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The Grazing Grass Podcast features insights and stories of regenerative farming, specifically emphasizing grass-based livestock management. Our mission is to foster a community where grass farmers can share knowledge and experiences with one another. We delve into their transition to these practices, explore the ins and outs of their operations, and then move into the "Over Grazing" segment, which addresses specific challenges and learning opportunities. The episode rounds off with the "Famous Four" questions, designed to extract valuable wisdom and advice. Join us to gain practical tips and inspiration from the pioneers of regenerative grass farming.
This is the podcast for you if you are trying to answer: What are regenerative farm practices? How to be grassfed? How do I graze other species of livestock? What's are ways to improve pasture and lower costs? What to sell direct to the consumer?
e136. Creating Connections Through Ag Stories with Ashlynn Jones
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[00:00:00] Cal: Welcome to the grazing grass podcast. Episode 136..
[00:00:05] Ashlynn: You just have to try. And if you really are stuck, reach out, ask for help.
[00:00:10] Cal: You're listening to the grazing grass, podcast, sharing information and stories of grass-based livestock production utilizing regenerative practices. I'm your host, Cal Hardage.
[00:00:24] You're growing more than grass. You're growing a healthier ecosystem to help your cattle thrive in their environment. You're growing your livelihood by increasing your carrying capacity and reducing your operating costs. You're growing stronger communities and a legacy to last generations. The grazing management decisions you make today.
[00:00:49] impact everything from the soil beneath your feet to the community all around you. That's why the Noble Research Institute created their Essentials of Regenerative Grazing course to teach ranchers like you easy to follow techniques to quickly assess your forage production and infrastructure capacity.
[00:01:12] In order to begin grazing more efficiently. Together, they can help you grow not only a healthier operation, but a legacy that lasts. Learn more on their website at noble. org slash grazing. It's n o b l e dot org forward slash grazing.
[00:01:36] On today's show. We have Ashlynnn Jones. She's a third generation cattle producer. And she has a passion for continuing the family legacy of raising productive cattle. Alongside her husband, they manage the family's commercial, red Angus herd in Southeast Iowa. She's a proud advocate for beef production and enjoy sharing her family's beef story on social media.
[00:02:04] And that's how I came in contact with her. And I sent her a message and says, Hey. Let's share your story, on the grazing grass. So she's on today and I think you're really going enjoy it.
[00:02:17] However, we have three things to cover before we get to her. First thing. This Thursday I'm joining Jared on Ag Steward's Profitable Regeneration Masterclass Series. And we're going to be talking about leasing land, finding land to lease. And the method or framework for you to do that. So I encourage you to join us there. It's free and it's virtual. There is a link to sign up in our show notes, or if you're a member of the grazing grass community, there's a link there as well.
[00:02:49] And that's coming up Thursday, the 26th at 4:00 PM. Pacific time. So you need to go ahead and sign up. There's a link in our show notes.
[00:02:58] 10 seconds about the farm.
[00:03:02] We're going to talk about water.
[00:03:03] You know, we talk a lot of times about fencing infrastructure when you, when you're starting to do some more regenerative practices and you're wanting to rotate animals. Among other things, fencing always a major factor. Then the second thing is water infrastructure now. It affects us so greatly. Uh, we're pretty dry right now. Uh, hopefully by the time you're hearing this, we've gotten a little bit of rain. And we should have a little bit more in late, later in the week, but on my lease property, if I've only got one pond, that is usable right now. And I don't have any piping done on those properties yet. Oh, my dad's properties about half our ponds are dry.
[00:03:44] We've cleaned out a couple of them. Eight. But in addition to the ponds, we have some water. Um, works is we call it. The water works is this gravity flow from one of our ponds to some tanks. And we're actually, um, putting in a few more tanks. So it will benefit us greatly in the future. But that pond, which is a fairly big pond.
[00:04:07] It's the lowest I've ever seen it.
[00:04:10] At least that I can recall. So we got dry here fast, and I'm looking forward to rain. I hope wherever you are, you're getting the rain you need.
[00:04:22] 10 seconds about the podcast. I've been telling you for the last few episodes or maybe a little bit longer. We have new merch coming and it's finally here.
[00:04:33] The election season in the United States is on us. And we're hearing all about it. And as much as I've tried the Grazing Grass couldn't stay out of it. We have new election theme shirts available. So I encourage you to go check out our merch and get you the election theme shirt. Now just a little bit about those shirts. I am partnering with a local homestead that does screen printing. And they are going to print the shirts for us.
[00:05:04] So when you order, it's not going to immediately go out the door, I'm going to get the order to them. They'll get your shirt, get it printed, give it back to me and I'll get it mailed to you. So there, there will be a little bit of a delay, but we'll get it to you as fast as we can.
[00:05:21] So the great part about that is you're supporting the Grazing Grass and you're supporting a local homestead. So I really liked that. Now a little bit about the shirts. I have a problem with shirts. I buy a shirt. I wash it a few times and it's too short for me. Uh, I'm fairly tall, so that's a problem
[00:05:43] I struggle with. These shirts are comfort colors. And I really like them because they don't shrink as bad. Um, I don't know that I can say they don't shrink at all, but they don't shrink as bad. So when I get a size that I wear. After three washings, I can still wear it, which is great. They're also a little bit heavier material, which is great
[00:06:07] as we have head into autumn and winter in the Northern hemisphere.
[00:06:14] If you're down south where you are heading into spring and summer, I'm sure the shirts will work great there as well. But, um, it's a little bit better shirt than what we've had in the past. And I really liked that. I really liked that we're partnering with a local homestead. And I encourage you quickly. go get you a. Uh, election theme Grazing Grass shirt. I, the link is in our show notes, or you can go to grazing grass.com and click on the March link. Thank you.
[00:06:41] I appreciate it. Now let's talk to Ashlynn.
