Chasing Gators in Florida Agriculture.....(YFR& Conference Part 3)

Well, I am still trying to get my report on the YF&R conference finished, but it seems there is so much to tell that it is hard to get it all done in one sitting. So, here is the telling of one of the greatest parts of the conference--THE TOURS!  Seeing agriculture up close and personal in a state so different from ours, is fascinating.  There is so much that is different and yet, so much that is the same. 

(Okay, here is the video of me holding an alligator--and no jokes about what a 'girl' I am.  I can hold my own just about anywhere, but an alligator is a little to closely related to a snake for me to be very comfortable, but this was a chance I could not pass--soooooo AWESOME!)

I guess I have a bit more of an understanding about why some people are so excited to come to the west and see our wild horses, because, I have to say, I was pretty thrilled every time we got to see an alligator sunning itself on the bank of any old stream or pond.  They see them more as a nuisance--hmmm, sound familiar?  Kind of like our wild horses?  

So, as I said before, there are huge differences--climate, moisture, what they grow, but there are still so many things that are the same--love of the land, the lifestyle, old cowboys with  their horses and cowdogs, the ups and downs of the economy.  Yes, no matter where we go in the agriculture industry, the ties that bind seem as strong as religion. 



So, Wayyyyy ahead of time, I had seen the tour choices and was pretty excited about getting in on the one that was going to Deseret Ranches.  I will admit that this has to do with a few facts that aren't as much Ag related, but because the ranch is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Having been raised as a member of that church and also watching my Grandpa serve for years on the board that oversees the ranches owned and operated by the same church for welfare purposes, here in Nevada, I have heard much about it and wanted the chance to see it for myself.  Actually, we even have friends here in Panaca who worked on that ranch in Florida for a time--Shane Mathews, brother of NVFB State VP, Paul Mathews.  Of course, Deseret Ranches is not one of the welfare ranches of the church, it is owned and run by a separate entity that is a for-profit business owned by the church.  



Anyway, a little bit about the ranch:  It is home to about 44,000 cows, the most anywhere in the nation, with an additional 1,300 bulls.  Brahman cattle have a big influence here because of their ability to handle the heat, humidity and insects.  They use a Braford, Brangus, and Simbrah rotational cross to develop replacement heifers and use almost exclusively their own stock for all of the process.

They are divided into 12 units of about 3,500 cows per one foreman and a couple of cowboys.  All cattle work is still done on horseback, from their 120 head of working horses that they raise from their quarter horse brood mares.



This map of Central Florida show
the outline of the Deseret Ranch in yellow. 



The ranch covers over 290,000 acres of central Florida land, most of which was purchased in the 1950's as very low quality cut-over timberland.  It is now a combination of pastures, wetlands, woodlands, and citrus groves.  From the comments of our Floridian Ag Teacher/Tour guide/YF&R member on the way to the ranch, it seems that the ranch is very well thought of by ranches throughout the state because of the good stewardship of the land by the ranch, and because it is the second largest ranch in the nation, land-wise, and the largest owner of so many 'mama cows' in the nation.



Lee Mathews hamming it up for the camera.
This gator is in the visitor's center of the
Deseret Ranches main office area.



A Cyprus Grove in the middle of a Deseret Ranch pasture--yes, this is Florida in early February.  The grass is green, a lot of the trees have leaves or are already blossoming.  The greenest grass in these pictures is generally field-planted winter Rye. 

Another thing that I really thought was neat--probably because it is so different from what I am used to, or I read to many novels about the Civil War and the South and I have a romantic notion of trees dangling Spanish moss over grand plantations--is the Spanish moss.  Even in the middle of the cities, trees have it hanging everywhere.  Hey, I have bought this stuff from craft stores before and it is everywhere here, for free! 

This is the system that the ranch uses for each of it's 12 units.  The foreman and a couple of cowboys manage their 3,500 head all in one day, separating through this chute system with one opening gates to the five pens around as the foreman calls out the number for the pen as the cow comes down the alley.

