Miss America Event

The countdown is on! Miss America is coming to Kansas State!

Let us know if you'll be in the area to attend this amazing lecture. We've created an event on facebook, so let us know if you plan on attending.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=221046731295250

If you haven't heard about this event, here's the original Miss America post.

Happy Halloween!

Tera

Animal Cruelty-We’re not gonna take it anymore

Animal cruelty is something that unfortunately happens and definitely should not occur. When some form of animal cruelty does occur, the mass media and special interest groups promote it as something that commonly occurs in the industry. This is not true at all, but production groups have not taken a proactive approach until recently to educate the general public. As each generation gets further removed from production agriculture, the general public’s knowledge and information about production practices is relatively unknown and is a black hole. It is up to production animal organizations to fill this information gap in order to inform consumers about their food and the way it is produced.

Production groups are now in the process of informing the consumers about the reasons why all things are done the way they are. If production groups do not take the opportunity to inform people, then special interest groups utilize the people’s uninformation and fill the knowledge gap with misinformation. The major reason why this is done is for political agendas. Proposition 2 that happened in California is a prime example of this. Consumers had no idea why chickens were raised in cages and sows were farrowed in gestation crates. Special interest groups such as HSUS and PETA took this opportunity to use some extreme examples and made people think they were the normality, even though there are numerous health and economic benefits in raising animals this way. After people were more informed about their food and the reasons it was raised, people were more supportive of the way animals were raised the way they were. Consumers are most likely to believe producers and people involved with universities.

The pork and the beef organizations have started to take more of a proactive role in trying to educate people. They have started media training programs in order to train people ways to express their knowledge and passion for their products. In all of these training modules, none of these organizations support harming animals in any way, shape, or form. All of these organizations take the stance that as producers, consumers, food supply workers, or whoever needs to prevent and stop animal cruelty when incidences occur. At all costs, these events need to be stopped and prevented. However, changing the entire production system by adding more rules regulations will not help prevent these isolated events. People who do things such as animal cruelty are acting out of spite and changing production practices will still not prevent people from acting on their own accord. It is important to stress that these are very isolated incidences and explain the steps taken to not allow this to happen again. This can be a great opportunity to educate the people about current production practices.

Production practices have been established by evaluating several parameters. Two of the parameters that are weighted more are the well-being of the animals and also the economic impact of these operations. These animals are raised for production purposes and to feed people. This provides numerous job opportunities for people. These practices are established based on determining how the animal is most efficient in utilizing the nutrients available. By forcing a change in practices, ultimately we are just turning into a less-efficient business and therefore requiring more resources. Resources are becoming more and more limited each day in the world due to the available land mass to produce products shrinking. Animal production efficiency needs to continue to increase, if we are going to be able to feed the world especially with the increase in population. In 2050, the world population is expected to exceed 10 billion people which is a 43% increase from our current population. That is a lot more mouths to feed and the best way to do this is to increase efficiency by letting agriculturists determine what is the best method.

Agriculture has historically just decided to play defense and react after an unfortunate event occurred. They like to keep to themselves and do their own thing. Now it is time for agriculture to play offense and tell their side of their story, and tell their story not just about their stance about animal cruelty but their entire production practices. If agriculture does not, then the rules and regulations that govern agriculture will be determined by misinformed and misunderstood people which will have a negative effect on our efficiency. The time is now to stand up and speak out.

Twister Sister said it best as far as what agriculture needs to do in their song, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Here are the following lyrics, “We're right. We're free. We'll fight. You'll see. Oh we're not gonna take it. No, we ain't gonna take it. Oh we're not gonna take it anymore.” It’s time agriculture, it is time to stand up and be proud.

Take care,

Miles Theurer

Do more than just read the label, know the facts!

A friend of mine sent this to me today. Thought it was a wonderful blog post and wanted to share it with all of you. It just goes to show that food labeling is worth a second thought and some research from a reliable source.

