Ag Pen Pals

       My family and I are very excited that we are a part of Nebraska's Agriculture in the Classroom Program that is managed and funded by Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. We were selected to be a match with Ronna Hammer's 1st Grade Class at Gomez Heritage Elementary. My family and I are very excited to help explain agriculture and what we do on our farming operation. In the first letter we were harvesting mainly corn and I explained that process and gave a few examples of by products of corn. 

    The class was very excited to receive our first letter and sent us back cute thank you notes with hand drawn pictures. Here are a few examples of the letters received. 

This is the class that we are pen pals with. 

"We are having a harvest party tomorrow."
The pictures were very creative and a nice touch. 

"We are having a harvest party tomorrow."

"Dear Ehrke family, We are Mrs. Hammer's first grade class. We are from Gomez Heritage in Omaha." 

"Dear Ehrke family, We are Mrs. Hammer's first grade class. We are from Gomez Heritage in Omaha."

"Dear Ehrke family, We are Mrs. Hammer's first grade class. We are from Gomez Heritage in Omaha. There is 13 kids."

"Having a harvest party tomorrow."

"Dear Ehrke family, We are Mrs. Hammer's first grade class. We are from Gomez Heritage in Omaha. There 13 kids in our class."

My family and I hope to visit the class this winter. This is a wonderful opportunity to explain agriculture to youth that live in urban areas. 

Passion. We all have it, we need to use it.

“Passion. Everyone has passion, but they just have to know how to ignite their own passion inside of them to make a difference.” – Trey Mogenson Former Nebraska State FFA Officer. Everyone needs passion. It is the most important character trait in my opinion. Passion helps you enjoy your hobby or activity. Passion makes you want to help get others involved. It also makes you and others achieve more under one common goal together as one.

How does passion help you enjoy your hobby or activity? Well first off when you have passion you enjoy what you are doing. It is something you don’t complain about when you get up to morning to go to your job or hobby. When you like the activity or job you will be good at it and do the job well and also enjoy it. Passion ignites a fire that makes you like what you do and not be a struggle to get out of bed in the mornings to go do what you need to do. Passion shows who you are and what you believe in. However passion is making yourself enjoy the hobby, job or activity. Passion can also make others want to join you in you hobby, job or activity.

If you enjoy what you are doing it will rub off on others and make them want to join in on the fun. Passionate people are generally great leaders. Being passionate about something shows that you truly believe in making something better and doing something because, not only do you love what you do but you want to do it. When you are passionate it makes the thing you are doing easier to do. If you hate a class or thing negatively about the class chances are you are not going to do as well as you would if you were passionate about getting your homework done. An example of a very passionate leader is Martin Luther King He had great passion to make everyone equal. He was able to get many things done in a very short lifetime. Being so passionate made him a great leader. Finally, passion is something we all have. We just have to find the passion inside ourselves and use it to get others and ourselves more involved. You just need to find your passion, feed it and use it.

Passion helps make you and others achieve more. When a group of people are passionate about one common goal, more is accomplished. If a basketball team decided that their goal was to win a State Championship they would all have to have passion to achieve this goal. It is a lot easier to win a State Championship with a team rather than just one person. By being a passionate person you will get more involved. You will get more done. Passion helps achieve one common goal together and do the job well. By being passionate by what you are doing it will spin off you to make others want to be involved. People can see the passion ignited inside of you. You just need to show it.

You can be passionate about anything. It could be FFA, a sport, school, art, drama, mock trial, showing livestock. We all have passion. You just need to use it. Hobbies, jobs and activities will be more enjoyable. Others will want to join you in your hobby, job or activity. Lastly, passion will make others be able to achieve one common goal together as one.

Quote: Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you strength, the patience and the passion to reach fro the stars to change the world. -Harriet Tubman

Congressman Adrian Smith's Youth Advisory Council

NEWS RELEASE	Contact:
For Immediate Release October 2, 2015	Rick VanMeter 202-225-6435

Smith Announces Youth Advisory Council Members

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) today announced the names of Third District high school students who will serve on his Youth Advisory Council for the 2015-2016 academic school year. 2015-2016 Youth Advisory Council members include:  Heather Bentley of Miller, Amherst Public School; Giselle Bergmeier of Beatrice, Beatrice High School; Macie Clawson of Hastings, Hastings High School; Grace Clawson of Hastings, Hastings High School; Trevor Conway of Fullerton, Fullerton High School; Haley Ehrke of Orleans, Southern Valley Public Schools; Valerie Ford of Sutton, Sutton Public Schools; Matthew Fredricks of Alda, Grand Island Northwest High School; Sara Gingerich of Dix, Potter-Dix High School; Edward Li of Cook, Johnson County Central High School; Andrew Moritz of Hastings, Hastings High School; Caitlyn Nelson of Atkinson, West Holt Public School; Jared Pilkington of Scottsbluff, Scottsbluff High School; Katelynn Piper of Clay Center, Harvard Public School; Joel Schroeder of Paxton, Paxton Consolidated Schools; Joseph Taylor of Cambridge, Cambridge High School; Tara Taylor of Long Pine, Ainsworth Community Schools; Jordan Villarreal of Arapahoe, Arapahoe High School; Kelton Walz of Broken Bow, Broken Bow High School; Maverick Widdowson of Kearney, Kearney High School; and Tori Wilson of Elwood, Elwood Public Schools. Smith’s Youth Advisory Council is a forum for high school students to discuss opinions, thoughts, and concerns about local and federal issues with Smith throughout the school year.  Through in-person meetings and other contacts, the Council provides students an opportunity for involvement and insight into their government and communities. The Council is open to junior and senior high school students who are selected through an application process in the spring.  For more information, interested parties are encouraged to contact Smith’s Scottsbluff office at 308-633-6333 or visit Smith’s website athttp://AdrianSmith.house.gov/YouthAdvisoryCouncil. ###