[00:06:45] Ashlynnn, we want to welcome you to the grazing grass podcast. We're excited. You're here today.
[00:06:51] Ashlynn: Thanks for having me, Cal. I'll be honest, I couldn't sleep. I was so excited to do this, so I can't wait to see what we get into.
[00:06:58] Cal: Oh, wonderful. it's a casual conversation, so no reason to be nervous. Some people come on, they're nervous, but to get started, Ashlynn, tell us a little bit about yourself and your operation.
[00:07:10] Ashlynn: So like you said, my name is Ashlynn. I am from Southeast Iowa, but actually I started my cattle experience in Western Iowa. That's where my family is at. And after I got through college I met my husband and we moved back to his home area, which is right north of Fairfield, Iowa. And that is currently where we are running our commercial Red Angus herd with his grandfather, and then we're also working on expanding it into possible other breeds.
[00:07:40] Cal: Oh, yes. Exciting. First, just as a kid, did you grow up in ag?
[00:07:46] Ashlynn: Oh yes, I was the kid that as soon as I was old enough to be in 4 H, I was hounding my parents to have an animal of some kind. My dad actually grew up shooing cattle at the county fair and I remember him telling me all the stories of what they did and what it was like. So I knew that's what I wanted to go into. So
[00:08:07] yes.
[00:08:07] 4 H was my avenue and I knew that. So I got my first calf when I was a fourth grader and I was sold. I was hooked and that's what started my passion. I was very fortunate that my parents supported that passion really well. So I grew up traveling the country during the summer and going to different national shows in the fall. I was in the Salir breed, which is a smaller breed, but I had a
[00:08:30] lot of good opportunity there. So that's where my start was. Salir breed and doing national shows as well as exploring our own seed stock stuff. Again, my parents were so supportive and anything I wanted to try cattle, they were like, all right, you put the work in, we'll do it.
[00:08:48] Cal: very good. Now I, going through school in FFA, I showed at our local show and our county show, and I showed dairy cattle,
[00:08:57] Ashlynn: Oh, very
[00:08:57] Cal: means I had to do some trimming. I had to wash them. I didn't have to ball the tail up. I just had to clean it. I see, I'd see those people showing steers and heifers or the sheep people.
[00:09:10] I felt, I was like, I'm never showing either of those. They put so much work into their animals. My dairy animals. I didn't work with them enough. They could lead, but not great. And I washed them, do a little bit of trimming and we were good to go.
[00:09:27] Ashlynn: Hey, whatever works. I loved washing the animals. I love the haircare, the whole nine yards. So it was fun because as when you show animals, they become your best friend. So I got to
[00:09:38] travel with all my best friends. We went to,
[00:09:41] I think by the time we were done, we had been to 13 different States.
[00:09:44] And I'll eat practically every time I had my best friend, whatever calf it was, for the year with me. Plus my family.
[00:09:52] Cal: Oh yes. That is wonderful. And that's a way so many people get involved in ag and what they do. Salires are an interesting breed. I remember hearing about them and reading about them, but I don't know outside of seeing them at a show, That I've ever seen one out in the wild
[00:10:11] Ashlynn: I guarantee you have and you just didn't know it.
[00:10:15] We
[00:10:15] Cal: that may be the case.
[00:10:18] Ashlynn: we look like in the herd, just out in the pasture, you would think we're an Angus or a Limmy just because of
[00:10:25] our frame
[00:10:26] size and then like the muscling and everything, but it really comes down to a lot more of the like maternal traits.
[00:10:31] So the mothering, the calving ease. The calf vigor milk quality, things like that are what we really promote as the Sleer breed. And we are a
[00:10:40] Cal: Oh, yeah.
[00:10:41] Ashlynn: to do crossbreeding because we transfer into any breed and give those maternal characteristics to them. So, I guarantee
[00:10:47] you've seen one. You just didn't realize it.
[00:10:49] cal_1_09-13-2024_090551: Oh, I probably have. And to be honest, I lament about this all the time. All the breeds look so much alike now. I just don't like that at all.
[00:10:58] Ashlynn: I, hence is why we are with red Angus. So we stand out a little bit more. We're not black like the rest of them. Nothing wrong with that,
[00:11:06] but color is
[00:11:07] Cal: right, right.
[00:11:08] Ashlynn: is fun.
[00:11:09] Cal: Yeah, well, we have red cattle. We also have some black ones, but we have mainly red cattle for my dad's herd and for my herd, I have red cattle, and then I have spotted cattle because I have some Corrientes, and I love the coloration. I love the color genetics, but what I don't love is if they go through a sale ring, but the other parts I
[00:11:31] love, but.
[00:11:32] Ashlynn: one minor part we don't like. We can get past that, it's okay.
[00:11:36] Cal: Right. As long as I can afford it, I can get past
[00:11:39] Ashlynn: Exactly. Everything else is great.
[00:11:42] Cal: So you were started showing in 4 H, showed over the country, 13 different states. And then you said you went to college. Did you go to college for ag?
[00:11:52] Ashlynn: I did, but I'll be honest, my first semester, I went to community college first, because I wasn't quite for sure what university I wanted to go to. And in that first semester, I was like, I'm just going to take very basic classes. I know I want to go into ag, but maybe there's something else. Yeah. First month at a college.
[00:12:10] I knew that was wrong. I was missing my classes about ag. I was missing me with the
[00:12:15] cows. So yeah, I went to college for first ag business. And then after my community college, I went on to get my bachelor's in ag science. And then a year ago, I actually finished my master's in ag education, leadership, and communications. So on top of
[00:12:31] cattle, I also love school. I like it a lot.
[00:12:34] Cal: You know, I have a problem with school as well. If I could, no, not if I could, because I could do it, but I don't want to pay for it. I'd be in school right now.
[00:12:45] I,
[00:12:46] I have my education degrees. I, yeah I love learning in addition to my animal science degree. So that's crazy.
