Pepsi may donate $$$ to HSUS!!!

You've probably seen the commercials for the Pepsi Refresh projects -- enterprising individuals or groups can apply for 'grant' money from Pepsi to fund a community service/good samaritan project.  Past projects have been for increasing funding for training guide dogs, giving money to an animal shelter to spay/neuter pets.  Currently, "Find a path to the cure for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC)" is in #2.  That's pretty good except only #1 gets the moolah -- guess what 'enterprise' is in the top spot?

The Humane Society of the United States

Big, uh oh! Because, if HSUS wins, they'll be awarded $250,000 to aid their cause.  We all know what their cause is and it ain't "Rescue animals from cruelty in underserved communities" (their cause on Pepsi's site).  What can you do to help stop HSUS from being awarded the cash?  Go to this site http://www.refresheverything.com/cureahc and vote for Finding a Path to Cure Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC).  These are children that need help, truly.  You can kill two birds with one stone -

help find a cure for a children's disease and stop H$U$ from being awarded more money.

Vote today AND tomorrow!

Until next time,
~Buzzard~

#Foodthanks this year

This year, I'm spending Thanksgiving in Ohio with the Ninja and his family.  It's been great to get back on the farm and do chores, feed animals and go four-wheeling in the woods.  I've missed that experience during my tenure at K-State.  Anyway, for those of you on Twitter, the theme of the past few weeks among many food and ag people is #foodthanks -- thanking those people who are key in producing our nation's food from farm to fork.

Everyday, I'm thankful for the farmer's who feed these guys:

and those who grow and harvest these:

So I can enjoy a spread like this!

If you are a food producer - thank you for your neverending hard work.  You are appreciated!

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Until next time,

~Buzzard~

Great American Desert

In 1820, explorer Stephen H. Long led a group of soldiers across the Great Plains in search of the source of the Red River.  During his expedition, he explored much of what is now Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska.  What did Long report to his superiors after his journey concluded?

 The region between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course inhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence.

On Long's published map of his expedition, he labeled what is now known as the Great Plains as the "Great American Desert". Boy was he mistaken!

Today the Great Plains are the heartland of American agriculture - just look at these digits:

-- Kansas ranks 1st in grain sorghum produced, 3rd in cattle on feed and grass and 10th in hogs on farms.
-- 1/5 Kansans, both rural and urban, works in a job related to agriculture and food production.
--  Nebraska ranks second in the U.S. in cattle and calf sales
-- Nebraska is 3rd in the nation in producing corn for grain, with nearly 1.4 billion bushels produced in 2008
-- There are more than 105,000 jobs in Colorado related to agribusiness, contributing more than $16 billion annually to Colorado’s economy.
-- Colorado’s sheep and lamb totals rank fourth in the nation and Colorado wool production is sixth.
-- Colorado ranks first in production of proso millet. This annual grass is grown as a grain crop and is used for bird and livestock feed in the U.S.

Of course there are many more great attributes about these midwestern states but this gives you a glimpse into the billions of dollars of worth of agricultural products produced in the Great Plains.  Too bad Stephen Long can't see us now!

Until next time,
~Buzzard~

Doing Chores..... in a wedding dress!?!?

This post is prompted the fact that the FroBuzz wedding is exactly two months away - cripes.  This morning I was sitting in my future in-laws kitchen thinking about wedding plans and remembering what other friends had done at their weddings.  All of a sudden I remember waiting for my good friend Bailey to arrive at her reception for what I thought was a lengthy amount of time.  Wanna know why the guests had to wait for the bride and groom to make their long awaited appearance?  They had left the wedding and gone straight home so they could feed their cattle and horses..... while still wearing their dress and tux!!

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this event however, just imagine a bride and groom walking around in the mud feeding cattle and horses while their wedding reception and guests anxiously await them.  That's dedication and a pretty damn good example of how farmers and ranchers NEVER take a day off - not even on their wedding day. This week, please take time to thank a farmer for providing us with a safe and abundant food supply.

Until next time,
~Buzzard~

Guts, Steel and Beef

(Photo courtesy of North Dakota Farm Bureau)

Carrie Underwood is a pretty powerful icon in today’s society. She’s a multi-platinum recording artist, a fashionista, she's gorgeous and she's a PETA spokesperson. It takes guts to stand up to someone of her caliber – it takes nerves of steel to organize a walk out on one of her concerts. Amanda (Nolz) Radke organized one such walk out in 2006 at the National FFA contest because of Underwood’s proud association with PETA and blatant disregard for agriculture. Officials at the event were advised that if Amanda was seen, she was to be escorted off the premises. However, knowing that, she went through with the walk out and 1000 FFA members and guests left the auditorium when Carrie came on stage. Nerves of steel? I think so.

