Episode Category: Education

“If you don’t send it out, if you don’t publish it, it doesn’t happen. You can’t learn from it. You have to push “go” to learn from it.” 

“I continuously am impressed with young producers and beginning producers alike of their determination and their resiliency. If they want to be a part of this industry and they want to live in rural America, and they want to find a way to help be on the farm, they have to come up with very innovative things.” 

“It’s the season of life we’re in right now and we’re making it work.”

Join us in this powerful episode of Farming on Purpose with Amanda. Amanda shares about her family’s operation and the cattle operation that her and her husband own and run. Amanda delves into the different avenues she has pursued not only for additional off-the-farm income, but to fulfill her own passions. Amanda offers great advice about finding your priorities and making sure what you’re doing aligns with those priorities. Amanda is passionate about fighting to help farmers and ranchers as well as the land needed for agriculture. Listen in as we dive into the importance of knowing and pursuing your priorities and passions, and fighting for your way of life.

“I never saw this coming. I never saw the opportunity to come back full circle and continue that.”

Join us in this enjoyable episode of Farming on Purpose with Jess Perez. Jess shares about her family’s history being farmers, how her and her husband moved for his law career, and how Jess found her way back to agriculture. Jess opens up about running a cow/calf operation, getting into selling their beef direct to consumers, and some of the hurdles they’ve faced along the way. Jess also talks about marketing online, sharing your life and story to an online audience, and gives a great perspective on how you can find ways to share your story. Listen in as we delve into a variety of topics from the ups and downs of having cattle, your online presence being more than just ag related, and Jess’s mentorship.

“But if you actually want your farm to successfully transition and you care about your children and the quality of life they are going to have and the opportunities they are going to have after you are gone, it is your responsibility to understand how that transition will actually play out.”

In this episode, I wanted to talk about a topic that is very important but one that isn’t talked about as much as it should be, transition planning. Before purchasing our family farm, I hadn’t put much consideration into planning for our farm transition after my husband and I are gone. After hearing Dr. Ferrell, a professor at OSU, speak about farm transitions, the importance of planning, and why 64% of farm transitions are failing, it made me put more consideration into our own transition in the future. I learned such valuable information and I really wanted to share that with all of you.

“I wish there were more opportunities for people to see the day-to-day of it, not just the ‘you want to teach about agriculture, you must want to be a teacher’. There’s other options to do that, especially now that I’ve gotten into the world of entrepreneurship…”

This week we are mixing things up a bit! I had the pleasure of being on the Off-Farm Income podcast hosted by Matt Brechwald back in December. We had such a great conversation about many different topics and I wanted to highlight that episode and share it! We talked about my FFA journey and the many benefits the FFA program gives to high school students as well as the unsung heroes, Ag teachers and FFA advisors. I shared about starting my marketing business and my podcast, Farming On Purpose.

“Video is such a powerful tool when it comes to communicating about agriculture with consumers because it’s not a big Hollywood production that’s getting edited. It’s just somebody in their field talking about their cattle. It’s just real and authentic.”

In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Linnea Langusch. Linnea dives into her research she performed while working on her Master’s degree. Linnea shares how COVID-19 made her shift her research and how it affected the beef industry. She then explains what obstacles the beef industry faced during the peak times of COVID-19 and how many farmers and ranchers had to rely on direct-to-consumer marketing.

“Stuff that we don’t necessarily think is unique actually is unique. Our lifestyle is unique. There’s not a big percentage of us doing this in the world.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Lance Neilson. Lance owns and operates a cow/calf business and he shared how he and his wife started growing their herd shortly after they graduated college and got married. Having both grown up in agriculture, they knew they wanted to raise their children in the lifestyle as well. Lance dove into some of the things he does to diversify his operation so that it is always evolving and growing. Lance also talked about getting into research projects and female cattle fertility that he does.