[00:12:54] Ashlynn: Yeah, there's just always
[00:12:55] something new.
[00:12:57] Cal: Oh, yeah, I love.
[00:12:59] So my wife just a few years ago, she had not, she had gone to community college, but hadn't finished her degree and then she went ahead and finished her degree and she's in education, teaching first grade. And I told her, we've got to pick something to learn now because we are not on a structured plan.
[00:13:20] So we spend too much time in the evening not doing anything. I hate to say not doing anything productive. We're getting quality of time together. We're spending time together, and that's very important.
[00:13:32] But, there was a part of the time I was working on my doctorate and she was working on her bachelor's.
[00:13:38] And so the evening was us being quiet and doing our own work, but we were in the same room. But I feel like we don't have that structured plan for learning anymore.
[00:13:47] And she tells me I'm crazy. So that's okay.
[00:13:50] Ashlynn: would be that person in my relationship also. My husband started his master's degree a year after me. So yeah, there was that time frame in there where we were both studying
[00:13:58] and like we could have that conversation because we were learning the same things, different universities, but
[00:14:03] learning the same things, and now it's not there. He doesn't want to go back to school though. He was like, my master's is done, I don't want to do it anymore. He's an ag
[00:14:11] teacher, but he's like, nope, I'm good. So, that's where honestly, he is the guy that does most of the researching for grazing. That's like his niche.
[00:14:22] And then we work together on figuring out how to like actually implement that. So I guess,
[00:14:27] Cal: Oh, yeah.
[00:14:28] Ashlynn: ironically, the grazing part has now become our school and that's what we spend our
[00:14:32] Cal: Oh, yes. Yeah, which is great Yeah, now before we talk more about what you're doing now What university did you go to for your bachelor's and master's?
[00:14:43] Ashlynn: I went to Northwest Missouri State, go bearcats for my bachelor's
[00:14:47] and then my master's I got at Mizzou. I did an internship with the Missouri Beef Industry Council after I graduated my bachelor's and I fell in love with Columbia and I fell in love with Mizzou and I was sold. So I knew exactly that's where I wanted my master's from.
[00:15:03] Cal: oh, yes Yeah, well, I have to say I'm a little disappointed by that answer I thought sure we were gonna get a Iowa State in there Mizzou,
[00:15:13] You know They left a big 12 and went to the SEC And that causes a problem for a football fan who's a fan of Oklahoma State. So, Iowa State, we feel we like Iowa State pretty good as OSU fans.
[00:15:27] If we take 2011 out when
[00:15:30] messed up our national championship chances. So, anyway, no one cares about that, so we'll move on. But
[00:15:37] Ashlynn: We care, though. At the house, my husband went to Iowa State for his bachelor's and master's, so there is a
[00:15:43] Cal: Oh,
[00:15:44] okay. Oh, okay. Well, very good. Very good. You did mention you guys are in Eastern Iowa now.
[00:15:52] Is that fairly close to Missouri where you're located?
[00:15:55] Ashlynn: We're roughly an hour, 10 minutes from the Missouri border. So close.
[00:16:00] yeah.
[00:16:01] Honestly, we're only an hour and a half from the Illinois border also. So we're like in that nice little middle
[00:16:05] Cal: Oh yeah.
[00:16:07] Ashlynn: and
[00:16:07] then we're an hour and a half from Des Moines. So literally perfect little triangle.
[00:16:11] Cal: Oh yeah. Very good. Yes. I'm up in the corner of Oklahoma, so I'm like 40 minutes from Kansas. 50 minutes from Missouri, probably, well, if I could go in a straight line, it'd be shorter, but probably an hour from Arkansas. There's a lake between
[00:16:29] Arkansas And us that you got to go around, so that makes it a little bit longer.
[00:16:33] Ashlynn: that is fair.
[00:16:35] Cal: So, you ended up going to your husband's family his grandparents farm, I think,
[00:16:43] Ashlynn: The generation between And then my husband would be his mom and her siblings and they all were entrepreneurs, honestly. So
[00:16:53] minus my mother in law, she's a elementary teacher love her for it. But yeah, all the more entrepreneurs. So they took different paths and the farm was definitely a
[00:17:03] stepping Stone and help them, but it wasn't necessarily the end all. So there was a gap in there actually where my grandfather-in-law brought in a manager to help take
[00:17:15] care of Because my grandfather also was a very large sow farmer. Like, huge operation. And they did row crop, and then they started cattle. So they needed an additional person to help run stuff.
[00:17:27] So yeah, they had a farm manager come in, and he's been around for the last 15 years, give or take. And actually in the last year and a half, they decided they were going to split row crops pigs, and cattle. So row crop is being cash rented by another local farmer, super nice guy. And then the ranch manager, he is now running just the sow operation. So that gave room for my husband and I to come in and take over the cows. So that's
[00:17:55] Cal: Oh, yes.
[00:17:56] Ashlynn: And then grandpa oversees
[00:17:57] it all.
[00:17:58] Cal: Yeah, which is a great opportunity for you all because getting started in ag is not always the cheapest thing. Yeah.
[00:18:08] Ashlynn: not, we have a lot of friends that we have two of them that they are going to inherit super large row crop operations, but then we have another friend and his wife that they aren't going to really inherit anything. So they're starting from ground zero cattle, row crops,
[00:18:24] full nine yards. And the amount of infrastructure and capital I have to take is just.
[00:18:28] It's crazy. It's scary also
[00:18:31] because with interest rates and everything, but it's what they have to do if they want to get started. So we are very fortunate for where we're at that grandpa left a spot for us to come back to.
[00:18:40] Cal: Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, and we see that so often. So with my grandparents farm they had four kids and two of them are interested in cattle, their son who helps them and does cattle there. And then my mom and dad, my mom was the other sibling and mom and dad do cattle. And I'm here with my parents helping them.
[00:19:05] But then I've got two siblings who, as soon as they could leave the dairy, They took off running and they never looked back. Now for me, I went to college and I worked on the dairy and then came home and dairied until we sold out. So. Obviously, you know right off, I'm not the smartest of the three, but I'm right here where I want to be.
[00:19:25] Ashlynn: And that's the big thing is we feel at home being with the herd. And that's why
[00:19:30] we've stuck around because it's not easy doing a farm, family farm transition, but
[00:19:34] it's worth it. We know what it's worth it.
[00:19:38] Cal: Yeah. Has there been any, I'm sure there's been some growing pains you all coming in to establish operation. Is there any you all want to share to help others?
[00:19:50] Ashlynn: So the biggest thing we've learned through this entire process is communication and being very forward thinking. obviously there's lots of minds involved and lots of thoughts. And it got really, I'll be honest, I got twisted for a little bit in there because so many different ideas are flowing and we hadn't built a strong communication channel yet. And it got to the point where we would show up to the farm and XYZ job would be done. And we're like, hold up, we didn't know that was happening. We didn't know that was a
[00:20:18] Cal: Oh, yeah. Oh,
[00:20:20] Ashlynn: So yeah.
[00:20:20] we learned early on that we have to be very forward and say, okay, here's what we want to do and why. And then leaving it as an open ended conversation, not a yes, no, it's a let's discuss it and figure out what's going to be best for everybody involved.
[00:20:34] So we're not the only ones that are going to benefit from this. We have to make sure our grandpa and everyone else is taken into consideration. So yeah, definitely open communication channel is huge. And honestly, don't take things personal. It's never an attack on you. It's somebody else's emotions coming through and they just. Farm transitions aren't easy, and they're going to let those emotions fly, and you just gotta take it with a grain of salt and know, at the end of the day, you're still family. You gotta make it work if you want the farm to succeed. That's just on our
[00:21:03]
[00:21:03] Cal: Those two pieces are tremendous. I've said on the podcast before communication. You talk to anyone in any industry, you worked a little while in education. I'm sure communication wasn't as good as it needed to be there. Communication is always difficult, so it's always better to over communicate than under communicate.
[00:21:24] Ashlynn: Amen. 100 percent agree with that. Yes.
[00:21:27] Cal: Yeah. And then the other. Not taking it personally. You're all working towards the same goal, and that's important to remember. We're all working towards the same goal. It wasn't, it's not a personal disagreement or attack or anything. It's just their view, their perception of the problem or where you should go is different.
[00:21:48] And as long as you're working towards that end goal, usually you can get there. But if you start taking it personally. Worrying about these other things you run into some problems
[00:21:58] So you all came home to the farm and we talked a little bit about that transition But what did the when you all got there?
[00:22:07] Cal: How what did the farm look like?
[00:22:09] Ashlynn: So the farm was in a, like we said, a state of transition. So we actually not we, grandpa and the farm manager had decided to cut the stocking rate because of the change in management. There was no way that they could run the number of cattle they did and do
[00:22:29] it in a successful manner. And honestly, just because of how large everything was, there was different areas of the farm that had gotten neglected. So, when my husband and I came in there was a lot of good ideas and good purpose. Not everything got executed the way it should. So, we had a lot of fence rows, fence lines that had to get fixed. The pastures, honestly, had been overgrazed in some spots to
[00:22:54] where the amount of diversity was none. Like the grass was literally a lawn. We had a conservation manager from the local NRCS come out and he evaluated our land and everything. And he told us that the only grass we had growing at that time was Kentucky bluegrass. I'm like, great. I just
[00:23:14] Lawn. That's all I have right now. oh, yeah. Yeah. Thistles. Holy moly. The thistles were
[00:23:20] awful. So right away, my husband and I knew we, if we want this to succeed and produce the best cattle we could, we needed to change something. And it wasn't feed because there's plenty of hay. We could get corn stalks. We could get corn. Like that wasn't what was lacking. What was lacking was a pasture that could support our cattle in the way we wanted it to. So honestly, when we came back, the first thing we had to do was re evaluate how the pastures were managed if we wanted to even make it through the summer.
[00:23:53] Cal: When y'all were looking at your pastures and you've got Kentucky bluegrass, some thistles out there, that's not providing you much value. What was your process to figure out what your next step should be?
[00:24:05] Ashlynn: We were honestly lost because I lucked out where I grew up. We never really had any grass management issues. My husband, when he was living on the farm, there wasn't any grass management issues. So when we came back, it was aw man. Where do we start? So we actually have a friend that works in the NRCS office and just talking with her She's like you just need to call out our grazing management Conservation management specialist and have him look at what you have and give you some ideas So
[00:24:34] that's actually where we got started We brought in a specialist and showed him around our one of our main paddocks where we figured we do most of our grazing And just said okay What can we do?
[00:24:45] We know there's erosion issues. We know there's lack of diversity out here. We know there's a weed problem What do we need to do? And he gave us a list different ideas and said you can try Different type of paddock management you could we were at the point. We couldn't really seed anything He's like
[00:25:03] you can also spray for your thistles So he gave us a lot of ideas and we let that kind of digest a little bit my husband started to dig through Iowa State's extension information on grazing and then we pieced together a plan.
[00:25:18] Okay, the first thing we have to do is at least put in paddocks. Um, because at that point the
[00:25:22] pasture had really just been continuously grazed and the cows had a free for all. I'm like, okay, that's not going to
[00:25:28] help us one bit. So we picked a sacrifice area where we decided no matter what happens, this is going to be the piece of area that looks the worst. And we just have to do it. So
[00:25:39] we have a place to set the cows when we're trying to give those other areas a break. So we started there and then we lucked out. There actually was quite a bit of polywire and fence posts for us. So we just started putting out fence posts and polywire where the grass was good. And then after the cows would graze that down, then we started to go back to the other areas that the grass had started
[00:26:04] to come back. There was definitely some spots where my favorite tractor and machinery equipment was the 7830 and the Batwing. I did a lot of Batwing in the first month and a half, because we found a lot of our pasture hadn't been grazed for a while, so it was in a dead state. A. K. A. it had
[00:26:25] been, to the reproductive point, it wasn't vegetative anymore. The cows didn't like the taste of it. So, yeah, I did a lot of bat winging to try and get the grass back to that lush green for them. and we did that, like I said, the first month, but then we got into breeding season, and we needed to get the bulls out with the cows, and things got all complicated.
[00:26:47] So we just split the herd in half. And sent the bull and cows to one paddock and then the other set to a completely different pasture to really reduce the workload on our grass. And just in the two months of us doing that and going through the breeding season, it was phenomenal. Granted, Iowa's had an amazing rain this year.
[00:27:08] We're out of our drought. But just that break, holy moly, we went out there and we started seeing fescue come back, we have roam, we
[00:27:17] have red clover, white clover,
[00:27:19] um, a couple of our spots have the birch tree foil. I can never say that right. It's the yellow flower.
[00:27:25] Cal: neither can I so you're
[00:27:27] Ashlynn: Perfect! But yeah, so like, all I was coming back like, holy cow, okay, this is working. So after
[00:27:33] seeing that, we went back and We had spent a lot of time fixing fence lines and that so we went back to the fence lines that we trusted the most And we really started sectioning out. Okay, here's a section of grass We're going to keep the cows on here until it gets too short And then we're gonna move them and for
[00:27:52] us too short really came down to being When the we could see the cows hooves When we were seeing the cow hoof, I'm
[00:28:00] like, okay, we, we need to move because I don't want to stress this grass any further than it was previously. So we might've been
[00:28:09] a little more lenient with when we pulled them off and could have grazed probably a little harder, but since we were just trying to really get the ground to grow the grass again, we're like, we're gonna be very simple, very easy on this grass.
[00:28:22] Cal: Well, just getting started on grass management and starting with doing some rotational grazing It's easy to get locked into analysis paralysis and too many different ways. What should I do? Should I not do that? Should I don't? Just go start. And I say that and there's so much more to that, but just take an easy approach, whatever that may be for you all.
[00:28:50] If we can see the hoofs, we need to move them. If, whatever that is, make it easy on you at the beginning, you'll, as you reflect and grow, you'll get better at grass management. But but the important thing is to get started, because it's not real easy to get started, because like you, you mentioned, y'all had to decide on a sacrifice area, because if you are, Set stock and over grazing areas.
[00:29:16] You don't have somewhere to put them. You've just got to make a piece and put them there and then start working on the other.
[00:29:23] Yeah, it doesn't change overnight But it you can see results fairly quickly if you get started.
[00:29:30] Ashlynn: Correct. I'll be honest, there was some times where we just did the throw it at the wall and see if it sticks method,
[00:29:36] Cal: Oh,
[00:29:36] yeah
[00:29:37] Ashlynn: we are very fortunate that our cattle are well trained. I spend a lot of time out there petting them. If you've seen on my social media, I'm with them a lot. So they go wherever we want them to and that made it a lot easier was our cattle were trained to us and moving with us and didn't fight. They enjoy being
[00:29:58] around us, so if I wanted to move them, Three or four times in a day. Cause I'm like, I'll snap that fence line. Isn't good there and get out or, Oh, there's really not that much grass here. They didn't fight us. They just went with it
[00:30:10] and we're just happy to be around us. So that helped a lot too, is having the cattle trained to work with us.
[00:30:14] Not against us.
[00:30:16] Cal: You all started moving them breeding season hit and you were able to give, it sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, you were able to give some land a longer rest than what you had planned because of breeding season.
[00:30:28] Ashlynn: Correct.
[00:30:28] Cal: you really saw that seed bank come alive and all these species come out.
[00:30:35] Ashlynn: That is exactly correct. Breeding season was the perfect, it hit at the perfect moment for us.
[00:30:43] Cal: Oh yeah.
[00:30:44] Ashlynn: we were able to not use paddocks where the fence was really bad. It gave us time to
[00:30:51] fix our fence line. It also gave us time to watch honestly what our cows wanted to graze and what they wouldn't graze.
[00:31:00] Cal: Oh
[00:31:00] Ashlynn: Our girls are picky. I'll be honest. And they would go back to the same spot over and over, even if
[00:31:08] they had more grass. In the same paddock, just a different location, because
[00:31:14] we're assuming it was their learned behavior before. It was like everything was overgrazed,
[00:31:18] so if they found a sweet spot, they stayed there. So for us, we were able to also learn their behaviors and say, Okay,
[00:31:25] we have to make them move, or we have to put up an additional paddock just to make them mob graze a certain area. So they realize, Oh, there's food here. I can eat here.
[00:31:39] And not just keep going back to the same spot, creating an overgrazed location and causing more issue.
[00:31:45] So yeah, breeding scenes was excellent for us in that way. We also
[00:31:49] lucked out that the bulls have their own pasture they stay in. So we knew if
[00:31:54] worse came to worse, we had another pasture that we could move them to. That was the nice
[00:32:00] thing. We have enough pasture land we could move cattle and we weren't stuck to one spot.
[00:32:06] Cal: Very good. With doing that in your paddocks, was your water situation such that you were able to get them to water easily, or do you all have to do anything to improve your water infrastructure?
[00:32:20] Ashlynn: So that's the nice thing of Southeast Iowa. For the most part, we have a decent amount of waterways around here, whether it be ponds,
[00:32:26] Cal: Oh yeah.
[00:32:27] Ashlynn: you name it. So most of our areas have a natural water source of some kind,
[00:32:33] but on the flip side, grandpa and the previous farm manager did an excellent job of adding in water sources where it made sense So,
[00:32:43] we have a couple areas that have the nice covet waters, we have a few gravity fed waters. So,
[00:32:50] water is never an issue, thankfully, because that additional infrastructure has been put in place. But, if they ever went out, we didn't have to worry because there were natural water sources located in the paddock for the cattle. And that's just a
[00:33:05] Cal: So right there. Yeah. Unfair advantage you have. really unfair, but advantage you have is your source of water. What your your husband's grandparents have done plus all the natural water available makes that water piece. That's usually a little bit of a issue for a lot of people not be such a big concern for you.
[00:33:27] So, very good. Now, You started moving them. How often are you moving cows now? What are your rules for your grass management? Are you still following that, if you can see their hoof, it's time to move. Are you doing anything differently now?
[00:33:43] Ashlynn: So, we are still following the HOOF method, but I've also talked to a couple of friends that also are trying to build in more rotational grazing, and the easiest advice I've heard is the third rule. So, we of monitor and We let them eat a third, trample a third, and then we try to leave that third. And
[00:34:03] sometimes
[00:34:04] Cal: yeah.
[00:34:05] Ashlynn: it's a little more than a third, and that's fine. Because again, we want to keep that grass growing. Because we started this, I would say honestly, beginning of the summer is when we really started to do rotational grazing. And since then amount of thistles have disappeared. Yes, we did some spraying on the really nasty
[00:34:23] spots, but like the rocky areas where we couldn't get to, just by pushing more grass growth, the grass has taken
[00:34:31] over some of those weed spots. So seeing that was like, okay, we're on the right track. We're making it work. We got to make sure we keep giving the grass its best opportunity possible. And there was
[00:34:42] honestly times where we probably couldn't move the calves, but they were doing so well in a paddock and the paddock was doing good. We didn't want to disrupt that cycle. So to keep
[00:34:53] the other paddocks growing, I would just go batwing it and keep it in that vegetative growth, push those seeds heads into the ground with the tractor tires.
[00:35:01] Not perfect, but it works. And we would do that enough to keep it going. We did get to a point where some of the paddocks were just rock stars and growing beyond what we could, and we were able to bale them for hay this year. Which
[00:35:15] Cal: Oh, yes.
[00:35:16] Ashlynn: because we have a friend, she is a dairy nutritionist and has access to feed samples. So she came and tested our grass fails. And it helped us
[00:35:26] see what our nutritional value was on those paddocks. So then we knew when we
[00:35:31] put the cows out there, what they were receiving. Also gave us a good idea of like, maybe we need to start a fertilizer program for our soil.
[00:35:39] Whether it's on the hog manure nearby, or if we need to give co op. It gave us that additional knowledge piece to take care of the grass
[00:35:47] Cal: Oh, yeah. And I would assume that hog manure, the availability of that would be really nice. We use, we had chicken houses for a little while. And I tell people that chicken litter or broiler
[00:36:01] litter could make rocks grow grass. We put it on, it makes a tremendous difference and really helped the land here.
[00:36:10] Ashlynn: Correct. Chicken litter is something that here in Iowa, people are starting to do research on certain fields, just because I
[00:36:17] was one of the like number one egg producers, so we have a lot of chickens here. It's just figuring out how to use that manure and yeah, there's lot of research because they're finding out it is a good nutrition source for soil.
[00:36:26] Cal: Oh yeah. There, there's some things you have to be careful about, but wow. It's amazing what it can do to land
[00:36:33] or how it can help in the process. Now with your cattle, you talked about moving paddocks. Are you, and you'd also mentioned you all had some poly wiring stuff, so I assume you're using some electric fence in addition to your permanent pastures to subdivide those down.
[00:36:50] Ashlynn: Correct. So a lot of our fencing, I would say the external line, so the outside is permanent. And then we have in all the paddocks, at least one or two other permanent sections. So, Our big pastures are split into about three chunks, and then we use polywire
[00:37:08] to break it down even further from there. Cause they're also not perfect squares or perfect triangles, so we use
[00:37:15] that polywire.
[00:37:16] Correct! Why would it be perfect? So yeah, we use
[00:37:19] the
[00:37:19] Cal: Yes.
[00:37:20] Ashlynn: to Help build a paddock that makes sense because in two like we had calves out there And we have some calves that took off and we're eating grass fantastic and others that weren't so that kind of changed
[00:37:32] How much area we gave them based on what the calves were eating also?
[00:37:36] And there would be times when
[00:37:38] or recently we went to wean calves and we started them on creep feed Again to try to take some that stress off everybody And that meant we really had to adapt how the paddocks set up because we only have one spot in the pasture that the creep feeder would sit level
[00:37:53] and not get sunken in. So of course that changed the paddocks and yeah. So the polywire helped us be more flexible based upon what the cattle were needing at that time.
[00:38:03] Cal: Did you, have you had any trouble with your cat on the poly wire or anything you all learned? Like, Oh, we shouldn't do this. We got to do this with poly wire.
[00:38:13] Ashlynn: Oh yeah, we've had some learning curves with it, to say the least. We have, we call her Big Mama. She is just this huge, semi tall cow. Sweetest thing ever. But she's a fence pusher. And if she
[00:38:26] finds a weak spot, oh man. And that's the biggest thing we learned was our hot wire. We had to run it really hot for a while.
[00:38:35] We had to retrain her and all of her followers that
[00:38:40] Cal: Oh yes.
[00:38:41] Ashlynn: poly wire. Do not cross the poly wire. It is not going to end well for you. So we had to go, we actually luck out and QC supply over in Washington isn't too far from us. So we took our solar panel electric fencers over to them and had them test them and replace some of the parts that weren't working quite as well so we could up our voltage and that really helped a lot. And now,
[00:39:04] that was mid summer, so now the girls, they respect the poly wire way more because they learned it's hot. But yeah, that was our biggest challenge, was training them to respect that poly wire. Because it doesn't look like their normal fence, it's not barbed
[00:39:16] wire or woven wire, it was just a piece of string, so they had to learn that was
[00:39:21] Cal: Oh yeah. Did you ever test your fence to see how many voltage or how many votes it was putting out?
