Keep Calm and Farm On

Oh, hello.

It's me. I'm still alive, though you clearly wouldn't know it from the tumbleweeds bouncing across my blog all summer.

I spent my summer working in crop input sales, which seemed like a stretch for this cattle girl but turned out to be a fantastic learning experience. I've made the move south to Stillwater, Oklahoma where I am enjoying the heck out of my agriculture communications and agriculture economics classes and learning to look good in orange. More on that later.

Today, I want to share a great website that is empowering young people with passions for agriculture.

FarmOn is an online community with the mission to equip young agricultural businesspeople with the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to become profitable. The founding folks of FarmOn are all rural Albertans who have turned their agriculture passions into success. I applaud FarmOn for filling a necessary void in Canadian agriculture by empowering the young leaders of our rapidly aging industry.

I was honoured to do an interview with FarmOn which they have posted on their site. You can check it out here.

An Ag-Tastic Day

I'm a little late on this post, but it's one I have to share with you all.

Blame the five-course load and excessive student club involvement for my shoddy blogging abilities. I certainly do. But time management is a skill I'm working to develop, especially after completing my last two papers in the wee hours of the morning.

Last Saturday was jam-packed with agvocacy. It was one of those days that gives you the boost you need to keep working towards your goals. The kind of day where you're doing what you love, so getting through those impending midterms becomes more of a stepping stone than a roadblock. I'm so poetic today.

My morning started at the crack of 8am in the Butterdome (large, awkwardly yellow building on the University of Alberta campus) to set up for the U of A Open House. I attended the Open House exactly two years before as a wide-eyed high school student, terrified by all the huge buildings and studious-looking people. It was exciting to be on the other side of the booth, helping students decide what they wanted to take and educating them about their options at U of A.

Since I was an Agriculture student for my first year and am now in Ag Business,
I spent the morning hovering between these two booths

I left Open House in the early afternoon to drive about 100km south of the city to a little place called Genessee Community Hall to give a presentation on social media in the beef industry. I was presenting to a group of beef 4-H members and their parents at a regional learning day.

Presenting on different social media platforms

The presentation was on the basics of social media: what it is, how to use it, and how to be safe with it. I couldn't think of a better way to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media than to reach out to my Twitter followers for advice. Below they answered my tweet asking them why they think social media is important for agriculture.

I got the chance to tell the group about the fabulous places social media has taken me (ahem, Nashville) and the great people I have met through it (see just a few of them above). And you can trust that I said great things about all of you.

I'm thankful that all of you are part of my social media story. And I'm thankful to be so passionate about communicating agriculture, and sure that it is where my future is going.

Agvocacy on the Net

Since I started this whole #agblog thing a few months ago, I've realized that the presence of agriculture online is far larger than I had previously known.

I'm following a number of blogs and websites, and I'm more or less a full-blown Twitter creep. These young ladies have had a few of the most compelling and thought provoking ag-related blogs this week, so I thought I'd share with you. Prepare to be enlightened.

#1: Where Your Steak Comes From, a guest blog by a meat locker heiress, Jenny Dewey, on Meg Brown's agriculture blog.I learned a ton about how each cut is removed from the beef and prepared for wrapping. I love Meg's concept of being more transparent in agriculture, and specifically, the beef industry. Things like slaughter or calving are often considered too gruesome to share with the public, but Meg points to that fact as one of the leading causes of the disconnect between people and their food. I encourage you to check out the rest of the posts on Meg's blog, too.
Follow Meg on Twitter @MegRaeB.

#2: I've Got a Bone to Pick with "Agvocacy", an opinion piece on her blog by Kelly Rivard, hits the nail on the head. I'll let you read the blog to form your own opinions on it. Personally, I completely agree with her in that just because we as farmers feed the world, doesn't mean we should carry a sense of entitlement around when communicating with consumers. We need to remind ourselves that we're doing a service for society just like everyone else is in their jobs, and we need to be on the consumer's level to effectively communicate.
Follow Kelly on Twitter @KMRivard.

#3 Conversations with consumers in the "Reduced for Quick Sale" section of the meat counter is agricultural journalist Celeste Harned's account of a recent opportunity to educate and be educated about buying food. When telling our agricultural story, it's easy to overlook the fact that it can be done a day at a time and in the simplest of places. I find random conversations in grocery stores or fast food venues to be the best places to lend some ag knowledge to a customer who has questions about the safety or difference in varieties of meats. Celeste did a great job of teaching this person about meat safety and what to look for depending on what you're cooking.
Follow Celeste on Twitter @CelesteHarned.

I hope you'll check out these articles and keep reading their blogs for great insights in agriculture. These are just a few of my favorites. Look for more "feature" posts like this on my blog in the future!

Ag Media in Draft Horse Town

I told you all about the great opportunity of being the Calgary Stampede Ag Media Intern here and here.

I thought I would feature one of my highlights of the week on the blog today. One of our jobs as the Ag Media Committee was to set up interviews and activities for media sources to engage in. Rolfe at Shaw TV was one of our regulars, covering Stampede Ag for all 10 days from the heavy horses to the tractors.