It's been a blessing, I am beginning to enjoy a few of the "lasts" of senior year. #senior2016

            Words cannot describe how well the Nebraska State Fair went for my family. I had the privilege to be a ten year 4-H Member, this year as I began my senior year with my “first” last. My last County Fair in 4-H, followed by my last first day of school in high school. Even though these moments are bitter sweet, I am so grateful to have these moments and I am ready to move on to the next chapter of my life.  My brother and I had a very successful county fair we exhibited the Grand Champion Market Steer, Grand Champion Market Heifer and the Grand and Reserve Overall Market Animals.  We were able to end it with a bang for my last year, which was very exciting.

            State Fair was especially bitter sweet. I was reminded how blessed I really am. On Sunday I showed my FFA Steer “Johnnie” he was Reserve Heavy Weight division. The last time I will ever show in the 4-H Show at the Nebraska State Fair happened this last Monday. I nervous and excited all at once. It seemed so surreal that it was my last time. I did have a good day though. I was able to exhibit the Grand Champion Market Heifer with “Abby”. I ended my 4-H State Fair career with almost the same way I started it.  In 2008 I exhibited the Reserve Grand Champion Market Heifer, it had been a goal of my family to win the Market Heifer Show ever since. I was very excited that I was able to accomplish a goal that we had set after one of my first years being able to show at the Nebraska State Fair.

            My 4-H Career may be coming to a close, but my experiences, friendships and memories most certainly won’t be. I have had the opportunity to grow in so many ways possible not in just showing cattle but in 4-H as a whole. I am so blessed to have such a supportive family, friends and business partners to help me be the best I could be, that I could not ever thank them enough.

Quote  “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Sues

 Here is a transformation the top picture is my 2008 Reserve Grand Champion Market Heifer and the bottom is my 2015 Grand Champion Market Heifer at the Nebraska State Fair. I was very blessed to be surrounded by many friends and family. 

We need to tell Our Story

Good Afternoon! I know this is beyond late blog post but I wanted to give an update on my life. I recently took another job, as many of you know I work for ABS Global/ Powerline Genetics as the Social Media Coordinator. I recently took a second job with Power Genetics as the media coordinator. I have been busy lately with my second job addition, school starting, county fair and just life in general.

            I am actually on the way home from Wichita, KS from Power Genetics 18th Annual meeting. There is a lot I picked up on in the last twenty-four hours.  There is over 7.125 billion people in the world. My passion is agriculture, and I absolutely love the beef industry. Anyone who knows me knows that I am crazily involved in the Show industry, but what you may not know is that I know I only have so much eligibility left in the Junior Shows. So what have I done about that? I’ve started expanding my cow herd. In March I took out a loan to buy 14 more cow/calf pairs. This expanded my cowherd to 21 head. I have a partner in my three Donor cows and worked on using some of my family’s open cows into donors. Anyway to feed the world we need to all work together to tell our story. Beef is the largest industry in Nebraska, and many people even in Kearney don’t know where there food comes from.

            I love the Nebraska State Fair, as many “show” people would say they hate the city people, I love them. I love being able to let them pet my calf, talking to them about the beef industry, what the calf’s name is, how much it weighs, how old it is, and of course how good beef is. I’m excited for this upcoming State Fair but I wanted to tell you all a little story from last Nebraska State Fair. Last Year I was fortunate enough to exhibit the Overall Grand Champion FFA Market Animal at the 2014 Nebraska State Fair, my steer was a 1,345 lb. calf named “Jagger”. He was a Charolais Cross he was white. After I won I was sent to exhibit my steer in “Champion Row” and my favorite part of it was, when I was getting ready to go lead Jagger through the Parade of Champions a city folk walked up to my pen and said this is the Grand Champion? I answered yes it is.  He asked so, it’s white.. Does that mean it has red eyes and it is going extinct? I answered, No he is not going extinct. He is a Charolais Steer, and his eyes are not red. I told the man about the American Charolais Association and Junior Nationals. I told him that Jagger is not here to show, he’s here for so much more. I don’t just show animals, I show animals to educate consumers and have that animal at the end of his life be an incredible end product.

Visit the American Charolais Association here to learn more about the history of the breed 
 http://www.charolaisusa.com/history.html

Quote: I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle