Beef Ambassador

Howdy Ya’ll

It sure is nice to once again share with you the beloved beef story. As we all know, this weekend is the one weekend in which almost the entire nation prays for one thing on a Sunday. Sadly, most aren’t praying on this coming Sunday for farmers and ranchers to have good weather in which they can tend to their cattle herds or praying to a faith, it’s more likely on this particular Sunday to be praying for either the Giants or the Patriots to win the all mighty SUPER BOWL!!

I can admit that I may not be the most avid watcher of football, but when Super Bowl Sunday rolls around each February I always try to catch the nearest pregame party and enjoy the many dishes of food and fellowship with friends and family.  Being able to have a gathering with friends and family by watching a football game is one way in which you can dazzle them with your cooking abilities. I am not always the greatest cook in the world, and most of the time I screw up a dish here and there, but one dish that no one can EVER mess up is a nice piece of juicy, delicious, and even mouth watering steak or other cut of BEEF!

Yesterday, as I was checking out of the Nashville Hotel from the Cattle Industry Convention I noticed the Wall Street Journal had printed an article about Super Bowl Sunday and the predicted food choices people would consume over this weekend. Although that article stated that over 100 million lbs of chicken wings will be consumed this Super Bowl Sunday, I believe that the chicken wing won’t be winning any bowl game when it comes to a juicy steak. I mean let’s get real here, how much meat is actually present there in that chicken wing? Although it does seem tasty and oh so flavorful, you must add hot sauce, barbeque sauce and maybe other ingredients that can add to the sodium intake as well as increasing your calorie count.  Let me ask you this single question, when you go out to celebrate a special occasion, what do you primarily choose to enjoy your special night? STEAK of Course! Who has ever heard of a celebratory chicken meal and felt like a winner or the honored guest? Since its Super Bowl weekend why not celebrate like a CHAMPION regardless of the score?!

A fast and easy meal to prepare for a party with many guests is going out to the grocery store and purchasing ground beef and making tacos for all your guests to enjoy. It tastes great, it’s flavorful and your guests will have consumed zinc, iron, and protein which are all essential nutrients that your bodies will need to yell and scream loud at your TV to try to change the outcome of a play/call. Trust me I know, you’ll run out of energy probably after the first quarter because the ref called something dumb.  If you have more time on your hands you might care for a nice juicy T-bone steak or possibly going out to your local sports grill and ordering that sirloin steak.

If you do get a chance to look up the article from the Wall Street Journal that was published on Thursday February 2, you’ll also see that the title of the article states: “ Carrots Vie for a Spot on Game Day”. Although this source states that carrots are a healthier choice for this Super Bowl weekend, please keep in mind that BEEF is one of those healthy choices.  Who really gets excited about eating carrots? Sorry Wall Street, but this Beef Ambassador has a different game plan! EAT BEEF, it’s your best DEFENSE!  I hope everyone enjoys their Super Bowl weekend and I’ll be back next week for another exciting blog. Until then I’ll keep riding for the brand!

With a Cattle Calling,

Arika

The National Beef Ambassador Team has been having a great time in Nashville at the Cattle Industry Convention! We have learned so much and there is plenty more to come. Today we started off bright and early with Cattlemen’s College classes. The group split up and learned new advances in our great industry. One of the classes I went to was the Driving Change-The National Beef Quality Audit. I learned about surveys they have been taking of different segments of the industry, from feeders to retailers. We discussed the different views of the segments and their effect on our product. One statement that really stood out to me was that the different segments that deal directly with consumers believe that a huge strength of the beef industry is Food Safety. 

We also attended the American Cattle Women Membership meeting and got interviewed by Cattlemen to Cattlemen so look for us on RFDTV!!!

The general session was great! There were introductions and welcomes and then we heard from a very entertaining speaker. Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL, has a book titled “Lone Survivor”. He told us about his experiences in combat but still through all that he went through he had an incredible sense of humor and kept everyone on the edge of their seats. It has been a great start to this convention and there is plenty of great information to come! If you are at the conventions and see a sea of red shirts stop us, we would love to interact with more beef enthusiasts!

I spent a good portion of last week driving half-way across the country. With that much time on your hands, there is a lot of time to think. One thing that always comes to mind is current events and how people react to what is going on in the world. I often find myself at the question, “How could someone possibly think that?” This is a question I am sure that producers and ag advocates alike often find themselves thinking.

