BlogHer Feature…

Yesterday afternoon, BlogHer featured a version of “Different Kinds of Smart” on their Green section.  I wrote the original post (posted this last Monday on Feed Yard Foodie) after having a “virtual conversation” with an environmentalist from Oklahoma on the BlogHer network.  Please take a minute to visit the BlogHer site to support me by liking or sharing the post.  To read the article on BlogHer, simply click the words in Green below this picture of my girls.

As you might guess, my daughters are INCREDIBLY excited to have this priceless picture up on the BlogHer site for all to see…

Environmental Sustainability Needs All Smarts On Deck

A special thanks to Heather, the “Green” editor, for featuring my post!

Empowering Myself as a Woman Entrepreneur…

I remember vividly as a child listening to my grandfather say, “Anne, strive to be unemployable!”  My grandfather’s definition of a successful entrepreneur was someone who owns and operates a personal business.  He wanted me to be my own Boss Lady.

December 2012 at age 91 with my girls…

Last week when I was speaking to a group of young women involved in the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska, I was asked to define a successful entrepreneur.  While my grandfather’s words circled around in my head, they were not the ones that came out of my mouth when I answered the question.

Answering questions at the panel discussion…

While I have most definitely followed my grandfather’s advice by running my own business, that is not what drives me as a woman.  Consequently, I found myself giving the group of young women entrepreneurs different words of wisdom.  I told them:

Figure out what your talents and strengths are, then, go out and find the best way to share them in order to be a positive contributor to your community and your country.

I continued with:

When my life is over and I leave this world, I do not want to have any part of myself left.  I want to have used all of my gifts and talents in order to have made a positive difference.

This is my goal in life and my definition of success.  It explains why I spend so much of my time working on volunteer projects while also owning and managing a small business.  As one of only a small number of women who owns and manages a cattle feed yard, it is likely that others would define me as a unique entrepreneur, but that’s not all that makes me tick…

I often speak my mind but it is only because I want to invoke positive change…

I am indeed proud that I am the boss lady at the feed yard; however, I am most proud of the work that I do to both advance cattle welfare and make improvements in the beef community at large.  I do this while simultaneously being an active member in my community and raising my children with the core values that they will need in order to be positive contributors.

That’s what really makes me tick…

 In my heart, I am a determined woman who believes in making my life journey be one of hard work and outreach.   That’s what makes me get out of bed in the morning.

The Illuminating Blogger Award…

I opened my email Tuesday morning to see that Seasonsgirl had nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award.  I love the timing of this nomination because my last post discussed my goal of being “an illuminating light” on how cattle are raised to make beef.

I “met” Seasonsgirl through Social Media last fall, and have truly loved getting to know her through both her blog posts and also the personal messages that we have shared.  The more I interact with her, the more that I realize how many of the same values we share.  She is a woman of strong faith who loves animals and is interested in both “where her food comes from” and fun ways to cook it.  I am so thankful that we have become “virtual friends” and I love her openness and willingness to share with me.

The rules for the Illuminating Blogger Award are as follows:

1. Visit and thank the blogger than nominated you.

2. Say a few words of gratitude on your blog and share the nominator’s link with your readers.

3. Say a few words about yourself and then pass along the award to 5 other bloggers.

About Me:

I am a city girl turned cattle farmer.  I traded my flip flops for cowboy boots in 1997 when my husband and I moved from New Hampshire to his family’s farm in Central Nebraska.  Through hard work and determination, I learned to manage a cattle feed yard and become an excellent cattle caregiver.  I believe in providing my animals with holistic care, focusing not only on physical fitness but also realizing the important role of mental and emotional fitness in animal health.  I proudly grow beef that I feed to my family and to yours!  My husband and I are blessed with three daughters who are a constant source of joy, energy and vast amounts of dirty laundry

My nominations to continue the award:

I truly enjoy Aimee Whetstine’s faith based blog http://everydayepistle.com/.  I love to read her thoughts on a variety of issues and really respect how she ties her posts back to her faith and favorite scripture readings.  Aimee is a brave woman who tackles many difficult topics, and always manages to both write with integrity and respect the differing views of others.

I met Aimee through Ryan Goodman of http://agricultureproud.com/.  Ryan is an Arkansas native who is working on a graduate degree at the University of Tennessee.  Although his first love is cattle and his graduate studies of Beef Reproduction, he is an incredible wiz at social media and has been a tremendous mentor for me as I struggled to learn the ins and outs of blogging.