One thing that always surprised me was the sand--I think that our tour guide made some crack about what kind of soils they had there--spotty soils.  The had a spot of soil here, and a spot of soil there.  Ha ha.  But, really, you would drive down the highway and see some torn up ground and it looked like someone had dumped a load of sand--only they hadn't, that's what us there naturally!  This pen is a good illustration of what the bare ground looks like--the beach!

If you have followed any of my articles in the monthly journal you'll remember me talking about the billions of dollars in losses that Florida agriculture suffered last year do to unusual amounts of freezes--these oranges are part of that--they look great, but the freeze got to them and that means they will be dry and not good for much.

They have 1,700 acres of citrus, almost a quarter of a million trees.  Most go to juice production, though there are some navel oranges, tangerines and tangelos produced.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed our time at Deseret Ranches.  Our Tour guide (I believe it was David???) grew up on the ranch, and came back to work there himself.  He was hilarious.  I heard someone from a different bus say that there tour there seemed kind of dry, but I think everyone on our bus absolutely loved it.  When we weren't laughing, we were learning.  So, they took us to their own rodeo grounds, where they hold a rodeo each year with their employees participating and the public invited, and we had lunch before heading across the road to Kempfer Farms and Sawmill.   

Across the road at Kempfer we find American Agriculture at it's truest, a family that has been on this land for several generations, trying to raise their kids to come back and do the same--at the same time, trying to adapt to changes in the world and economy.  They have always been cattle ranching cowboys, but they have also tried to integrate as many aspects of the ranch into production as possible to keep it profitable and running. 

The Kempfer's run a (confusing to me) mix of Brahman cattle, but they seem to know what crosses they are going for, which ones are in which pastures and when they are coming and going. 

They also have normally been know for their Cyprus and pine sawmill, which burned to the ground a few years ago.  They rebuilt in time for the economy to come crashing down and now the sawmill is almost unused because of the decreased demand for the product.

At one point they raised watermelons, but advances in watering systems took away they market to producers in northern part of the state. 

They do utilize waste from one of the county sewage plants that is brought in and spread on their fields, which then have to be kept untouched for 30 days, but it is free fertilizer and application for them and a great way of promoting to the city how agriculture takes their waste and turns it in to productive fields and pastures.  Kempfer Farms has also had a pretty good turf business in the past that has also been greatly down-sized due to decreased demands in the economy.  A lot of their laser-leveled fields are now being reverted back to pasture.  But, they are always on the lookout for new ways to utilize what they have, and one of their cousins is a hunting outfitter.  Certain parts of the ranch he can use all year round for hunting, but other parts are only seasonal.  In fact, there was a 12-foot gator in a pond near the pasture that they had just moved a bunch of cows and calves into and so, the cousin was bringing someone in to hunt the gator the following week.

This gator was on the bank of one of their ditches.  The gators are somewhat of a nuisance, though Kempfer's say the biggest problem is that they get their dogs.  The dogs are a special breed started up by the matriarch's family years ago.  Though the bigger the gators get, the scary they become.  The kids go out shooting them like our kids go out after jackrabbits.  They are also allowed to keep the eggs from half of the nests that they find on their ranch in a years time.  Alligators don't reproduce well in captivity, so the eggs are bought by those wanting to raise for food and whatever else you do with them?

So, as we were touring through Kempfer Farms, a baby gator was just off the road in the field, and the brother giving our tour and the brother in the bus ahead of us decided to jump off and catch him for us and let us have a real live gator experience.  Once again, I will say, SOOOOOOO AWESOME!

Lee Mathews, putting the moves on the little feller.

Grant Perkins putting the other moves on the little feller. (Actually, I have no idea if it was a male of a female, but Lee and Grant sure had fun goofing around with it)

Back at the Kempfer Offices, there are orange trees just growing here and there, not to mention the Spanish moss hanging from everything, so I had to get a few pic's of that to show what it is like around there.  What a great day.  We had such a wonderful time on the tours.