Amanda’s walk out is a prime example of how one person can have a gigantic impact. Recently, Amanda spoke at Kansas State University as the Alpha Zeta George Stephens Distinguished Guest Lecturer in Agriculture. As a recent college graduate, Amanda doesn’t have thirty years of industry experience to aid her in being an exceptional agvocate. But she has a good head on her shoulders, a passion for agriculture and she ain’t giving up. Even though agriculture has made monumental progress in the fight to save our industry (YellowFail, the OLCSB) Amanda says, “We have a lot of work left to do”, and she’s right. As agvocates, we can never go on vacation, because you can bet the suits at HSUS and PETA aren’t taking a break from their lobbying efforts.

Amanda provided students with ideas on how they can get involved in agvocacy while still in school. She encouraged students to construct an ‘elevator speech’ – the 2 minute speech you can give people to convey where you’re from, what you do and why you’re proud to provide safe and healthy food to a hungry world. She advised, when angered by the actions of an activist group, to “use your head and heart to fight back, not your hands,” and to never be caught in a negative light. “You should strive to make your industry and family proud and never let anyone else tell your story.” Well put, Amanda.

As the online editor of BEEF Magazine, author of the BEEF Daily blog and a passionate agvocate who has had her own radio program on Trent Loos’ “Faces of Ag,” one thing’s for certain: Amanda has made her husband, Tyler, and the Nolz family of South Dakota undoubtedly proud. Many thanks go out to Amanda for traveling to K-State to inspire the next generation of agvocates to fight for our industry.

If you’d like to receive the BEEF Daily Blog, click here.

Until next time,
~Buzzard~

I'm Ag Thankful

Hi readers - today I am featured on Ryan Goodman's (@AR_ranchhand on Twitter) blog Agriculture Proud.  Ryan is running a month long feature called 'Ag Thankful' focused on the many ways agriculturalists are blessed. 

Any opinions on what I should be thankful for?  Please visit Ryan's blog and read what I, and many other aggies, have to be thankful for.  Leave us some comment love!

Until next time

~Buzzard~

It's My Anniversary!

Sort of.

It's been 1 year and 2 weeks since I started this little adventure called blogging and I've blogged about life, grad school, being engaged, fiji, cooking, prayer and most especially agriculture.  Over the past year, I know my blogging and communication styles and methods have definitely changed.  To you new bloggers, here are some things I discovered that may help you get started on your own:

-- Not every post is going to be a literary masterpiece; nor does it have to be
-- Keep your posts short; as in less than 3 screen page lengths. If your posts get too long, you'll lose readers' interest.
-- People will comment on your posts and you won't like some of them -- deal with it.
-- Do your research; don't post about something you know absolutely nothing about unless you've read up on it and can answer several questions about it.
-- Just because your blog says you only have 65 followers, doesn't mean that only 65 people read your blog.  Some people read it actively but don't want to sign up for a Google account so they can officially 'follow'.
-- Think of a sensational title for your blog and create exciting headlines! -- there are millions of blogs out there and you should try to differentiate.
-- Blog how you speak -- I use sarcasm a lot in my daily speech and it felt too much like scientific writing when I took it out.
-- Be yourself and always remember that somewhere out there, somebody agrees with you and appreciates your posts!

I was recently asked what my favorite post was - impossible to choose. But I managed to narrow it down to 4 -- see if you can figure out why they're my favorites!

Food For Thought: Even the Quiet Can Be Agvocates
Falsehoods Can Cause Loss of Credibility
Skiing Adventures in Utah
It's Not Nice to Call Them Frankenfish 

Do you have a favorite post of mine?  If so, please let me know - I'll try to emulate them!

Until next time,
~Buzzard~

Sorry for my absence...

but I've been swamped. Like Louisiana swamped.  But I'm working on some *great* new posts for next week so please don't abandon me!

Update on where I've been:
-- Data analysis of my trial
-- Seminar prep (didn't even practice it until the night before)
-- Temple Grandin's visit to KState (post soon coming)
-- minimal wedding planning

Cool thing of the day!  Last night my mom informed me that UPS had delivered a large package to her house for the Ninja and I..  Turns out it was one of these

 A DYSON ANIMAL!  A very very kind anonymous person bought us an extremely nice, very expensive vacuum and we are so pumped!  To whoever you are - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

I wonder if the person who sent us the vacuum is the same person who gave me a Temple Grandin book on my birthday - I'm still clueless to who that was.

Until next time (I promise three posts next week!),
~Buzzard~