Farming on Purpose

“Understanding exactly what value we place on our time and how we spend our time and different tasks we’re doing with our time, is what can allow us to make the best decisions possible for us and for our farm.”  In this episode, I wanted to share the importance of making sure you put a value on your time because like the saying, “time is money.” This might be a difficult perspective to view as a f...

“The enneagram is not an end all be all. Plenty of people do just fine without knowing the enneagram, but it does help expedite the self-awareness process. And when we’re more self-aware we can be better communicators. It’s just better for us and better for our relationships the more self-aware we can become.” In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with Terryn Drieling about a topic I enj...

“That point that I’ve heard you talk about before, about knowing what’s important to you and knowing what success means to you is so important for any of the purchasing decisions you make and has to guide everything.”  In this episode, I got the chance to chat with DL Lautenbach, a farmer from Washington. DL shares how he got started in the cattle industry as well as some of his practices and the...

“There are so many stories from people in my life that I would like to hear and I need to take time to hear them.”  In this episode, I wanted to share with you a reminder to be more present. I find it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of the holiday season and focus too much on my to-do list tasks, that I sometimes forget to be present with my family. Spending time with family and making...

“Leaning in to where you are and finding the resources you already have accessible to you to make the most of the situation.” In this episode, I wanted to talk about my current season of life and it happens to be a waiting season.  For me, I’m not a big fan of waiting. I like to have a plan so this period of wait and see has not been easy. However, I’m coming around to accepting this is where me a...

“Nothing looks like you think it will in motherhood.” In this episode, I wanted to talk about motherhood and what being a mother on a farm looks like for me. My motherhood journey was not what I had anticipated and I had a hard time accepting that I couldn’t be as active on the farm as I wanted to be or thought I would be. Once I accepted that in this season of motherhood, my roles on the farm are...

“Learn to be ok with where you are at in your life.”  Richelle Barrett, a cattle rancher from Montana, joins us this week to talk about navigating ranching with your family and some of the struggles that come with being a cattle rancher. Richelle also speaks on being in the evaluation phase of her ranching journey and how to be ok with where she is, even if it's not what she imagined life would lo...

Creating a pathway to farming Tod Bunting joins us this week to share about the resources he and his team have developed to support veterans and introduce them to farming as a career. Tod is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Servicemember Agricultural Vocation Education (SAVE) Farm, based in Manhattan, Kansas.  The SAVE Farm exists to provide therapy, as needed, and hands-on teaching to vet...

It’s okay for your identity to change and grow with you Hannah Borg, a 6th-generation farmer from Nebraska, joins us this week to talk about navigating farming with your family and how communication plays a large role in that. Borg is challenging her family to have those hard conversations so they can grow and become a better, more efficient system.  In addition to trying to find the balance in fa...

Identify your “why” and let that inform your mindset This week’s guest, John Sachse, is a Kansas-based mindset coach helping people to discover their full potential through fitness. Fitness is both mental and physical, and John talks us through how establishing a routine can help you make intentional choices for personal growth. The first steps in creating a growth mindset for yourself are: establ...

Helping farm families communicate and resolve conflict  If there is one thing Elaine Froese is passionate about, it’s that conflict is not a bad thing. This week’s guest, Elaine Froese, is Canada’s Farm Whisperer. She spends her time coaching farm families through growth and transition, with an emphasis on understanding.  Elaine grew up as a farm kid, and fell in love with and married a seed farme...

This is an important topic; one that can’t be summed up with simple numbers and data. Real people face mental health issues everyday. It’s important to remember that they’re people, with lives and families and friends.  In this episode, I wanted to talk about the reality that mental health issues are very prevalent in all facets of the agriculture industry. Specifically, farming is a very isolatin...

Tackling a first-generation dairy farm as a family  Farming is a livelihood rooted in family, no matter where you are. From navigating the barriers to entry to dairy farming to celebrating the successes of a growing business, New Jersey dairy farmer, Sarah Lyness, shared her story on our second episode of the Farming on Purpose podcast. While Sarah didn’t grow up in a dairy family, or even a farmi...

Ranchers and Environmentalists are working toward a common goal. The beef industry is a complex and unknown process for most. On our first episode, guest Cassidy Johnston, breaks down the complexities of ranching beef cattle and how those ranchers are also environmental stewards.  Because of Cassidy’s lived experience, she is able to work to reduce the gap between the ranch and the table. She buil...