And, before you know it, the alarm is going off at 3:30 am and it is time to head back to real life again! Over the storms of the Midwest, we sailed straight from Orlando in to SLC and it was time to drive down to get our kids and drive on home.  So, after a full day of travel, we were finally back in dry, cold, home sweet Nevada.  But, I did LOVE the shots of coming into SLC, crossing over the Rockies and back into the vast open west, Oh, how I missed those wide open spaces and glorious mountains of the west.  Florida, was beautiful (though I am still sad that I never made it to the ocean), I really enjoyed my time there, but Oh,  how I love the west.

Over the Great Salt Lake and it's semi-frozen waters as we return from Orlando.

And then we're home again.

A couple of National News bits about YF&R.......

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Farm Bureau Support of Feeding America Breaks Records

The farm and ranch families of Farm Bureau last year raised more than $273,000 and donated more than 18 million pounds of food to hungry Americans as part of Farm Bureau’s Harvest for All program through Feeding America. Combined, the monetary and food donations provided the equivalent of more than 16 million meals.

The money raised, food donated and meal equivalents in 2010 all shattered program records. The Harvest for All program was established in 2003.
In fact, the 18 million pounds of food donated by Farm Bureau families in 2010 is nearly three times as great as the 6.7 million pounds donated in 2008, the previous record. The $273,000 in funds donated in 2010 surpasses the 2009 level of $213,000, which was also a record. And the number of meal equivalents served at 16 million bests the previous record of 6.4 million also set in 2008 by nearly 10 million meal equivalents.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman urged Farm Bureau members to make 2011 another record-breaking year for the Harvest for All program.
“I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of Farm Bureau’s young leaders for last year’s record-breaking performance in Harvest for All,” Stallman said. “I know Farm Bureau members and YF&R leaders can make 2011 another record-breaking year for feeding America’s hungry, and that is my challenge to them.”

Ohio Student Wins FB YF&R Collegiate Discussion Meet

Emily Krueger of West Salem, Ohio, competed against 47 other college students or recent graduates to win the American Farm Bureau’s 2011 Collegiate Discussion Meet, Feb. 6, at the AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Krueger, a junior at Ohio State University majoring in agriculture communications with minors in animal science and psychology, plans to pursue a career in agricultural journalism or public relations upon graduation. “Growing up in a small, rural community I was surrounded by agriculture,” Krueger said. “I grew to love agriculture and all that it stands for, working as a herdsman for a local beef farm and a trainer for a nearby horse farm.”

As the top winner in the final round, Krueger won a $2,500 scholarship from the CHS Foundation. The topic of the final discussion was, “How will food movements such as ‘foodie’ and ‘locavore,’ which are primarily focused in urban centers, influence national agricultural production and federal programs?”
New releases from: http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=newsroom.newsarchives



At Work and Play in Florida..... (Part 2)

So, day two of the National YF&R Conference is largely defined by the Collegiate Discussion Meet.  It starts out first thing in the morning, back to back rounds of college attending members of the YF&R who have competed in their home states to earn the right to compete at the national level.  The Discussion Meet is held nationally at two levels of competition, one for the collegiate and one for regular YF&R members.  The regular discussion meet is held at AFBF's annual meeting each January, while the collegiate meet is held each February at the YF&R conference.  Collegiate members are able to compete more than once in the national meet, as long as they have not won it previously.  Regular competitors cannot compete again after they have won their state competition and competed at the national level.

The Discussion Meet is set up to simulate a board discussion, preparing YF&R members for future involvement in their county and state Farm Bureau Board.  They are judged on their participation in the discussion as well as an opening and closing statement on the topic being discussed.  Cooperation, knowledge, presentation, and speaking skills are all part of the scoring, also.  Their are four rounds.  The top scorers from the first two rounds move on to a round of 16, known as the sweet sixteen, from which they are narrowed to a 'final four.' 

