Every day I work hard, with a lot of other individuals in this industry, to ensure that the agricultural industry is not portrayed in a negative light. It’s a job that not very many people are good at to begin with, and also a job that not many even want to do – but it’s as necessary a job as the one that farmers do – AKA feeding the nation.

I’m one of the first people to honestly admit that the agricultural industry is not good at fighting for ourselves; we are very good at talking to people that share common grounds and interests, but once it comes to those outside of our realm, we freeze up and it seems as though we can not logically argue.

(As a disclaimer in defense of the industry, those that are against us are not very easy to talk to in general, thus creating more of a problem.)

I get very busy in my day-to-day life, like most of us do, and push the worries that I can’t directly tend to the back of my mind and move on; it’s something that I am guilty of daily, but is also human nature. The funny thing is, that I think of how guilty I am at the most random times – for instance, at a rodeo.

Now, the rodeo life isn’t foreign to me, but it’s also not one that I completely savvy or live in daily. That being said, I understand that in some ways it is completely different from the livestock world, how PR would be handled differently, and I completely respect that. (Just as a disclaimer.) However, the other night I’m sitting in the stands, assuming my new role as rodeo girlfriend and this group of kids were next to me constantly hollering and being obnoxious if you really want to be honest. For starters, I couldn’t help but think about how kids would get in so much trouble for being loud in the stands at a stock show – I know a lot of us would have gotten our asses whooped for being loud and potentially spooking the stock. Anyways, after I started to realize that obviously horses don’t spook as easily as cattle do, I began to listen to what these kids were actually saying – and that’s when I really and truly got to thinking.

Keep in mind that these kids are spanning from ages 5 to maybe 9 at the oldest and in my opinion, are old enough to have been taught the basics of right and wrong. With every boy that shot out of the box and tied down a calf, the phrases similar to “oh my goodness that poor cow!” or “that man is so mean!” came from these kids more and more. Okay – before you attack me for getting frustrated with children, hear me out: I WAS frustrated with the kids for being so loud, I was NOT frustrated with the kids for what they were saying – I was frustrated with their parents for not explaining right from wrong on the spot and more importantly, not teaching them from the get go. These children and parents are more than likely not rodeo savvy people and more than likely know that their kids are going to forget the events in an average rodeo perf by the next day – but both of those things are beside the point.

Rodeo is a sport. It is a sport that is well recognized throughout the nation that consists of athletes that must be in pristine shape with every perf that they compete in as their career travels on. It also holds it’s own spot in the agricultural industries. I have never, ever, ever sat in the stands at a sporting event and heard or said that the players are mean for doing what it takes to win or do well in their desired sport. I would never cross anyone’s mind to say that a football player is mean for tackling a member of the opposing team and if a child were to do such a thing, I am almost willing to bet that parents would explain that it’s just part of the sport and it’s okay. Why isn’t that same thing done for rodeo? Or any event that livestock is involved in for that matter? The same thing occurs at stock shows, but I think that since I am generally involved in what is going on and not just a spectator, I don’t hear it clear as I did the other night, thus allowing me to really and truly think about what my goal is in this life, with this degree.

I think that our goal, as AGvocates, should be to teach the youth and to educate those children that think the bull fighters and rodeo clowns are cool but think the “cowboys” are hurting the stock. It’s important that children, no matter their age, understand that livestock isn’t mistreated and events such as a team roping or cattle shows aren’t abusive and that they’re actually beneficial in some way or another.