March marks an important month for many people in agriculture. It’s the turning point in winter where we look forward to the Spring Solstice (20th). We know that warmer weather must be just around the corner despite all of the fun weather encountered during long winter months. Farmers start the process of preparations for Spring planting. Calving season kicks into high gear for many ranchers. In all, there’s a brighter outlook for another growing season ahead.

National Agriculture Day

March 18th (or March 20, 2018) also signifies importance for the agriculture community as National Agriculture Day. This occasion also marks the anniversary of this blog. Unaware of what would result from it, on Ag Day 2010, I posted a blog describing how I am proud to be a part of agriculture. What has resulted is nothing less than life-changing. Several trips across the country, internationally, countless new friendships, travel and has landed me in a job I love in the amazing state of Montana.

We all have great things to be thankful for and I hope that you’ll join me this March to recount on those things that make us proud to be a part of agriculture. Why are you proud to be a part of Agriculture?

Be sure to follow along and let me know why you’re Ag Proud through several social media channels.

This month, make an effort to connect with 49 new people and share the pride you hold in being a part of a minority group in the world.

Why am I Agriculture Proud? – Family Values

All I’ve known most of my life is being involved in the cattle business. Over the past few years, I’ve moved farther from home, family, and no longer reside in the same time zone or for the most part, even the same climate. However, the family values I was raised with will always stick with me.

As was a focus of the original Agriculture Proud blog post in 2010, family values are instilled deep in agriculture. This not only reigns true in my life but also for most in farming and ranching. Nothing will take away those hard-earned lessons instilled at an early age.

“Family Values” can mean many things to different people, depending on various backgrounds and contexts. A dictionary description is “the moral and ethical principles traditionally upheld and transmitted within a family, as honesty, loyalty, industry, and faith.”

Agriculture Community

Through encounters over the past 5 years with people who didn’t have the opportunity to grow up in this atmosphere, I’ve learned not everyone appreciates or understands those values or the realities of life and death, leadership, business, or family in the same context as those of us in agriculture. This becomes a hurdle we must overcome with messages critical of modern agriculture systems.

Family Cattle Farmer Agriculture Day

The photo above captures my father sorting cattle at one of his rented pastures back home in Arkansas. He taught me so much about ranching and raising cattle while I was a kid. And while he didn’t teach me everything I needed to know, he prepared me to learn from what was ahead. Like any good father-son relationship, we’ve had more than our fair share of opportunities to butt heads, but it’ll never take away the family values instilled in me while growing up a part of a ranching family.

What do family values mean to you? Were they learned on the farm or ranch? How have those values prepared you for what lay ahead on your journey?

Published by Ryan Goodman

Ryan Goodman works in grassroots advocacy as a communications consultant with beef cattle farmers and ranchers across the United States. He is a proud alumnus of Oklahoma State University, with studies focusing on cattle reproduction and nutrition. Ryan's experience in the beef industry range from family farms and ranches in several states to large feedlots and non-profit policy organizations. Ryan is an avid trail and ultrarunner, proudly showing how beef can be an important part of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. Find Ryan on social media as @BeefRunner.