Because our state competition is small, we have only had one contest, involving both collegiate and regular members, and so we send a competitor to whatever national meet they qualify for.  The last three years we have had collegiate winners.  This year, Stacie Schwandt, from Spring Creek, and one of our State FFA officers, won the state meet and represented us at the contest in Orlando.

Below are the five questions that were randomly drawn for each round--recently a fifth question was added so that it is no longer a given what the final round's topic will be.

 2011 Discussion Meet Questions

1- Farm Bureau is the leading voice for agriculture but not the only voice. How do we encourage other agricultural groups to work together for the common good of our industry?

2- Government has always been involved in agriculture. Is the current level of government involvement a net hindrance or a net benefit to agriculture?
3- How will food movements such as “foodie” and “locavore,” which are focused primarily in urban centers, influence national agricultural production and federal programs?

4- Has technology become essential for American farmers? Should Farm Bureau influence and encourage all generations of farmers, ranchers and agriculturalists to embrace technological opportunities?

5- Given recent challenges, such as volatile food prices and limited world food supplies, do American consumers adequately appreciate the importance of US-produced food? Will American consumers consider American agriculture important to our security in the future?

It is always great to watch as the 4-6 members of the board panel discuss these topics, share ideas, and show their skills.  Sometimes it gets a little intense--a lot of them are out there to win no matter the cost, while others are more relaxed.  If you want to see it in action, come to our state meeting this November in Fallon!  Or, you can contact me for more information if you are interested in getting involved.

Stacie represented us well, though she did not progress through to the last two rounds.  We were excited to have her there with us.

BUT, the title of this post is about work AND play, so I had to add some play into the mix...The first afternoon of the conference we were actually done with workshops and meetings by about 4:00, which gave us the chance to to get half-price tickets to EPCOT CENTER.  Where we travelled around the world and back in just a few hours.  And, like I said before, the weather may look chilly, but it was in the seventies, even as the rain misted or fell.

And what happens when you are at the YF&R National Conference and the Super Bowl is on?  Well, you just have an even bigger party than usual!!  They combined the awards dinner on Sunday night with the Super Bowl party, so we said good-bye to the retiring AFBF YF&R Committee, and a few other things, then they brought out the burgers and pulled pork and wings and salads and cookies and brownies.  Then, we watched the big game on the big screens!

Hannah, Stacie, Ken, Stephanie, Grant
Michellle, Pete and Lee
Enjoying the Super Bowl Party!

And a few minutes enjoying the beautiful weather on a hammock on the sandy side of the lake.

We also had a few hours to visit Disney's Magic Kingdom the first day we were there.

Lots of snapping turtles, bunny rabbits, and even armadillo's around the resort.  Two of our Nevada people saw armadillo's while we were there, unfortunately, it wasn't me--though I'll tell you about the alligator's next week!

A night shot of the resort reflecting on the lake with a low ISO on my camera--just having fun.

What do Harley's, the Apollo 13, and YF&R have in common??

What do Harley's, the Apollo 13, and YF&R have in common??

Well, you are about to find out--Welcome to the first part of my report on the YF&R National Conference in Orlando, Florida!  That's where Harley Davidson, Apollo 13 and the Young Farmer's and Rancher's of the American Farm Bureau come together.

First of all, we have to get to Orlando....this is how it went:

We left on the 3rd, after taking one kid to the doctor, getting the rest finished with school, packed and loaded, we headed for Utah to drop them off at their Aunt and Uncle's.  It was cold in Nevada it was colder in Utah.  On the way to the SLC airport the next morning at 5 am our time, the temperature began to drop even more--at -11 it was too cold for my camera to wake up and take the picture, so this was the coldest that I got a picture.  YAY!!!  WE ARE GOING TO FLORIDA!

