Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Blonde Girl

Although I do not have a photo of her yet, my new favorite girl is blonde. She has lots of great hair, snot comes out of her nose sometimes, and she is a vegetarian. The color of her hair does not really match her friends and she stands out in a crowd. I can visit her whenever I want, but she does not know whether to like me yet or not. Her hair is lighter than most, but not altogether blonde. However, she has never died it before. She is a heifer in my fitting and showing class at Cal Poly SLO and she will be my best friend for the next month or so.
I really enjoyed Spring break this last week! I got to enjoy three new baby calves that were born, work with my piggies for the Alameda County Fair, and take in the country scene. Even though I may visit the livestock units on campus when I am homesick for my ranch, it still does not even come close to what the smell of my home is! It's fresh country air and green grass for miles. It's a herd of cattle on the hillside and a hawk overhead. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.
This blonde friend of mine I mentioned earlier is going to be quite a blast for me! Since I miss my life on a ranch I signed up for this class, because it involves cattle. I had the first class yesterday and come to find out we can work with the cattle whenever we want! I actually went out there this morning to work with the heifer that I will hopefully pick tomorrow! I will halter break her and then learn how to fit her to show her in the Cal Poly State FFA Judging Finals in May. I am super excited about this, and I can't wait to think of a name for my blonde friend. Barbie is not her style!

Friday, March 12, 2010

A Riddle...

As for something that will stimulate your brain and has nothing to do with BEEF, here it goes. How many barrows are born in a litter of piglets? The answer will follow this blog post.


Personally, I am very excited for this weekend. Not only is it the weekend before finals here at Cal Poly SLO, but it also marks a very special event that I will be attending. The logos above represent two very important organizations in the state of California. They both have many things in common and one goal in mind. They both involve women in the agriculture industry, and they both seek to enhance the involvement of AGvocating. The California Women for Agriculture and the California Cattlewomen have joined together in their Spring Meetings this year to be held at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, CA. I am very excited to take part in this very special occasion with two of my favorite organizations at where I jokingly call my favorite place on earth!

There are organizations like this all over the US that we can all participate in to spread the great word about agriculture. On a slightly more negative note; however, I finally watched the film Food, Inc. the other day. I have been wanting to rent it for a long time, but every time I would venture to the video store all of the available stock would be rented. Which now I realize is just plain awful for the agriculture industry. I had another opportunity earlier in the year here at Cal Poly to hear from Michael Pollen himself in a panel that Cal Poly put together on sustainable agriculture. I watched the video for a question on my final exam in my communications class. I mentioned some of the thoughts to my professor, and he informed me that he is very excited to read my response as every speech I have given in his class has encompassed some type of agriculture topic. As my friend and I sat watching the film we found ourselves smacking our foreheads numerous times. It's reasons like this that the agriculture industry MUST stand up. If we get knocked down, it is very important to get back up, brush ourselves off, and continue AGvocating.

I had the privilege to write my final paper in my communications class on Mr. Daren Williams, the Executive Director of Communications for NCBA. My topic included how we as the beef industry deal with consumer illiteracy, and I received an A on the paper. It comforts me that I can impact an audience with little things such as targeting my communications class of about 30 with a speech informing them of what the HSUS really is and my professor with the problems facing the beef industry and my thoughts on solving them.

The riddle of agriculture illiteracy can be SOLVED by every one of us by little tasks we accomplish daily! Hold strong American Agriculture. We rock!

Sin-steer-ly,

Malorie

P.S. The answer to the riddle at the beginning of this post is zero. There are no BARROWS born in a litter, all of the boy piglets are born as BOARS. :)