Is AgVocating for you?!?!?!?!?!

I recently had the privilege of attending the Arkansas Women in Ag conference in North Little Rock and came home with newly acquired knowledge on a variety of topics along with a renewed feeling for the need to AgVocate. Some of you may be wondering what it means to AgVocate..... and as the guest speaker of the conference, Carrie Mess, A.K.A.  Dairy Carrie put it so simply-- it is "Telling your Story" or Advocating for Agriculture.

Carrie truly is an AgVocate for this amazing industry and her whole presentation was to educate all of us on how to educate society and our consumers on OUR practices, OUR processes and OUR stories.... because---If we do not, someone else will.

Ok, so now you are wondering just who that 'someone else' is. This my friends is where things get scary, where we start to see just why those of us in this industry need to learn how to and find our own way to communicate to our consumers. The 'someone else' is typically those people who do not understand our way of life, do not live our way of life and who more than likely think our way of life needs to be dealt with and abolished.

For those of us in the industry we are very aware of who this 'someone else' is... The first two organizations that will pop into our minds are HSUS (Human Society of the United States) and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)..... For those of you unfamiliar with the actual motivation and purpose of these organizations, please do your research. While they advertise their "Love" for 4-legged furry critters---most will be pleasantly surprised that it is a far cry from the "Love" most farmers and ranchers will show for their 4-legged furry critters and their way of life. The "Love" these two groups (and many others like them) portray is nothing more than their way to get YOUR money..... and NO!!!  YOUR money donated to organizations like HSUS will not go to your LOCAL Humane Society.

Back to the conference: After listening to Carrie, along with other presenters (I will be highlighting some of these presentations and speakers in the days to come) through the two day conference... I left that Friday afternoon asking myself just how I was going to tell our story so that the generations after us could carry on in our footsteps and continue to Build a Legacy in our family name.

So here I am today... writing this blog post trying to find my voice in a small knit Agriculture Industry trying to educate and feed an ever growing world population, sharing via social media outlets, Facebook , Twitter and Instragram-- fun but educational blurps from our life with a small commercial cow/calf herd AND AgVocating as a new member of our Team BEEF Arkansas.

Now tell me---
 What is your story? Do you raise crops? Cows? Horses? Sheep? Hogs? Chicken? Timber? Participate in a Farmers Market?  Just enjoy the scenery and serenity of living in the country? Enjoy eating a big juicy steak? What about a homemade breakfast wtih a cold glass of milk, bacon, sauage and eggs?

AND

How are you telling it? Blogging? Sharing via social media? Member of Team BEEF? Member of a local organization (Cattlemen, Women in Ag, Farm Bureau, etc)? Talking to consumers at the grocery store?

Don't forget...........if you are talking to someone, anyone, about YOUR industry and YOUR agricultural lifestyle--you are an AgVocate!!!

Don't look..... Don't look at how long it's been since my last post. It's Pathetic. Pitiful. Embarrassing. BUT it's LIFE! And life is exactly what has been going on in our neck of the woods. And lots of it.

Our calendar and appointments and other 'things' seem to be never ending and the days getting shorter but still I find myself ready to be back at this blogging deal. Ready to fill your ears with MORE of my rambling and even more of all the randomness that is my (our) life.

So much has changed but also remained the same over the last 2 years....Maybe eventually I'll get around to catching all of you up but for now I'll charge ahead with the current state of Faith, Love and Cattle in my life. All of which are still in full force and growing stronger on a daily basis.

Faith-- This one... WOW... is the only word to describe it... It is the center of everything and seems to have had it's ups and downs but God is good and thus my Faith is there. When I feel myself losing a little Faith in something or someone or some situation one teeny tiny prayer and God reminds me that there is no need to let my Faith waiver because He is there and has everything under control.

Love-- We still got it and it's stronger than ever! I still find myself falling in love everyday with my life and all the bigs and smalls, goods and bads that make it what it is.

Cattle--Those that know me, know this is more than in full force. We've got Momma's on our place that will be giving us baby moo's soon (we're praying that the weather will warm up just a touch soon too) and we just returned from my 1st ever NCBA convention as well as our yearly trip to the Dixie National. To say I (we) have cattle in our lives would be a gigantic understatement but also one of the biggest Blessings in our lives.