Rolfe the Promo guy of Shaw TV

I got to tag along on Shaw TV's exploration of Draft Horse Town, one of my personal favorite exhibits at the Calgary Stampede. We did crowd control (making sure people didn't walk into the shot while filming) and suggested sites to visit and people to interview. We also ended up in the clip...in a wagon...being pulled by a television personality. I love Ag Media.

Rolfe got to hang out with Dave, the "Prince" of Draft Horse Town and a great guy to have at Stampede!

I couldn't embed the video, but I CAN tell you that you need to visit this link and click on the "Draft Horse Town" video (second row) to see all the hilarity live.You can see Nicole, another one of the committee members, and I being pulled in the wagon about 1:00 into the video. It was as awkward and hilarious as it looks.

Me(left), Nicole, and Rolfe the puller

I could handle having this as my day job. Granted, only if I'm the one being toted in the bucket and not pulling it. Hope you enjoyed the video, and be sure to check out all the rest of the Shaw TV Stampede Videos!

Calgary Stampede Agriculture, Day One

It's day one of the Calgary Stampede. Will and Kate made their appearance in front of 350,000 starstruck spectators at the annual Stampede Parade. The crowds have started pouring through the gates, onto the midway, and through the barns. Agrium Ag-tivity in the City is hosting fabulous exhibits to educate the masses about where their eggs, milk, cereals, and meat come from. The miniature donkeys, llamas, sheep, goats, and ducks are settling in at the Country Critters display. The blacksmiths are working away in the Big Top and the heavy horses are being diligently prepared by their owners.

I'm also settling in with the Stampede Agriculture Media Committee as a social media intern. These ladies (and one gentlemen) have the job of communicating Stampede Ag stories with media outlets and the public. It's a great opportunity for me to network with people in the field I'm hoping to get into!

I look forward to this week all year. It's great to be on the media end of things and making sure people are hearing about the great exhibits Stampede Agriculture has to offer.

Blacksmith Competition

If you're on the park today, here's what you can get up to in Stampede Agriculture.

Agrium Ag-tivity in the City

8:00am-9:00pm

Agrium Barn Tours

11:00am-8:00pm

World Championship Blacksmith's Competition

10:00am-9:00pm in the Big Top

Team Penning

5:30pm in the Scotiabank Saddledome

Miniature Donkey Showcase

3:30-4:00pm in the Northern Lights Arena

Horse Haven

8:00am-9:00pm in the North Agriculture Barn

Heavy Horse Showcase

12:00pm and 7:00pm in the Scotiabank Saddledome

The Cattle Trail

8:00am-9:00pm in the Agriculture Barn

See the Stampede Agriculture page for more events.

Tweet us at @stampedeag!

Wanna send me to Nashville? #agchat

Here's the deal:

About 2 months ago, I succumbed to the powers of Twitter.

I haven't look back since.

Follow me @rotempleton

I love Twitter. There are so many networking opportunities. My followers and those I follow are almost all involved in agriculture in some way. I'm learning a lot about different types of farming and ranching all over North America.

And I thought it was just another channel for my random musings and thoughts (it's that, too).

Here's another thing I discovered on Twitter: #agchat

AgChat is a conversation that takes place on Twitter every Tuesday night about ag-related issues. This week's topic was summer ag activity, giving me a great opportunity to tell people about Summer Synergy and the Calgary Stampede.

There's also an AgChat Foundation. 

The AgChat Foundation is hosting a conference this year in Nashville, their 2nd annual Agvocacy 2.0 conference. It will focus on the use of various types of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.) and their usefulness in communication between agricultural producers and consumers.

When I read that description, I thought, I have to go to this. I'll admit, I love a good conference. That may be strange, but there's nothing better than networking with like-minded people and bouncing off one another's ideas to reach a goal.

I love meeting new people. I love learning about agriculture communications. I get antsy when I stay home for too long..or in the same country, for that matter. I feel like I would love Nashville. And I need to start dispersing that box of 400 shiny new business cards somewhere!

If that story has you ready to send me a first-class ticket to Nashville, be my guest! If not, I have another way you can help me out.

Here's the photo I submitted. It's one of my favorites, taken and edited by me.

The AgChat Foundation is having a photo contest, with the winners earning scholarships to Agvocacy 2.0 pending acceptance, as well as a feature in their calendar. The most votes on your picture gets you there!

I chose a picture I took out on one of our pastures last summer. It's one of our herd bulls, 9P, with his ladies and calves. I just love how it looks like a bovine family photo.

Go to the AgChat Facebook Photo contest. Click this link to go directly to my photo. Click VOTE! You can do this once a day. Which I'm sure all of you will, because you are very supportive of my latest slightly crazy but awesome endeavor.

FYI: I'll find out whether or not I've been accepted at the end of July.

I encourage you to check out the other applicant's photos. There are some amazing shots!

Thank you so much for your help. What would I do without you?

PS. Happy Canada Day :)