all kinds of farmers and advocates for agriculture to keep the food supply in this country running. Be sure to check out Barbara's blog and Facebook page. If you or someone you know would like to share your story on Faces of Agriculture, please contact us today! No need to have a blog or social media, we want to share everyone's story!

Kristen Reese

Say hello to Kristen Reese; mom, wife, farmer, chef, relator and small business owner! She raises her family on the diversified family farm and encourages urban customers to reach out to a farmer and discuss where their food comes from.

Hello from Ohio! My name is Kristin Reese. I live near the small town of Baltimore. We are mainly a rural community but not too far away you will find urban sprawl. This positions us to have a great opportunity to reach out to nearby urban customers and have some fun talking food and farming with those who are two or even three generations removed from the farm.

Thirteen years ago, in the sheep barn at the Ohio State Fair I met my husband Matt. I was running for the Ohio Lamb and Wool Queen and he had just landed his first job out of college working for Ohio’s Country Journal, a statewide agricultural publication, as the assistant editor. He was reporting on the contest. I was selected as the Queen and after many in-depth interviews with the assistant editor we were married several years later. Matt still works for the Journal and now serves as the Editor. Off the farm, I am a Realtor and regularly work with farmers selling or buying land as well as individuals looking to buy and sell homes, land and investments.

We have two children Campbell (4) and Parker (2) who are our helpers around our small family farm. Matt and I both had the luxury of growing up on farms and we feel strongly about raising our children the same way. It is very important that they are very aware of where there food comes from and how hard farmers work to produce a healthy, safe product.

I grew up on a diversified grain and livestock farm and Matt grew up on a dairy and Christmas tree farm. We both had deep roots in agriculture. Today we have blended a bit of both families together and have a very busy farm life and also a farm blog, Reese Farm Roots.  

The Reese Family has a 30-acre choose and cut Christmas tree operation and Shiitake mushroom production. Matt and I are active in every aspect of the family's Christmas tree farm including planting in the spring, mowing, shearing and farm maintenance in the summer, and harvesting and working with customers during the sales season. We help make wreathes and arrangements and sell baked goods from the farm gift shop. Christmas Tree farming is defiantly not just a seasonal business. We are busy all year long making sure our customers have the best trees to select from. We grow 7 varieties of trees and have over 30,000 trees varying from seedlings to 10 feet tall. 

My parents, the Root Family, raise registered Horned Dorset sheep and grass and alfalfa hay. Most of the sheep are sold to breeders around the U.S. or harvested and sold for meat locally to private customers and to local markets. We also raise meat chickens for local sales, layers for eggs and meat rabbits for show and for market. I market our farm products through my catering business, Local Flavor Foods, which has been a great way for us to bridge the gap between the consumer and the kitchen table.

We are a small farm, but have many friends and family members who are large scale farmers. As a result, we have a unique take on food and farming. We feel it is our responsibility to make sure that anyone who eats foods knows the truth about food and farming. We want all people to feel safe and secure about the food they buy to feed their families. As a person who eats food, you should be concerned about what you are putting into your body. Be an educated consumer.

As a mom nothing is more important to me than making sure my children are safe and healthy. All food safety issues and concerns boil down to trust. If you go to a fine restaurant, you trust the chef to property handle and prepare the food safely. If you buy something at a farmers market, you have to trust that farmer to provide you with a safe farm product. With these larger scale food safety concerns we are hearing from shoppers out there, it is a matter of trusting the USDA and the FDA that are charged with overseeing these big issues such as antibiotics in livestock, genetically modified foods or food safety recommendations. 

I personally do trust these agencies. And, I think if you start looking into the research that they do, you will find that is hard to argue with the effort, detail and diligence from these agencies to ensure your food is safe. This kind of research seldom makes the headlines like the scary stuff that we hear about our food so often, but when you really take the time to look at the research, it is very thorough and impressive, and it very strongly supports the practices used to produce the safe and abundant food supply in this country that we enjoy.

Got questions about your food? Talk to a farmer!

Thanks Kristen, what a great story! You can find Kristen on her personal farm blog, her catering blog, the family Christmas tree blog, facebook & twitter! 

If you or someone you know would be willing to share your story on the blog, please contact us! YOU could be the next Face of Agriculture!

Robyn's Parents

Robyn has shared her story with us before here. This is the story of her parents and how they became a part of agriculture. 

Hello from the western South Dakota! I am Robyn from The Ranch Wife Chronicles.

Today I am sharing my parent's story and the roots of my agriculture experience. I was raised in central Nebraska on a cow/calf operation. Growing up, my sister and I showed steers and lambs. Mom still keeps a few sheep around and has started a Southdown flock. Both of my parents grew up on farms.

Agriculture runs deep in my Mom’s heritage and family farming can be traced all the way back to Czechoslovakia. Her father ran angus cows and duroc hogs, farming in Seward County, Nebraska. My mom is no stranger to the show ring and learned her love for showing from Grandpa.

Dad grew up with Berkshire hogs. His family raised, showed and sold seedstock. Grandpa W attended the Nebraska State Fair and the State Fairs of bordering states selling boars and gilts. 

Mom and Dad met at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Dad was on the Meats and Livestock Judging Teams. In fact, Dad was a champion Meat’s judge and won the National Collegiate Meats Judging Contest. Mom was the first woman to be on the UNL Livestock Judging Team; a team that won in Kansas City.

After graduating from college, Mom took her life savings to purchase cattle. These cows were the beginning to what has become 35 years in the ranching business. Mom and Dad have AI’d (artificially inseminated) cows for the past 35 years.

In the early years, Mom and Dad raised a few show calves, selling most of them private treaty. Since my sister and I have grown up, my parents changed direction and started raising commercial angus cattle. Their focus is primarily functional females and high quality feeder calves.

Mom and Dad have seen the good times and the hard times in the ranching business. Over the years they have both had “off the farm” jobs. Mom worked at the local auction market for 23 years. She started out in the yards and worked her way to became a field rep. She currently is the advertising manager and contributing editor for CALF News Magazine.

Dad bought fat cattle after graduating from college. After marrying, he worked as a loan officer in a bank. Dad was also herdsman for a registered Angus outfit for 10 years.

Ranching is not an easy or romantic career. It is a business and a tough one at that. Mom and Dad have weathered many ups and downs in this business. My parents have built a high performing commercial cow herd, raised two daughters and know it takes a lot to produce wholesome food.

Thanks Robyn for sharing your parent's story with us! You can visit Robyn and learn more about her history at The Ranch Wife Chronicles. We would love to hear more stories from anyone out there about their parents and grandparents. 

If you would like to be a featured farmer or know someone who should be, leave a comment below - or check out our contact page. To learn more about the Faces of Agriculture Project click here.