A very "Blessed Paradigm"

One of the greatest things that I learned from the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is the idea of paradigms, or the way that one sees the world. As members of the agriculture industry, we are so blessed in the paradigm that we live in. When someone approaches us with a question or a view point, we must realize that their paradigm is entirely different than ours. While this idea seems so obvious, it is also so easy to forget. Sometimes we have to step out of our favorite pair of broken-in work boots and take a walk in that businessman’s dress shoes or that fashionista’s designer heels. They haven’t had the opportunities that a member of the agriculture field has. Their horizon may be a city skyline instead of rolling hills. Their biggest commitment after school may be their XBox, not their livestock.  So while playing the biggest role that agriculture has, educating the public, (aside from…you know…feeding, clothing, and employing the world), keep in mind that their questions are not unintelligent, but simply come from a different paradigm.

Loving the Ag Paradigm

– Kim

There is a great new game on the Explore Beef Page! This is titled Cow Chow, Exploring What Cattle Eat. There is a short video exploring some of the concepts behind the cattle feeding program. Then the player is asked to “Get Started”.  The player gets to be either Farmer Jill or Farmer Bill and then the quiz kicks off. There is a short quiz that asks questions about the video that was just played and the happiness of the farmer and the points earned depend on how fast the question is asked and the accuracy of the answer.

Cow Chow

If the player gets a question wrong they are asked to watch a video further explaining the question and then they have a reattempt. This is a great way to learn a little bit more about what goes into the belly of a cow and is done in a fun and encouraging way. Teachers, this is a great activity to do with your class on a Smartboard because it is so interactive! Also State Beef Ambassadors, take advantage of these great tools in your next classroom sessions!

Props to the Explore Beef Team to go above and beyond in telling the beef story. It is great to get the beef story out there in a positive way and put a spin towards a slightly younger generation so they can feel included!

You can find the game at http://www.explorebeef.org/cowchow.aspx

RB

Hey ya’ll,

This week as I started classes once again, I seemed to have a new look on the semester. Instead of being bogged down my multiple papers, test, exams and reading assignments I’ve committed myself to being a better student. In doing so, I have felt more engage and involved with my classes, not because I have to but, because I want to influence others around me with the knowledge I will learn while attending college. Interestingly enough, I decided this semester to take and AG Ethics class. The definition of ethics is a moral norm of an individual or a group and the morality is a person’s beliefs of feelings concerning their values, rules and principles. I know what you’re all thinking right now as you read this: “Arika we all know what ethics are, why are you trying to teach us a lesson in ethics?”  The truth is, ethics is vitally important, especially in the agriculture industry.

My professor decided that we would take part of the class time to discuss any current ethical issues in agriculture. As we all known, one of the most talked about issues is the use of antibiotics on livestock. I personally believe that antibiotics should be used in livestock production because it is essential for the animal’s health as well for the farmer to produce quality product. If you neglect to treat an animal for such illnesses, it can have a negative outcome for the animal as well as the producer.  Many consumers though, believe that it is not ethical to treat animals for diseases via antibiotics due to misconceptions of such drugs.  Antibiotics are also known as antimicrobials that fight bacterial infections. These drugs specifically to the beef industry are to help cattle regain or maintain superior health and produce safe beef.  Antibiotic use should be limited to prevent or control disease and should not be used if the direct intent is to improve performance.  A comment was made by a non-agriculture student in my ethics class that the opposing side would view consuming animals that have taken antibiotics as unhealthy and unsafe to consumers. He believed that animals given antibiotics could be consumed by a consumer, resulting in a harmful effect on the human’s body.

Hi there Beef Friends!

The holidays are over and everybody is getting back in the swing of things. Everybody has their new years resolution to be more proactive, plan ahead, get fit and so many other vague goals. I started classes on Monday and it already seems like I am bogged down with work. The 7 Habits that I learned last week are really coming in handy. I made a weekly plan for myself which mostly consisted of getting together materials for classes and settling into my new home. I have tried to stay on top of tasks and make them quadrant two (effectiveness) tasks so they don’t creep up on me and become quadrant one (necessity) tasks that are urgent and have to consume my attention right away.

Now for the fun part. I need your help in a project that I am working on. I am currently enrolled in Agribusiness Marketing and my first project is a one-on-one sale with my professor. He said that we could choose any product we wanted to make the sale. So what have I chosen to sell him? Beef of course!