[00:39:27] Ashlynn: Yep. Every time we would move them and put it back up, we would test and we've gone everywhere from when the solar power, solar panel, electric fence wasn't working quite as well. We were all like, Seven volts. My husband can tell you if it's like a thousand hundred whatever, but seven was the number they gave us and now we're all the way
[00:39:47] up to eleven. And when we hit that
[00:39:49] Cal: Oh, okay. Okay.
[00:39:50] Ashlynn: the girls learned way faster, like don't cross
[00:39:53] Cal: Oh, yeah.
[00:39:54] Ashlynn: So now
[00:39:54] we ride the line at like nine. Nine thousand volts is where we,
[00:39:58] I think it's nine thousand volts is where we like to sit typically.
[00:40:01] Cal: I think I suspect you're correct there. Very good. I know getting started with polywire can sometimes be a little headache. We purchased a few cows this spring, and they are fence pushers. They were trained to get out of their pastures, and they have caused us headaches. In fact, if they don't straighten their act up pretty shortly, they're going to find a new pasture.
[00:40:25] They're on very list right now. Yeah. And if we knew they were going to be French fence pushers, we wouldn't have purchased them, but we thought there's opportunity there. we thought they'd work out good. And, they've been headaches for In fact, just other night, dad calls me and says, Hey, you
[00:40:41] got a cow out on the hill.
[00:40:43] So I go up there and of course it's one of those. And then while I'm sitting there, we have a ATV or a UTV cattle guard. There I watched, Two other of them, two more of them that's from this set walk the cattle guard. So, I had to
[00:40:59] Ashlynn: have talented cows is what
[00:41:01] Cal: Yes. Well, that's not the word I was using, but yes, they're
[00:41:06] Ashlynn: Fair enough. Yeah, we can't say what we actually call them in that moment.
[00:41:12] Cal: Right. Yes. So I'm not very pleased with those cows. They got to straighten up their act pretty soon.
[00:41:19] Ashlynn: I don't blame you.
[00:41:20] I support that.
[00:41:21] Cal: let's shift gears just a little bit. We'll continue talking about your cows. Your grandfather had Red Angus, which I think is a another very unfair advantage. You might even say red Angus are a nice breed for grazing and they've really focused on the maternal qualities in red Angus.
[00:41:41] So I think that's a huge advantage coming in and doing a change over to grazing. And with that, with the different breeds, there's more variation within a breed than between breeds. But some just seem to work out a little bit better than others.
[00:41:56] Ashlynn: And you are right. We, I say we have a red Angus herd, but reality it's a red Angus commercial herd. So
[00:42:02] our bulls we run are pure red Angus. And then our cows, So before we came in, grandpa and the range manager, they were trying different things to see what would stick for breeds. So
[00:42:14] Cal: Oh yeah.
[00:42:14] Ashlynn: from Scimitol, Hereford, apparently some Lemmy cross in there, but
[00:42:20] of the cows we kept back, most of them really ride that Red Angus or Scimitol
[00:42:26] cross. And my favorite cow out there, She is a semi cross and I love her pieces, but I will be honest. She isn't as good as a grazer compared to some of our Red
[00:42:38] Angus looking mamas. They just eat and eat and their calves were monsters this year. And we were very impressed with how they perform.
[00:42:47] We will keep our
[00:42:48] Simital girls. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, you can see that difference in some of those breed characteristics. I'm
[00:42:54] Cal: Oh, yes. I'm sure you can. Now you had mentioned, or I think you mentioned earlier, you're considering some other breeds as well?
[00:43:03] Ashlynn: still a Salier girl at heart, so I would like
[00:43:05] The Saliers back to Southeast Iowa. But even then, my husband and I agree with him. It's very big on heterosis and the
[00:43:15] benefits that come from crossbreeding. So, like I said, we have a lot of those mamas that show a lot of red angus characteristics. And we have that purebred Red Angus bull, which is great. We love them, but
[00:43:27] as we expand and grow the herd, we want to try and bring in another breed that will compliment what we have already and then just help us go that next step above. So yeah, we're in the
[00:43:37] market, not quite for sure what market we'll land in, but we're in the
[00:43:40] market for another breed.
[00:43:43] Cal: Well, to be honest, I really like using an English breed as the base of your maternal herd. And I say that, and actually when we talk about my dad's herd, it's a limousine based herd that we've introduced some other breeds in to bring down some size. We'd already worked on docility because that's so important.
[00:44:03] And some other things to do there. And then for my own herd, I have some. I guess you could call South Poll kinda English based because Hereford and Angus were used in its development. And then, if you go back further, I think you could lump it in there, but then I have some Corrientes, and those would not be considered English.
[00:44:24] So, but I do like that English base for your herd. and crossing them with a continental or exotic breed and salir would be fairly unrelated to
[00:44:37] that so that would be a really good cross I think in my mind
[00:44:41] Ashlynn: I'm
[00:44:41] Cal: outside my lack of familiarity of it
[00:44:44] Ashlynn: Nope, I'm going to tell my husband you said that, so I can use it to my
[00:44:47] Cal: oh okay there you go and I'm always partial to the to red breeds too so that's
[00:44:53] Ashlynn: And Saler is naturally red, that. deep mahogany, that pretty red.
[00:45:04] Cal: and then, going down the highway, someone there has, I don't know, 20 head, a really deep red cattle deeper red than Red Angus typically are this area.
[00:45:16] They remind me a red pole. There's some other breeds of possibility Someone's outside one day I will be stopping to find out what they're doing there look a little bit different and find out and the other part is that my wife can't be with me. She does not let me pull into driveways with me She's like you're not stopping and talking to them Well, they're outside.
[00:45:40] So I'm sure they're friendly. It's fine.