“Use veterinarians for our knowledge base. We worked really hard for that degree and it matters.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Lauren Mack. Lauren shared her insight on what it is like moving to rural Kansas and buying a veterinarian practice right after graduation. After having been the new person in a small town, Lauren spoke about some ways she likes to get the community involved in welcoming an applicant or staff member. Being warm and welcoming to new members of the community is a topic we spoke a lot about and is important if you want your community to thrive. Lauren also talked about how to build a relationship with your vet as well as the importance of veterinarians to set boundaries for themselves to protect their mental health.

“The cattle industry is such a long game. You just have to plan for 10, 20 years in advance all the time.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Meghan Gates. Meghan has a lot on her plate as a mother, rancher, and a business woman. Meghan dove into her background in agriculture as well as how she and her husband started their own cattle operation and selling beef shares. On the side, Meghan also has a western apparel online shop and a soup cookbook! Meghan suggested, if you’re interested in getting started in homesteading but aren’t sure where to start your journey, try the kitchen. Meghan shared where she got her inspiration for her cookbook and some techniques for cooking she wishes to pass on to others.

“I think a lot of farmers would like to not rely on the bank or the government, but unfortunately the system and the path we’re heading down today, we rely too heavily on those practices.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of catching up with Shane Meenen. Shane and I covered a lot of ground in our chat, from A2 milk to insurance. Shane talked about the rules and regulations around regenerative agriculture. Shane discusses government involvement in agriculture, PPE loans, crop and livestock insurance. Shane also advocated for not following tradition if it is no longer serving you or your operation.

“Financially right now in agriculture, it’s so expensive to get going. I have no idea how first-generation people do it and I have nothing but respect for them and what they go through to get going.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Kendel Hofer. Kendel is the third generation on her family ranch and keeps it going with help from her husband and two boys. Kendel dives into her family history of the ranch and how her father was able to expand it with hard work and help from her grandfather. Kendel shares about what the transition to owning the farm from her father looked like. Kendel talks about the financial feasibility of farming and ranching and how difficult it can be to get into agriculture. Kendel also shares about some methods they use on the ranch, that aren’t without challenges to figure out and overcome.

“I have developed actual relationships with my customers because it is farming. It is such a small world at the end of the day and all of my customers are either friends or family to me at some point in time. Even customers from previous banks, we still talk and we still have that relationship because you’re in farming and I feel like everybody’s the same in the agriculture community. They’re good people and they’re honest people and they want to help everybody. And I think that’s just agriculture in general.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Kaitlyn Niemeyer Burks. Kaitlyn is Head of Ag Lending at a bank in Missouri. At home, Kaitlyn is a 4th generation farmer and she shares that being a banker and having farmers as customers, while wasn’t her original plan, it is her way of helping her family farm and staying connected to agriculture and people in the ag industry. Kaitlyn gives some insight on new trends she is seeing in younger generations of farmers as well as some tips for starting farmers. Kaitlyn also shares about her passion for helping her customers throughout their farming journey.

“Stress plays just as big of role as if I were to take every chemical out of my home because that is one more thing that I have to do, that I’m worried about, that’s increasing my anxiety, increasing my cortisol level and I already know that I’m at-risk for cancer and diabetes and both of those are connected to stress.”  

In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bailee Cooper. Bailee is a licensed and registered dietitian and she explained some of her research and a published article she wrote. A big topic in our discussion was food trends. We discussed what food trends have come and gone and Bailee explains why it’s important to have certain foods in your diet. Bailee also highlighted that stress is something you want to avoid because high cortisol levels can wreak havoc on your body and organs. 

“You’re helping your neighbor. You’re keeping your community going and you’re helping your neighbor and that’s just awesome.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Sammy Gleason. My path has crossed with Sammy’s a few times personally and professionally so it was fun to get to have her on the podcast. Sammy is the marketing manager for the From the Land of Kansas program at the Kansas Department of Agriculture and she shared what it is that she does and what the program does to help farmers, growers, and producers in Kansas. Sammy also dove into some of the benefits of being a member of From the Land of Kansas and how to become a member. If that is something you are interested in learning more about, check out the From the Land of Kansas website or reach out to the office. Also, don’t forget to check out some of the upcoming events Sammy mentioned to help support local Kansas farmers, growers, and producers.  

