Hello, ladies! I'm trying something new and hope you'll like it. We have several women from around the country, and from different segments of the agriculture industry, blogging for Women in Ag every week. I know many of you bookmark this page and come directly here, so I'm afraid you might be missing some of this fantastic content written by women just like you!
Each Friday, I'll put together a summary of the blogs that were written throughout the week, and will include links, so you can just click on what you want to read. Easy, right? Please give it a read, and get to know our bloggers. They are doing a wonderful job representing agriculture and Women in Ag! Discuss their blog entries here!
~Lisa
Women in Ag: Getting it done this fall
Fall is a busy time for farmers everywhere, and the Women in Ag bloggers are no exception! Here's what they've been up to this week:
Harvesting with Hoot
Brenda Frketich, a third-generation, full-time farmer in Oregon, and her family harvested five crops this summer: freezer peas, crimson clover, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, and wheat. Their hazelnut crop will be harvested this fall. Oh, and she also had a baby. Little Hoot Hammond Frketich is already an old hand in the combine.
"From our crop alone, we harvested enough peas to fill 350,000 bags that will go into freezers everywhere," Frketich says."The wheat we harvested, if not going for seed, could make enough bread for more than 7 million peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
Read blog entry | More from Brenda Frketich
What's that school bus carrying?
"Lately I have been noticing school buses on farms and I've been surprised how many different ways they are used," writes Heather Lifsey Barnes, a Women in Ag blogger from North Carolina. "I probably shouldn't be. Farmers are some of the most industrious people I've ever met in taking one piece of equipment and adapting it for another purpose."
She has snapped several photos of revamped buses doing everything from toting watermelons to market, to hauling workers and water tanks to the field. Click on her blog entry below to see her photos and get some ideas for your own school bus renovation!
Read blog entry | More from Heather Lifsey Barnes
Distrust in our food system: How did we get here?
Jennifer Dewey Rohrich, a California girl now living the farm life in North Dakota, is often frustrated with the new wave of marketing that encourages consumers to distrust our food system. "The public is buying into and believing celebrities over the people who grow and produce our food," she says.
In her latest blog entry, Rohrich takes a look at the history of the American food system and shares her ideas for how farmers can help regain the public's trust.
Read blog entry | More from Jennifer Dewey Rohrich
Biosecurity on the farm should be common sense
Lara Durben, who works for the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and several other poultry and egg groups, recently had an eye-opening conversation with a non-farm neighbor. He had always assumed turkeys raised in confinement were less healthy than free-range birds. "When I explained that turkeys can catch germs and disease from critters, bugs, waterfowl, and even humans, my neighbor was pretty surprised," she says.
Durben explains the basics of biosecurity, which were new to her non-farming neighbor, but are also a good reminder to those of us in agriculture.
Read blog entry | Visit Lara Durben's blog