Kim Brackett of http://beefmatters.org/ gives a glimpse into the life of a busy woman raising four children on a ranch in the western United States.  I love Kim’s beautiful photography, and her natural gift of imparting the joy of raising a young family on a ranch.  I always leave her site identifying with her stories and reminiscing about times with my own daughters.

Debbie Lyons-Blythe of http://kansascattleranch.blogspot.com/.  Debbie is a cowgirl at heart and owns and manages a ranch in the Flint Hills.  I love to keep up with Debbie because she gives me another glimpse of a woman making her way as a “boss lady” on a cattle farm.  Debbie has mama cows, calves, and breeding heifers instead of a feed yard like mine but I love to watch her confidently run her ranch in the neighboring state of Kansas.

John Suscovich of http://foodcyclist.com/.  You all just met John last week via a blog post and podcast.  John left his job in NYC a couple of years ago to bike with his wife across the United States visiting farms and learning “where his food comes from”.  Now, John is building his own farm in Connecticut and also producing “how to” podcasts demonstrating different types of farms to interested listeners.  I love that John has followed his personal “call” to understand food production and is now living his dream to become a farmer.

All of these folks have illuminated a unique vision for me.  I thank them all for enriching my life and wish them the best as they continue blogging and living their dreams!

Growing Food: The Truth, The Way, The Life…

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to expand my perspective by interacting with some new and wonderful people.  It is experiences like these that allow me to broaden my spectrum and think critically about my farm.

Understanding them is critical to providing quality and appropriate welfare…Being about to articulate all of the things that go into that understanding and care is even more challenging.

Have you ever tried to explain your life’s passion to someone that you have never met?  Can you greet strangers who share different food philosophies and find common ground and respect?  If you can, what results is a beautiful sharing of ideas and a cascade of personal growth.

Today, I would like to introduce all of you to John Suscovich of Connecticut.  In 2011, John and his wife Kate left their jobs in New York City and journeyed 5500 miles across the United States from NY to Seattle to San Diego on their bicycles in order to learn about family farms.

John and Kate on their trek…

John followed his passion as he ventured across the United States gaining knowledge about farming, so that he could return to Connecticut and live out his dream.  John and Kate personify the American Way and I have so much respect for what they have done.

John, at work on a CSA…

• Many of you Feed Yard Foodie followers have a slow foods philosophy:  You grow some of your own food, try to locally source the food that you do not grow, and have reservations about modern food production systems.
• Many of you are also curious about how a feed yard operates even though it is a modern food production system.
• Each one of you gives of your precious time to try to understand the perspective of this cattle feed yard boss lady.
  

  You all motivate to always do my best…

I want all of you to know how much that truly touches my heart.  I understand the leap of faith that each one of you has taken and I am humbly grateful.  Your quiet respect and interest gives me hope, and compels me to achieve excellence with every passing day.

I have to admit that John is ahead of me on this one–I prefer my quarter horse!

John is currently building his own pasture-raised chicken and herb CSA farm.  At the same time, he is recording weekly podcasts about farming to help others to gain the needed knowledge to be able to begin a life in agriculture.  A couple of weeks ago, John asked me to participate in a podcast.

The slow foods CSA farmer meets the cattle feed yard boss lady…

It proved to be a meeting of minds, and an incredibly rewarding experience.  I hope that each of you will take an hour out of your busy lives to listen to John and I as we search for common ground and talk about what it takes to grow food. Click on the link below to go directly to the podcast.

http://www.farmmarketingsolutions.com/?powerpress_embed=552-podcast&powerpress_player=default

Or click on this link to see both the written introduction and the podcast.

http://www.farmmarketingsolutions.com/gfp-007-anne-burkholder-of-will-feed-traveling-outside-your-comfort-zone-to-gain-perspective-and-reduce-stress/

CNN Eatocracy…

Calling all Feed Yard Foodie followers!  Head over to CNN’s Eatocracy site to see a neat article on Winter Chores…

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/02/11/when-the-fields-are-frozen-over-theres-still-plenty-of-work-to-be-done/

Writer, Ryan Goodman, includes links to many farmer blog posts to explain what happens during the winter months to help grow food.  I am very excited to be included in the post!

Winter chores are one of the wonderful things that we share…

What is your favorite winter chore?

Feed Yard Foodie in the Social Media News…

This week has been a bit undisciplined for me in terms of blogging.  The steady Tuesday and Thursday blogger that you all *hopefully* have grown to love has spent a good portion of the first half of this week working on social media outreach.  The scheduling of it actually worked out quite well as I had no new cattle to acclimate into the feed yard and had a few extra moments to devote to the virtual world.

