Can you share a little about your operation and your involvement with Farm Bureau?

I grew up in East Tennessee on a small farm. We grew a small tobacco allotment. My parents both worked full time jobs, but agriculture was very important as they had both grown up on farms. My mother grew up on a dairy farm and my father’s family were tenant farmers. I attended Central Wyoming College in Riverton and it was here that I met my husband. JJ is a 5th generation rancher in east central Wyoming. His great-great grandfather, William Werner came over from Baden, Germany. After his time in the United States Army he was discharged in 1885. He then settled in the area south of Fort Fetterman near Orpha. After his death and with the railroad coming through, his son Edmund moved north of Douglas. This ranch is where we reside today. Originally the ranch was a sheep and Herford cattle operation, but predominately sheep based. Then the sheep were sold in the 1970s. Jim, JJ’s father began running Angus cross cattle around 1988. They began transitioning to red angus in 1995. Our family continues to operate as a commercial Red Angus cow/calf and yearling operation.  In 2020 along with my two children Loganne and John, we started Werner Sheep Company.  

How did you first get involved with  Farm Bureau?

My involvement with Farm Bureau started out by attending meetings with JJ. As the kids grew and JJ’s Dad moved to the ranch in Lance Creek, I began attending meetings and JJ stayed home tending to ranch needs. I have enjoyed learning about all the different avenues in Farm Bureau. I have served as secretary, informational chair, and president of Converse County Farm Bureau.

What motivated you to attend the American Farm Bureau Promotion & Engagement?Training?

Over the last several years, my drive for providing educational and promotional activities has become my focus. I started attending several seminars and classes put on by various other organizations, and I felt that this is something I should push in our area. I along with the board in Converse County created the Eyes on the Horizon Series.

This is really the jump into Promotion and Engagement.  As I was talking to Kerin, she mentioned the training. When I investigated it further, I felt it was right up my alley. I really enjoy promoting agriculture and providing information not only for those of us in agriculture, but for those looking into what we do.

What?were your first impressions of the training?

The training was wonderful and eye opening. Promoting agriculture in today’s social media run world is more important than I truly realized. There are so many amazing people working tirelessly to promote agriculture and it inspires you to go home and do the same. To get the truth out about our operations, our products, the safety of the food, and about who we are as farmers and ranchers.

What session or topic stood out most to you?

We had several different sessions on social media platforms. There is a huge drive to get the word out on social media explaining all the great things about agriculture. According to data given to us at the training, most of the population is three generations removed from agriculture. Isn’t that crazy! For those of us working in agriculture to make the assumption that people “Know” the basics of how the food they eat gets to their table is a poor judgment call. 

We must reach people where they are spending time, and that is on these social media platforms. People trust farmers and ranchers, they don’t trust agriculture. This statement was repeated time and time again at the training. Therefore we have to begin taking the imitative to get our stories out there.

What is the biggest takeaway you gained from the experience?

As a part of this agricultural community, we have to be doing out part to present people with accurate information about what we do and how we do it. The amount of false information is mind blowing and if we don’t get the truth out there, they are going to continue to believe the false narratives about agriculture.

This information needs to come from us, the farmers and ranchers who are growing the food. They trust us and we need to show them how we are providing safe nutritious food for their tables and families.

Did anything from the training change how you think about promoting?agriculture?

Absolutely! I feel that is detrimental to our operations to begin promoting our products. As a Farm Bureau Federation I feel that we need to help our local farmers and ranchers get their stories out there for all of social media to see. The true farmers and ranchers need to provide education to this growing population that unfortunately has little education and understanding about agriculture and the food that is on their tables.

What?is one idea or strategy you plan to bring back to your county or operation?

One thing that I am going to begin really focusing on is getting the Eyes on the Horizon series moving forward with seminars, zoom classes, and education. Then I am also going to work on providing more educational type content on social media. This is a hard one because you must be willing to throw yourself out there for criticism. It is also a game of providing the right content at the right time to get the engagement and your information to as many users as possible. This takes time and consistency in posting and that means more time creating the content.

Why?is?promotion and engagement important for Farm Bureau members?

I hope that Wyoming Farm Bureau can start a promotion and engagement committee. This would be a wonderful addition to help provide educational content for our members to use and help them to create. That way they can get their stories out there for the public. If we do not begin promoting agriculture to those who do not know and do not understand it, they will continue to believe the incorrect information that they see every day on all the different social media platforms. With most people being three generations removed, they do not have someone teaching them about agriculture. It is either going to come from those of us in agriculture or someone against agriculture. If you want the truth to be out there for them to find, we need to provide it.