After flying from SLC to Atlanta and then on to Orlando.  After a 40 minute shuttle we were finally there, at 9:00 pm, exhausted and ready to fall into bed, just one more long trek across the resort, around the lake, and FINALLY, we were there.  This picture shows the resort, where the convention center is, our rooms were far across the lake and back behind a few other buildings on the side the picture was taken from, so at least we got a lot of walking in!  And though it looks cloudy, it was about 78 with high humidity, so it was really nice weather.

But, on to the conference!!!

The National YF&R Conference started out bright and early on Saturday, February 5th, 2011 at the Coronado Springs Resort inside of Disney World, Florida.  And, that is where the Harley's come in.  Our keynote address entitled, "Make Some Noise: Open the Throttle and Dominate" came from Ken Schmidt, the former director of communications of Harley-Davidson.  He spear-headed the movement that took Harley-Davidson from the brink of bankruptcy and death to the top of the motorcycle industry. 

I have to say that I loved this address.  It was not something that you would think would relate so closely to agriculture, oh but it did, to the changing world and the way we need to present our industry to the world, and also how to get build membership and retain it. 

Ken pointed out key points to getting people's attention, having energy and enthusiasm about what we are doing and who are are.  He told us that no one is engaged to listen, they have to be engaged through something else (energy, enthusiasm, etc.) in order to want to listen.  Another key point that he made was that we need to get them talking about themselves, learn about them and really listen and then they will know that you actually care about them and they will be more willing to like you and listen to you in return.

Harley was days away from declaring bankruptcy in the mid '80's.  They had slipped to a place that no one thought they could recover from, and Ken gained invaluable insight from the tools they used to rebuild and come back on top.  They received input from their customers and potential customers and acted on it--they listened, they learned, they were excited about their product and gave everyone the chance to test-drive it and become excited about, asking for feedback and then putting the feedback to work for the customer.  Harley-Davidson is now run debt-free and selling bikes at twice what their competitors do because of the reputation and name they have built for themselves by knowing how to reach those out there that they might not have otherwise.

Another workshop I attended was this, "Speak Up, Speak Out" by AFBF Staff members, Jill Casten and Kyle Perry.  Jill came to Reno in December and did our State Board Training.  This workshop was more about learning to speak out about the concerns we face in agriculture and doing in the way that the general audience can better understand. In a lot of ways it focused on public speaking, learning ahead of time who our audience will be and preparing ahead to make it fit their level of knowledge about our topic and how to present to keep them interested.  They focused on a tool called 'mind-mapping' that maps out 3-5 main topics of the topic you are discussing and having subpoints, statistics and examples for each of the main points to better control the flow of the information and keep it from becoming more than your audience's attention can handle.  Most of all, they told us to 'tell them what we are going to tell them--tell them--and then tell them what we told them."  And then challenge them to do something with what you taught them.

On to the Spacier side of things......APOLLO 13

Okay, so here's where the Apollo 13 comes into it all--Our Closing Keynote Address on Saturday afternoon was Captain Jim Lovell, the astronaut who calmly and carefully commanded the Apollo 13 mission, even when all hope was lost of their survival, and was able to bring it back to earth with the help of 'teamwork and decisive leadership' from all involved.  I must say that it kind of blew my mind away to think about being out there in space, thousands of miles from the earth (I know it sounds ridiculous, but I am claustrophobic and the thought of being surrounded by all that darkness and space--well, I don't think I would do very well with that).  He said that it is pretty hard to fathom when you look back at the earth and you can cover it with your thumb.  He told the story of the Apollo 13, how it should have been a very routine trip, his third to the moon, one that the general public hardly had any interest in at this point.  But, unfortunately, some minor complications caused some major problems.  Captain Lovell is recognized as a national hero and has received many honors, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  We were so close to the Kennedy Space Center, though we didn't get there, that this really hit even closer to home.  What an amazing story.  In fact his address was called: "A Successful Failure: What Apollo 13 Teaches Us About Leadership, Action, and Excellence."