Enjoy!

http://www.prairiefarmer.com/blogs.aspx/an-encounter-at-the-meat-counter-2725

Tera

Real Farmers, Real Food

Miss America says it better than anyone I've heard in a while. Join me to celebrate our plentiful and safe food supply. Check out her video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGq21MAX1eM&feature=youtu.be

Remember, she'll be in Manhattan, KS in November as our Fall 2011 Upson Lecturer. You're going to want to be a part of this!

Best,

Tera

UNDERCOVER: Dairy Farms Exposed!!!

From a friend:

http://www.holsteinworld.com/story.php?id=4964


Best,

Tera Rooney

Health Conscious? Dining out? Can you do/be both?

I ran across this site the other day and I thought I'd share it with you all. The best part is, you can use it while you travel! I love the kids section as well.

Healthy Dining Finder

Enjoy,

Tera

Getting Ready for the Fire!

Getting ready for spring pasture burning.

Before clearing the fireguard.

Fireguard complete.

Want to know what has to be done to keep pasture and rangeland healthy and productive? And what precautions have to be taken to ensure safety and success? I am coming to you straight from a Bobcat in a pasture in Reno County, Kansas.

Check out the video below:

As always, let me know if you have questions.

All the best-

Brandon

Welcome To My Sister's Family Farm

Celebrating harvest time for some people = apple cider, football, mums, pumpkins and craft fairs.

Celebrating harvest time for farmers = late nights, early mornings and hopeful wishes for a bountiful crop.

With corn harvest over in my neck of the woods, I thought I'd share a few photos from my sister's farm in Illinois. She married a man she met in college who is originally from the central part of Illinois. Transplanting a Kansas girl into Illinois wasn't an easy task, but seeing as they transplanted her to a farm made it that much easier.

Their family raises corn, soybeans, a little bit of wheat and for fun, a few vegetables (my favorite are their green beans). My brother-in-law is fortunate enough to work on his farm with two brothers and his father. They are a team in every sense of the word and have a very successful farming business. What I think is even more special about their farm is that for many years, the boys were able to learn from both of their grandparents who farmed in the area before they took over.

 These are some aerial shots of the 3 combines running through the field. I think these are beautiful shots of harvest time in Illinois.

These photos were taken by their agronomist. Their agronomist works for Pioneer Hi-Bred and offers her services to collaborate with the farmers and the seed companies to continuously improve products that Pioneer offers its customers. Pioneer Hi-Bred is a seed company that breeds different lines of corn seed for farmers to plant. Picking a seed company is a lot like choosing a bank. Farmers make their decisions on who to purchase seed from based on the data behind the specific breeds of corn that a company offers.

This is a really neat site that shows the various crop reports as they are coming in across the country. You can see different states by changing which view you are in. The data is presented in bushels per acre. That means that for every acre of farm ground planted to corn this is how may bushels of corn is yielded. You can also see the soybean harvest reports. If you forgot what a bushel is you can check out this post.

 I have to leave you with my favorite photo: 

With three combines running at the same time, my brother-in-law wanted a way to distinguish his combine from the other two. Proudly sporting a chrome powercat, his combine was out in the field this weekend during the big win for the Wildcats! During harvest, farmers are working around the clock since it is the most important time of the year for them. They are feeding the world, though, so even K-State football can wait.

Best,

Tera

Helping Those in Need...

Katie grew a 40 pound cabbage. Katie's dad encouraged her not to waste and to share her harvest with those in need. Katie serves cabbage at a soup kitchen, changes lives, and starts dreaming.

Katie's dream is now 6 gardens in her area with 11 gardens in other states. What does she grow? Fruits and vegetables to feed people in her community who may be less fortunate.

Everyday Health showcases Katie's story in a few episodes. You have got to catch them because her story is INSPIRING!

You will want to check out this site and episode series today! Here's the link.

Can't get enough? Katie also has a website: Katie's Krops

Happy Saturday,

Tera