Guest Blog

My friend Dorothy and I recently started a book club. (Remember her from this blog where we talked about the importance of avoiding burnout?) Well, we enjoyed that so much that we decided to read a new book every month and reflect on it. Reflecting often turns into catching up on life, but the intentions of personal development are there.

Although the last 18 months have been interesting, there are still ways we can advocate for agriculture and share our stories with consumers. Here are a few tips I've learned through the American Farm Bureau’s Partners in Agriculture Leadership (PAL) class, other media training or tried myself. The PAL program will be starting a new two-year class in the spring of 2022 if you're looking to improve your advocacy skills! (Learn more here.)

Earlier this year, Heather asked a question about empowering employees in the Exchange by Dairy Girl Network Facebook group: “I have had the amazing opportunity to hand-pick employees for our value-added/local food expansion. I am so excited to work with this team of women who have their own unique and complementary talents.

For years here, we worked with our neighbors in putting up our high-moisture corn to feed to our cattle. They had a combine and two good-sized grain trucks, and I had a tractor and roller mill we used to fill our corn silo with.

Fluctuating milk prices. Wildfires and evacuations. Drought. High feed prices. Domestic and international current events headlining mainstream media. Pandemic-related mandates and restrictions. Polarizing viewpoints creating rifts in society. And it is all at our fingertips on our phones, talked about in our favorite coffee shops and in our email inboxes, in addition to airing on news stations across America.

It was Friday, August 11, 1989. My 13-year-old self, dressed in jeans and a tight-fitting yellow polo shirt, sat restlessly on the bleachers of the livestock arena during our county Farm Show awards ceremony. I didn’t want to attend. Truth be told, I argued with my mother about going altogether (and about wearing that yellow shirt); after all, I had not received any awards that year anyway. No new halters or trophies for me – just an opportunity to watch everyone else who fared better than me win their prizes.