A Night at the Grand Ole Opry House

No trip to Nashville is complete without a trip to the Grand Ole Opry. Tonight we attended the Foundation’s Night Out at the Grand Ole Opry House.

The Grand Ole Opry House

The evening was hosted by GAC’s Nan Kelly. The first group to entertain was Mike and the Driven Bow. They entertained the crown with bluegrass music from artists such as Bill Monroe and Bob Wills.

Mike and the Driven Bow

Next up was the new sound of The Fiddleheads. You may have seen them last spring on the show America’s Got Talent.

The Fiddleheads

Prizes were given away during the night. Chevrolet gave one lucky attendee a Superbowl Package including game tickets and a hotel stay for two.

Nashville is a city rich in history and back-stories. Award-winning songwriters Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman entertained the crowd singing some of their long list of popular songs that have been recorded by artists such as Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, JoDee Messina and Kenny Chesney, to name a few. Their energy and zeal for song was contagious and they kept the audience laughing with stories about the ideas and inspiration for their songs.

Craig Wiseman and Tim Nichols

And then it was time for the headliner – the moment everyone was waiting for – Phil Vassar took the stage.

Phil Vassar

At the end, in Opry tradition, all the artists returned to the stage for a rendition of Will the Circle be Unbroken. The night was truly fun, energizing and lived up to the Opry’s reputation as “The Show that Made Country Music Famous.”

sarahdcarte is Sarah Carte of Florida, a wife, mother and fourth-generation farmer. She currently serves as vice-chair of the Florida Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee. Her Twitter name is @sarahdcarte and she’s also on Facebook (Sarah Dasher Carte)

Transportation and Agriculture

This session discussed the transportation issues facing farmers today and the difficulty in interpreting the existing regulations and how they apply to farmers. Funding for infrastructure is also a major issue in most states and this problem isn’t going away.

The expert panel for the session was made up of people who address these issues for agriculture daily. The panel included Samuel Kieffer from Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Garrett Hawkins from Missouri Farm Bureau, Michael Wright from South Carolina Farm Bureau and Kevin Rund from Illinois Farm Bureau.

The panel discussed how infrastructure associated with agriculture is disadvantaged today because earmarks in funding for rural infrastructure has disappeared. This means we need to find a different way to fund infrastructure for agriculture.

Another important issue facing agriculture transportation is barge transportation on waterways. The current drought has made barge traffic very difficult and almost nonexistent in certain areas. Due to low water levels this past year, barges have reduced their load capacity just to maintain barge traffic. One barge can transport as much as 1,050 semi tractor-trailers and 216 rail cars. A barge is more efficient in the number of miles it can travel per gallon of diesel compared to trucks and rail.

This session offered an in depth look into what states have been facing regarding transportation. There was a focus on the importance of barge traffic to agriculture, in addition to the importance of our port system in the United States. If our ports are not kept up to date we will lose out to more modern ports like Cuba.

The panel emphasized we need certainty in funding for long term planning for our aging infrastructure system. Farmers need to engage in these conversations and talk about the important role transportation plays in their farming operations.

Chris Chinn is a Farm Bureau member in Missouri, serves on the Missouri Farm Bureau board of directors and will represent her state at the delegate session in Nashville. She is a hog producer, 5th-generation family farmer and former chair of the national AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee. Find her on Facebook and Twitter (@ChrisChinn).

Telling a Story with Meaning

Farmers and ranchers are being encouraged more and more to tell their story. Stories about the lives we lead and the work we do to produce food and fiber for an ever growing world. For me, the hardest part of telling my story is finding the story. Having lived and worked on the farm my entire life makes so much of what we do second nature that sometimes I fail to see there’s something to tell. That is why the session “Telling Stories, Making Meaning” sparked my interest.

Author David Hutchens encouraged attendees to share their story. He told participants that stories add value, and by telling the stories of what we do we can lead with authenticity.

Hutchens taught the crowd there are four core stories in each organization–who we are, vision, values and changing and learning. He asked participants to think about a story in each of those categories in their lives. It was interesting to watch everyone writing and talking about the stories. I know personally that using those guidelines I was able to think of several stories from our farm.

From the writing and chatter in the room there will be lots of stories about farm and ranch life being told all across the country.

sarahdcarte is Sarah Carte of Florida, a wife, mother and fourth-generation farmer. She currently serves as vice-chair of the Florida Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee. Her Twitter name is @sarahdcarte and she’s also on Facebook (Sarah Dasher Carte)

 

So Worth It

Have you ever had a moment when you are trying to get everything ready for a trip, the children situated, the chores all done and stress gets the best of you and you just sigh to yourself, “Is this really worth it?” I must admit I do before most of the trips I take.

Then you finally arrive at your destination and you see friends and acquaintances that you may have not seen in a year or more and have a great time catching up on each other’s lives. You attend the opening session and hear the organ playing, see all the state flags march in and listen to a wonderful rendition of the national anthem. You learn that Young Farmers & Ranchers you know made the top 10 in their competitive events, listen to the challenges and successes of our organization and industry over the last year, get motivated to be Farm Bureau proud and finally get to watch your state win the Pinnacle Award for the first time. And it is at those moments you realize that it is:

SO WORTH IT!

sarahdcarte is Sarah Carte of Florida, a wife, mother and fourth-generation farmer. She currently serves as vice-chair of the Florida Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee. Her Twitter name is @sarahdcarte and she’s also on Facebook (Sarah Dasher Carte)

 

Social Agriculture – What Is It?

I attended a great session about social media in agriculture today which explained what social media really is and how agriculture uses it. Katie Pinke shares her family farm story because she wants people to know how their food is raised. For Janice Person it’s important for her to know the people answering questions about agriculture are truly involved in agriculture. Ryan Goodman started blogging just so his family knew what he was doing during a summer work experience on a farm in another state. Zach Hunnicutt loves auto-steer on his tractor because it allows him time to keep his social media followers updated on the happenings on his farming operation.

Katie Pinke also used social media to reach out to other moms across the United States about the new changes to the school lunch programs. This created a movement from moms inside and outside of agriculture and parents everywhere contacted their elected officials and schools about their concerns and to have input on these changes. Social media allowed these farm moms and non-farm moms to unite and make a difference.

Zach Hunnicutt likes giving people a tour of his farm every day through social media and pictures he take on his smartphone. This allows him to explain what is really happening and why he makes the decisions he makes on his farm. This allows Zach to form relationships with others outside of agriculture so that when they have questions they will turn to him.

Another great reason he uses social media is to keep up with the weather and markets. For example, during a dangerous storm path Twitter was the only way Zach coould keep updated on a tornado due to not having electricity on the farm.

Janice Person stressed that social media is more about transparency for agriculture and forming real relationships rather than how many people follow you or what important job title those followers may have.

Consistent use of blogs, Twitter and Facebook is the key to being effective, Consistent social activity will spread the agriculture story the fastest. Thanks to being consistent in social media, Hunnicutt has formed good relationships with media outlets. Ryan Goodman has done the same thing and has guest blogged for CNN’s Eatocracy blog. This connection also opened doors for the local media to use Ryan as a valuable resource for agriculture stories during the recent drought.

This session offered many great ideas about how agriculture can better utilize social media to tell our story. Attendees left this session energized and armed with great ideas to help share the agriculture story.

Chris Chinn is a Farm Bureau member in Missouri, serves  on the Missouri Farm Bureau board of directors and will represent her state at the delegate session in Nashville. She is a hog producer, 5th-generation family farmer and former chair of the national AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee. Find her on Facebook and Twitter (@ChrisChinn).