Beef Runner Podcast - Food, Farming and Agriculture Advocacy

Agvocacy – a term coined within the agriculture community; commonly used to refer to agriculture advocates.

Whether our start was documenting ranch life in Wyoming or selling lingerie on Twitter, our online advocacy has transformed over the past several years.

Make sure you listened to the first episode of the Over a Beer series!

In Episode 021 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast, Dairy Carrie and Ryan continue their Over A Beer Series, with a conversation about the evolution of agvocacy via social media.

Highlights:

Carrie: People will rise and fall in the agvocacy movements. We’ll see new voices, but we hope that’s for the right reasons. Celebrity status isn’t what agvocacy is meant to be. Much of the change we’ve seen over the past eight years in our efforts can be boiled down to online maturity.

Ryan: If you want to be a leader, be open to different and be willing to listen. Know how to approach others on hot topics and how to facilitate a productive conversation. In-fighting within our own communities is holding agvocacy efforts back and we need to figure out how to address that problem.

Thanks to our sponsors (if we had sponsors) – Spotted Cow Beer from New Glarus Brewing for the hydration and to Crawfish Junction for the location for the discussion.

Be sure to hop on over to Carrie’s Blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to connect with her. If you’re interested in helping your business learn more about involving social advocates in your outreach and marketing strategies, or if you’re an advocate looking to get involved, check out GROW Influencer Group.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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When good friends get together and sit down and catch up over a beer, you never know what will come of the conversation. This is especially true when Dairy Carrie is involved.

On Episode 20 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast, we launch a new series, appropriately titled, Over a Beer. On a recent visit to Wisconsin, Carrie and I sat down to discuss several topics that are on our minds and of great interest in the agriculture and food communities as we enter 2017.

For this episode, we take a moment to introduce ourselves and our roles in the agriculture communities. I hope you’ll take a moment to provide some feedback. You never know what topics we may tackle later on in the series.

Thanks to our sponsors (if we had sponsors) – Spotted Cow Beer from New Glarus Brewing for the hydration and to Crawfish Junction for the location for the discussion.

Be sure to hop on over to Dairy Carrie’s Blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to connect with her. If you’re interested in helping your business learn more about involving social advocates in your outreach and marketing strategies, or if you’re an advocate looking to get involved, check out GROW Influencer Group.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at AgricultureProud.com/podcast.

Like what you see here? Sign up for my newsletter to be notified of future stories and weekly headlines. Click here to sign up.

In Episode 018 of the podcast, I visited with the National Bison Association to learn more about raising bison commercially across the United States. We touched on a fair number of statistics to describe this sector of the agriculture business on a national level.

On Episode 019 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast, I follow up with a conversation more specific to Montana and what raising bison looks like from the perspective of a rancher who works with the animals on a daily basis.

Aaron Paulson currently serves as President of the Montana Bison Association and ranches on the Snowcrest Ranch in Southwestern Montana, one of several ranches owned by Turner Enterprises. Much of their bison meat is marketed nationally under the Great Range brand label at several retailers such as Costco.

As discussed in the podcast, many ranchers also make their meat products available locally. A sample of those offering bison meat and products locally in Montana are listed online.

Follow the Montana Bison Association on Facebook, or learn more on their website – MontanaBison.org.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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On Episode 018 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast, I visit with Jim Matheson, Assistant Director of the National Bison Association. We discussed bison ranching in the United States, how this may differ from wild bison on public lands or even cattle ranching. We also touched on the growth of bison meat markets and how that meat fills demand for certain consumers.

You can learn more about bison ranching on NBA’s website – BisonCentral.com. The site also shares where you can find bison meat and a few recipes and tips for cooking bison. Be sure to connect with them on Facebook – National Bison Association.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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You know that graduate student who gets the lucky draw to help with those “fun” summer projects? Yep, that was my role when I first met today’s podcast guest.

Now, to be honest, the summer project wasn’t too bad. I had the opportunity to help measure the results with a new fly tag project by taking photos of cattle each week for an entire summer. There are definitely worse ways to spend Monday mornings than stalking cows around pastures with camera in tow. Thank goodness there is technology to help count the flies in the pictures or I may have really gone cross-eyed.

On Episode 017 of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I am joined by Dave Thomas. He is the Dairy Insecticide Marketing Manager for Bayer Animal Health, based out of Tennessee. I was able to catch up with Dave on a recent trip to Kansas City when we sat down to talk about everything flies and fly control around cattle. I’ve received numerous reports of this being a particularly bad year for pinkeye in cattle, so it should be a relevant topic for many across the country.

While Dave’s current role focuses on fly control in dairy cattle, he has spent much of his life working around beef cattle, so we’re able to touch on both sides of the conversation.

It’s not all fly tags and pour on. There are many options for fly control and figuring out which is best may often depend on what your situation is – on season, environment or type of animal. It’s often best to use a combination of products instead of sticking with a lone fly control method.

Dave Thomas fills us in on the different types of fly control options out there and what you should look for when trying to choose which type is best for you. If you have any questions on this topic, leave them in the comments section below and we’ll work to get them answered.