My favorite quarter horse waiting for me to let him out to graze. He was a bit “frosty” Monday morning…

On Monday, Megan and I ventured into our new series of Meatful Mondays on the blog, and I also wrote a guest blog post that was featured on Faces of Agriculture.  You can see the post here:  http://facesofagriculture.blogspot.com/2013/01/anne-of-feedyard-foodie.html.  A big thank you to Jamie and Elizabeth for including me on their site!

On Tuesday, the BlogHer women’s blogging network featured a post that I wrote describing the ties that I see between spirituality and growing food.  You can see the post here: http://www.blogher.com/feeding-body-and-soul-look-how-growing-food-enhances-our-spirituality?wrap=blogher-topics/green&crumb=179.  Megan is particularly excited about this feature because her picture is up on both the “Green” and the “Life” section pages of BlogHer with a link to the article.

Megan’s “famous” picture featuring the post on BlogHer…

She jokingly asked me last night if she was going to be so famous that she couldn’t go out and eat in restaurants anymore…I reminded her that just about everyone in our small town of Cozad knew her prior to her big moment of fame, so her life would not drastically change!

In all seriousness, being featured on BlogHer on two different section pages is really a thrill for me.  Please be sure that you click on the link to the article and feel free to share it with others.  A big thank you to Heather Clisby, BlogHer editor, for featuring my writings!

The temperatures have warmed the last few days which makes working outside much nicer. A high of 40 degrees is much better than one of 10…

Looking ahead, I am going to be sorting and receiving new cattle at the feed yard so the next Feed Yard Foodie post will be Monday with another recipe from Megan.  It appears that this week, you get to hear from me on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday instead of the usual Tuesday and Thursday…Enjoy!

Who I am…

Earlier this fall, a camara crew from the Angus Association (Angus is a breed of cattle) tagged along with a group of graduate students from the University of Nebraska and made the trip out to the Feed Yard Foodie farm.

It was a typical windy day at the feed yard: exercising calves, feeding and checking the health of our animals.  I talked with the UNL students about the practical implementation of holistic cattle care and Beef Quality Assurance in a feed yard.

While I always enjoy when students come to learn at the feed yard, this particular visit was extra special for me because of the YouTube video embedded below.   I am so thankful to the Angus Association for putting together this five minute video of me and my cattle.

• This video explains who I am.
• This video states what I believe in.
• This video is my mission statement.

I am Anne Burkholder.

I am proud to raise cattle and grow your beef…

Please take a moment to click below and watch it if you missed it on RFD TV last week! Please pass it along to every one that you know that has questions about a cattle feed yard

A Woman Of Many Hats…

To say that my life is busy right now would be an understatement.  My days at the feed yard are long as I bring in many new animals.  My girls are also busy with cross country, soccer, volleyball and swimming.  I coach two of the four sports and am an avid fan of the other two…

The sun seems to go down too early these days…

This week I added an extra “hat” to wear in addition to my cowgirl hat and my sports cap.  I also put on my beef advocate hat.  Yesterday, I left home at 4:00am to drive to Denver.  While most Americans are aware that there was a Presidential Debate last night in Denver, I think that it is also important to point out that there was a fantastic seminar for people that wanted to learn more about “where their beef comes from”.  Colorado State University, in partnership with the Beef Checkoff, put on a day long seminar entitled Beef + Transparency = Trust for chefs, dieticians, and foodies.  

Click here to read about the seminar: Beef + Transparency = Trust promotion

While I do not really enjoy the “travel” part of advocacy, I do very much enjoy sharing the story of how I raise cattle and make beef.  I love what I do, and I love to talk about what I do.  I am honored that I was asked to share in this experience.

My two favorite blondes were nice enough to draw a map so that all of you could see where my travels took me this week…

As soon as my portion of the meeting was completed, I drove back to Cozad because this morning I was expected to be on a ranch near Halsey, NE to serve as a cattle buyer and load new cattle destined for my feed yard.

Mike and Peggy are entrusting me with their calves—above is a picture of them visiting their cattle last spring at the feed yard.  I am sure that they will come down to visit this year’s calf crop as well.

I plan to leave the ranch right after the cattle are loaded and head north to Valentine, NE to watch my favorite 7th grader and her AWESOME Cross Country team compete in the Southwest Conference Championships.

I love to watch these kids run. They have so much heart and it is great fun to watch them compete and be successful…

I am likely to get home very late tonight a bit weary from all of my travels, but will rise early to begin the acclimation process on the new calves and give them vaccination shots that will help them to stay healthy…

I hope to also be able to share with you all the great success of my favorite Cross Country team .  In the meantime, I will dream of taking a nap!