OFI 759: Being A Farm And Ranch Kid Is Hard | FFA SAE Edition | Haley Shore | Chapman High School FFA

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SHOW NOTES

INTRODUCING HALEY SHORE!

“Being a farm and ranch kid is HARD.

Being a farm and ranch kid is…

-Warming up half frozen calves with your own clothes when you have no towels around.
-Helping with chores after you had just gotten off work yourself.

– Friday night might not mean going out, but breeding or working cattle instead.

-No making plans in July and August because those are harvest and fair months.

-Farmers tans in senior pictures (personal experience)

-Seeing your parents age a little bit faster than you’d like too, because after all, this is hard work and hard on the body.

-Learning how to drive farm equipment far before you can get a permit.

-Often losing feeling in your fingers, toes, and nose from being cold.

-Eating dirt was how you got such a good immune system.
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Being a Farm and Ranch kid is also…

-Growing up faster than most but being okay with it because you’re independent.

-Learning that farming and ranching is a crazier version gambling that you can’t find in a casino.

-Acknowledging that God has a plan for everyone and everything. From each wheat stalk all the way to the struggling twin baby calves.

-Being scared to ever go swim because your friends could gain a tan just from the sun reflecting off your legs from wearing jeans 25/8.

-Gaining a first-name basis relationship with all the guys who work at the Co-Op.

-The rare vacation is x10 more meaningful than if we had taken them often.

-Coffee becomes your main water source & you gain a Caffeine addiction by the time you’re 14.

-Smelling a little more ripe than the next person over in church because well, you don’t eat before the animals do.

-Tractor Time means one-man concerts that allow you to sing the same Shania Twain song for the third time in one hour.

-Your most expensive pair of shoes are your mucks or cowboy boots.
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Being a farm and ranch kid is by far one of the most rewarding things I could ever ask to be. Through all the struggles, trials, and rainy days, there’s always a smile, good sale day, and rewards to follow. I’m so glad that God has made me the person I am & gave me this life to live. So what if I don’t have the crazy party stories or the cool vacation pictures or even the ability to keep white clothes, well, white? I have the memories, love for the land, and love for God that could make up for all the parties, white clothes, & Bora Bora trips I could ever wrap my head around. So long live the young cowboys, cowgirls, ranch hands, and barn brats.”

Today’s guest wrote those words after a long day of ranch work in Kansas.  Talking with her step-father in the evening after work he made a comment to the effect of he wished that everybody knew how hard ranch life was.  He fell asleep in his recliner shortly after that, and Haley started thinking about that statement.

Like inspiration often does, the words written above came to her at that moment.  So, she wrote them down.  The next question was, how would she share them with the world?

Haley has a Facebook account, and we all know there are negatives and positives to social media.  Well, one of the positives is being able to share positive things, and that is exactly what Haley decided to do.  She put her words out there for people to read, and they sure did.

Haley is from Kansas, and about 2 weeks ago I had a friend, who is not a rancher or farmer, from California send me this post.  She had read it on somebody else’s page and passed it along to me.  As soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to track Haley down and have her on the show.

At the time of this writing, Haley’s words have been shared by people on Facebook almost 5,000 times.  It is really amazing how her words have resonated with so many people who are living this life and so many people who have warm memories of when they used to live this life.

Haley’s writing is not the only impressive thing about her.  She just graduated high school in December, ending her FFA career.  Her step-father needs to have surgery, which means more help is going to be needed around the ranch.  So, in an effort to fill in the gap, Haley graduated early and will work on the farm full-time to take up some of the slack until she starts college in the fall.

If anyone asks me why I interview so many FFA students, I will just point them right to this episode.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Placement on her families ranch

HIGH SCHOOL: Chapman High School; Chapman, Kansas

MASCOT: Fighting Irish

FFA ADVISOR: Johanna Anderes

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR HALEY SHORE:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Chapman High School FFA website:

Haley’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: janderes@usd473.net

Chapman High School’s Telephone Number: 785.922.6561

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA 

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000.  In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants.  With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

• Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world.  FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
• Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation.  The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
• Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“The future of American agriculture depends on the involvement and investment in America’s youth, In order to prepare for the population of tomorrow, we need to encourage America’s youth today, and show that careers in agriculture are profitable, rewarding, and vital.”.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue

Where Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald Can Be Heard:

Member Of The National Association Of Farm Broadcasters