“I think understanding how things are grown and letting the farmer tell you will calm a lot of the fears placed in people by the major corporations.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rick McNary. Rick used to be a pastor and had the chance to go to Nicaragua on a mission trip. His experience from that trip sparked a passion to connect more people with food. Rick shared how he and his wife started Shop Kansas Farms as a way to give people access to locally grown/produced food and help people learn where their food comes from. Rick also discussed the Harvest Hub project in Rice county, another project to connect people with local food and products.

“The state of Alaska hasn’t been very agriculturally-minded. There’s been comments made by some legislators that in the past said that agriculture doesn’t really matter, we get all of it from the lower 48, it’s ok. So we don’t have a lot of infrastructure to support agriculture but we are trying to change that.”

In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Hailey Edwards. Hailey shared what it’s like living in Alaska and spoiler alert: it’s not like those Alaskan reality television shows make it seem. Hailey also explained what the Alaskan food system looks like and some of the struggles they face that people in the lower 48 do not. Hailey’s family farm used to be a dairy but they are transitioning to the cattle industry and Hailey talked about why they made the change and how she’s using nontraditional methods in their operation.

“Video is such a powerful tool when it comes to communicating about agriculture with consumers because it’s not a big Hollywood production that’s getting edited. It’s just somebody in their field talking about their cattle. It’s just real and authentic.”

In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Linnea Langusch. Linnea dives into her research she performed while working on her Master’s degree. Linnea shares how COVID-19 made her shift her research and how it affected the beef industry. She then explains what obstacles the beef industry faced during the peak times of COVID-19 and how many farmers and ranchers had to rely on direct to consumer marketing.

“Food impacts everything we do. Food decisions are so complicated, so seeking to better understand those decisions and the importance of those decisions to ourselves and our families is the best way for us to make sure other families get fed.”

In this episode, I continue the conversation about food accessibility and dive a little deeper into it. (If you missed the first part of this conversation, check out episode 23.) For clarity and to make sure we are all on the same page, I define some of the terms I talk about that go along with food accessibility. I also go over a few articles I found that explain different aspects of food security and why they are important. If you are interested in checking out the articles I mention in the episode, click on the links below!

“I feel like we’re able to do what we do because we have evolved over time.”

In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Lydia Hiesterman. Lydia shared a little about her family’s farm operation and the complexities that come with farming with multiple families. Lydia expressed the value of planning and farm succession and shared her personal experience with farm succession. Lydia also gave advice on how to find and select a financial advisor that would work for you and your family’s needs.

“It's not realistic for most of us at this point in time to assume that we can be completely independent of the food system and what it has evolved to be."

In this episode, I talk about a topic that I find very important and has been on my mind for quite some time. Safe and accessible food is a privilege and one I believe everyone should have. In this episode, I explain what quality food is and how it can be different for everyone. I also share my experience with disconnection from food and how it has shaped my thinking about food. I also share my experience with the food shortage that I experienced during peak COVID times and the realization that hit me. I would really love to hear what you think and have to say about food accessibility, so please reach out so we can continue this important and impactful conversation!

In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with Marli Scarborough about a topic I love, efficiency and productivity. First, Marli shared that with the passing of her mother, roles and responsibilities on the ranch had to adjust. Along with her dad and two younger brothers, they are figuring out what works for them in their operation. On the topic of efficiency and productivity, Marli and I both share methods that work for use. I love hearing how others operate day-to-day to see if there is anything I can use for myself or my farm.

In this episode, I wanted to share the importance of making sure you put a value on your time because like the saying, “time is money.” This might be a difficult perspective to view as a farmer or a business owner, but if you think of it as, “how much would I have to pay someone else to do this task?” then it is clearer to see the value of your time doing that task. Then you have to think about, “am I using my time in a way that is cost-effective to my operation?” All of these questions are important to keeping your farm or business on track as well as making sure your time is being spent doing things or investing in things that align with your goals and values.