To learn more, visit with your local University Extension livestock specialists.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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For years, we’ve talked about sharing your story in the context of agriculture advocacy. Today, while there is an increasing number of agriculture advocates sharing their stories on blogs, that doesn’t mean we’re doing it in the most effective manner to reach the audience we truly would like to reach.

On Episode 016 of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I catch up with a fellow Montanan, Kari Lynn Dell. She’s a rancher and rodeo cowgirl, who happens to be an author. Kari has views of Glacier National Park from her house, doesn’t live far from the Canadian border and doesn’t think it abnormal to see snow most months of the year.

We talk a bit about ranching and rodeo, but quickly moved into some advice Kari can share from her experience as a writer. Agriculture bloggers are often quick to jump on the advocacy train with an agenda to their writing, but Kari proposes use of entertaining storytelling to draw your crowd in. I think she makes a good point a few of us (yes, myself included) could learn from to help reach outside the choir.

Kari uses a great non-agricultural example to describe this point. Check out Jenny Lawson’s book, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, and her accompanying blog – thebloggess.

You can find Kari Lynn Dell on her website, Facebook, Twitter and blog. You should also check out her book (released August 2) featuring a rodeo stock contractor and a behind the scenes look at rodeo life. You can find Reckless in Texas and all Kari’s books on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at AgricultureProud.com/podcast.

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Episode 15 of the Agriculture Proud podcast brings a brief review of my Team Beef story, how I came to be involved in the program and tips for those who want to join in.

You can find out more about Team Beef programs in your state, by checking with your Beef Council or joining the Team Beef USA page on Facebook. For those of you in Montana, sign up for our awesome Team Beef Montana! And of course, I explain more about what the program is in this week’s podcast.

You should definitely check out my previous posts about Team Beef on the blog. You’ll see quite a few posts about the Montana Running Ranchers. This is a 12-member relay team I’m part of, primarily consisting of ranchers or those of us working with ranchers. Each year we participate in a 200-mile Ragnar Relay, which is a great opportunity to connect with thousands of other runners while sharing a great message about beef and ranching. This year we’re headed to Hawaii, October 14-15. Learn more about this event and how you can sponsor us on the Montana Running Ranchers’ Fundraising site.

In the podcast, I also mentioned the 30-day Protein Challenge as a great opportunity to evaluate what you’re eating and as a guide that helped me get back on track eating enough with balance as I’ve ramped up my mileage. Find more on my experience with the Protein Challenge in a previous post. Here’s a link to the MyFitnessPal app mentioned to track my food each day.

Give this week’s episode a listen and let me know what you think. I’m excited to share a piece of what has made running with Team Beef special. Hopefully, this will be the start of several Team Beef episodes where I can highlight a member in each state. I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t really care for my livestock entomology course in college. Fortunately for us, there are people who love the subject and work to study the flies and biting pests that we often find during these long, hot summer days.

On Episode 014 of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I sit down with Dr. Doug Ross, Technical Services Entomologist for Bayer Animal Health. Dr. Ross shares a little about the tools farmers and ranchers have to control these pests and how companies like Bayer work to make sure these products are used properly to ensure safety for our food, animals, humans and the environment.

For most of us, controlling flies around the house can be as simple as using a fly swatter or a quick trip to town for a product to use in the garden. For livestock farmers and ranchers, controlling these flies and pests can be a little more involved because pests can affect animal health, performance and even spread diseases.

As Dr. Ross shared, control for pests in livestock can fall under one of four different categories, or Defense Point: on the animal, facilities where livestock live, the environment outside facilities and treatment through feed.

This last category often refers to Insect Growth Regulators (IGRs), which are mixed into the animal’s feed, passes through to the manure and is then consumed by the insect to impact their growth, ultimately reducing their population. You may have heard of these IGRs as a pest control method. As Washington State University points out, compared with conventional pesticides, insect growth regulators are:

Several Land Grant Universities have resource pages with information about livestock pests in your area. Below are a few selections.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

 As a part of the Bayer blogger program, I am not compensated for sharing this information, but am thankful for Bayer Animal Health helping me contact experts on important topics impacting our cattle and livestock business today. As always, thoughts shared are my own. Learn more about Bayer’s efforts to support agriculture advocacy by joining the AgVocate Facebook group. 

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If you’ll recall on last week’s podcast, we visited with a younger rancher from British Columbia (Episode 012) after my trip to the BC Cattlemen’s Association Annual General Meeting in Penticton. This week we’ll continue with conversations from that meeting.

On Episode 013 of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I sit down with Kevin Boon. He’s General Manager of BCCA, based in Kamloops, BC. As I’ve had an opportunity to visit a few of these Canadian Association meetings during the past month, I find there is more in common with U.S. ranching than there are differences. Sure, there are differences in a few government policies and organizational structures, but ranchers are still dealing with many of the same issues.

So, it’s been a great chance to hear from some of these cattlemen and women and get their perspectives on the issues. It was also great to hear how the BCCA is working to ensure younger producers have their voices heard through better representation in the organization’s leadership roles.

It was great to meet Kevin and catch up with him. I hope you’ll take an opportunity to follow the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association online. Find them on Facebook and Twitter. Read more about my trip to BC in an earlier post.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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