(Are you starting to see why I love these conferences so much?  And this was only day 1!!)

So, to sum it up here are a few more pics from our first day (Grant and I came one day early and spent part of it at Disney's Magic Kingdom, then met up with the Nevada delegation and had dinner at the Yachtsman's Steakhouse at the Disney's Yacht house Resort (?) ) Below is the first morning--warm, pleasant, but you could see the moisture floating in the air.

The NEvada Delegation.  The Farm Bureau's National Leadership Conference Precedes the YF&R's conference by two days and we overlapped with them for one.  This happens every other year as teh NLC conference is only held every two years.

So back to front and left to right:

Hank Combs (NV Pres), Doug Busselman (NV Exec VP) Jamie Perkins (NV YF&R Chair) Grant Perkins, Paul Mathews (NV VP) Pete Olsen III.

Bevan Lister (LC, NV Pres) Hannah Hardy, Alyssa O'Toole, Stacie Shcwandt (NV DM Winner) ShaRee Mathews, Lee Mathews.

(Not pictured: JoAnn Lister, Theresa Mathews, Michelle Olsen, Stephanie Licht (NV YF&R Coord) )

Orlando or BUST!!!!

You know, when I was a kid, I remember seeing those signs on the wagons in pictures of pioneers, headed across the plains that said: 'Oregon or Bust' or even on some crazy vehicle traveling down the road, and thinking to myself, what does that really mean? Now, as I have one day left to pack six people for six days and travel 4 hours to drop off kids, another 3 to the airport, and then across the US to sunny Florida,  I think I understand.  I'll get there or BUST in the process of trying, and I am trying, I am really looking forward to this trip.  Of course, major snow storms have shut down thousands of flights today and tomorrow, but hopefully, the impact to southern travel will continue to be fine (like I said, or BUST!)

 Anyway, the last couple of years have taught me something important about National YF&R Conferences--you do not go to them for a vacation (sniff, sniff, since I will be in Florida, I am definitely having twinges about all the things I would like to do, places I would like to see), but you also never leave them without so much more than you came with. 

 So, I am looking forward to this trip.  And, not just because we are staying at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort and there is a slight chance I might convince my hubby to hang out at DisneyWorld with me for a few hours on the only day we have that is partially free!  Every other year the National YF&R Conference overlaps the final day of the National Leadership Conference for Farm Bureau leaders from all of the states, so there are more workshops, more people, and even more to learn.  We jump (okay, we crawl, exhaustedly out of bed, cursing the alarm clock) out of bed each morning and hit the ground running.  We usually go all day, though between meals and snacks, we are refueled enough to come home a little bit heavier, too, in order to keep us going.  In the evenings we are beat, but full of new ideas, new friendships, and new goals for our state YF&R program.  We come home needing a vacation.  But, it will then be time to form reports and thank yous to the Board for the budget to send us and to let them know what we did that was really worth the money spent. 

 I can honestly say that the last few years I have gained leaps and bounds of better understanding how to promote and educate about agriculture, how to use technology do so, to tell the story of agriculture that I know and see around me.  I have learned about agriculture in various forms and states that I never dreamt of--I mean, really, I did not know that peanuts were a row crop, more like a bean than most nuts that grow from trees--thanks to Georgia Farm Bureau for educating me on that one!  One thing that is a huge highlight of the trip is the final day of tours, getting to see Ag production in the state that we are visiting.  It is so cool.  I know, how old am I, but I am very serious and very much looking forward to this year's tours.  I will hopefully be bringing back plenty of pic's to share and maybe even some video.  SO, I hope you are looking forward to my report (which will be up as soon as I have sufficiently recovered, got the kids back to normal schedules, and have the laundry started ;) ).

Oh, here is the schedule in case you want to know more about what we do there:
http://fb.org/programs/young/2010-11/2011-Leadership_Conference.pdf