So I need your help… I am planning on getting a time slot around lunch and serving my professor a delicious steak sandwich. So I need some awesome recipes for marinating my savory steak! If you have any ideas please comment on my blog. And of course it will be a buttered toasted bun for the bread of the sandwich. Any help would be appreciated and i will keep yall updated on my progress of the project!

RB

As I began the new year it was a time for new beginnings and a time for our team to jump right in and start promoting beef to the public. This past weekend two other fellow beef ambassadors and I had the privilege of talking to the public at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This gave us a great opportunity as a team to meet with the public and get to know our team members better.

            We spent the two days in an exhibit called Today’s Agriculture. The focus of the exhibit was to show what it is like inside the barns that you see driving down the road. To show this it had live animals in the setting you that they would be typically raised in. We stood in front of the display that showed the set up of a typical feedlot in Pennsylvania. It featured two local farmers and had two live steers, a Hereford and an Angus donated by Del Valley College. The exhibit was extremely well accepted by the public and reached everyone from young kids to the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett. After speaking with the governor we found out that he is a lean burger lover himself and that he also enjoys the leaner cuts of beef such as flank steak. On a simpler level it was awesome to see all the kid’s faces as they looked at the seemingly big steers and found out that they were only nine months old! From the young to the old, to the experts to those who have never stepped foot on a farm, everyone we talked to seemed to have a genuine interest in beef and where their food comes from. I felt very accomplished leaving the show and that we had reached many people. I look forward to the many events to come.

Eat Beef!

Hello ya’ll,

Arika here again to share my words of beef wisdom and to enlighten the readers of this blog site all the magical places the National Beef Ambassador Team travels to.  I just want to first state that since I have been chosen I look at how lucky I am to have such an opportunity to travel the nation to tell our industry’s story! I never knew I could have this much love for BEEF but it is so remarkable to look at how many key players there are in the beef industry that make it possible for consumers to serve a steak in their home.

Currently, I am writing to ya’ll from Denver, Colorado!! I know it may be strange on why one would be so excited to travel to a cold and snowy state, but the fact of the matter is, this girl is from Pennsylvania and has never seen a real mountain. I can now understand more in depth why farmers and ranchers out west have a love for the land and the environment, something to see for your own eyes! Enough with all my obsessed feelings about Denver and let me tell you the knowledge I’ve acquired over the last several days. If you haven’t read Rossie blog already I encourage you to read her blog and leave feedback comments with your own

insight before reading the rest of this blog post.   The National Beef Ambassador Team as well as myself have recently been attending the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People developed by Stephen Covey.  In today’s segment of the training I learned two new habits.

Habit 3- Put First things First : through this habit, even in the beef industry we all have our daily tasks that we need to complete and relationships we need to build with vendors, auction barns, and even feed companies when it comes down to producing quality beef. But one thing this habit point out is that not all things urgent should be the most important, sometimes the not so urgent may have a larger impact and result in your life. If you are a person that tends to always live in crises mode, it may be time to evaluate where you are going in life than watching your MPH.  What I’ve learned from this is that a planner will be my new best friend! I know I have deadlines especially with the National Team and school work, but I must also allow time to plan these events out so I don’t overload myself with stress.  I highly recommend those that are looking for a life vest in the sea of stress, go to the nearest store in the next several days and just grab those big rocks in your life or events that are truly important and schedule smartly.

Habit 4- Think Win-Win. This habit will be hard for myself to learn but I’m sure with time I will be able to overcome and succeed not only with the National Team but in my personal life as well. This was my favorite quote from this section of the seminar: “You don’t have to blow out the other person’s light to let your own shine”- Bernard M. Baruch.  This quote seemed to speak to me specifically because what I understand it is saying to me is that I should be proud of others accomplishments as well as my own and if we work as a team the success can only be greater in the ending. Although competition is friendly in the job market and as we relate it to the beef industry, we must understand how our actions may be perceived by others  and the integrity we have with others.  With a win-win attitude I hope that our National Team will develop faster solutions to problems as well as long lasting friendships that fuels’ our fire to promote and educate the nation about our ONE POWERFUL PROTEIN. Be sure to stay tuned to this site to look at the last and final day of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People!! Please, please, please be sure to leave me comments and feedbacks on your opinions of this seminar!

With a Cattle Calling [Moo to You ] ,

Arika Snyder