[00:45:43] yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, which goes against the extra introvert I was talking about that kind of stuff I'm apt to do. So who knows? So as you think about other breeds, are you, have you thought about, and we can cut this out, have you thought about other species or you content with the cattle and sticking with cattle?
[00:46:06] Ashlynn: We are sticking with cattle, for sure. I'll be honest though, like, if, when, I should say when we start having kids, hopefully, I wouldn't be against if my kids wanted to show sheep or goats, but
[00:46:19] I, those creatures are just different in how you feed them, how you grow them, how you breed them, and I like my cows.
[00:46:27] I will stick with my
[00:46:28] Cal: yeah, well, there you go. We can, that's a whole different story. ruminants. Yes. Yeah. Ashlynnn, It is time that we transition to our overgrazing section sponsored by Redmond.
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[00:47:39]
[00:47:39] Cal: In the overgrazing section, we're going to take a little bit deeper dive into your operation. And today we're actually moving a little bit away from your operation, more towards social media and sharing your ag story.
[00:47:52] So. Let's just jump in. Why did you start sharing your ag story and why should others?
[00:48:01] Ashlynn: Really for a personal benefit. I hate to say it that way, but I just wanted to show what we were doing to hopefully encourage somebody else to try. When I was in high school, this make me sound old, but when I was in high school, Instagram became a thing and
[00:48:18] I remember posting just a picture of my show Heifer or my Bowl of the year, or my show steer, whatever it was, and it would just. blow up because people love looking at cattle and they would want to ask questions
[00:48:33] and it was a time period I really enjoyed. Well, as I got older, I stepped away from it, but now with where social media is at, we're a lot more at a video based. type
[00:48:45] of content, not photos. And I'll be honest, that scared me.
[00:48:49] I was like, I can't make a video. I'm going to look like an idiot. I can't edit like no way, no how. But I went to a marketing conference, like I've mentioned, and that conference was two part. And the first part, they just showed us like the basics of using social media to share your story. And as I sat there, I'm like, I can do that.
[00:49:10] I know my story. I know it better than anyone else. Right.
[00:49:13] Us a task afterwards to a month between the two sessions to actually start posting, just try. And I did. And surprisingly it took off. And I realized how much I enjoyed having those conversations and responding to
[00:49:28] comments about what we were doing and The number of people that would come up to me and be like, I see your videos.
[00:49:35] I love them. Or, Oh, I wait every day for you to post. I'm like, if anything, I'm at least making people smile. There's older generations. I'd be like, you remind me so much of what it was like for us on the farm growing up. And like, I just love seeing everything you're doing. So yeah, I started sharing on social media just as like a personal thing, but now I do it to really, like I said, encourage others and help other people just realize what's happening in agriculture and show like, it's not always going to be perfect, but as long as you're putting an effort
[00:50:05] forth, that's what counts.
[00:50:09] Cal: And I think that's so important. And you mentioned there early on, personal benefit. I started a podcast for my personal benefit. The podcast people would talk to me that if I just called them on the phone says, Hey, I got some questions. They may have been a little more apprehensive about it, but when I say, Hey, I've got a podcast, they're like, sure, I'll come on and talk to you.
[00:50:30] So it's worked really great and I get tons of benefit from it. And I just happen to share it with my closest friends. So. It's been really beneficial, but I started the podcast from the Same purpose, personal benefit. And then I thought might as well be sharing these. And I think it's so important.
[00:50:49] We get ag out there so people can see it. I think when you're post on Tik TOK, I've seen, you've talked about the percentage of people in ag and the percentage of people not in ag, and it's important we share our stories so they see, so there's some connection there. Yeah.
[00:51:06] Ashlynn: Bingo. Connection is the key term. It is what any advocate really is striving for, is
[00:51:14] helping the, helping the consumer, helping the person that's not there with you, see how, A, it either relates to them, or B, how they can see themselves in that situation. Because,
[00:51:25] in all reality, there is less than 2 percent of people And America's entire population in production agriculture, meaning the people growing their food every day. 2 percent is not a majority. That is not going to swing votes.
[00:51:39] That's not going to be the main narrative being shared. So we have to be encouraging people and building a team for production agriculture for the, with those who aren't in ag, to help share our story and support us and honestly protect the livelihood of agriculture and make sure
[00:51:59] as Farmers and rangers.
[00:52:00] We still can live out our passions and our family legacies and do it in the best way possible for everyone involved.
[00:52:10] Cal: Oh, yes. Yeah. If someone's out there listening and they're thinking, maybe I should, boy, that S was tough. Someone out there listening. Yeah, I know. S's get me sometimes. Someone's out there listening and they're thinking, Oh, maybe I should share my ag story. How would you suggest they get started?
[00:52:31] Ashlynn: So, if you are wanting to start, I would recommend pick one social media platform. There are, as we know, multiple out there. But when it comes
[00:52:41] down to it, you just need to pick one that you feel the most comfortable with. Learn that platform. Learn the best time to post, learn what type of post your people like, learn what is the difference between a video, a like, a comment, share. Learn all of that, because they all have different terminology with it. And then once you become really good at one platform, and you've built your audience there, then go to the next one. And same thing, just pick one that you feel comfortable with, one that you understand, and just keep going. At the end of the day You don't have to be on every single platform. It should not. I know we live in a world where people want to be the greatest thing and have all this attention and celebrity and be trendy.
[00:53:27] Yes, that's important, but I'll be honest. I've had a couple videos go trendy. Holy moly, there are more mean people out there than I thought.
[00:53:37] And at the end of the
[00:53:38] day, I was like, That's not really my audience. That is not who I'm trying to speak to. So there's
[00:53:45] no point in me worrying about Someone who isn't going to actually engage with my content. So that's we're going back learning your platform learning what your audience wants And just sticking with that. Don't worry about being trendy. Stick with what your audience wants because those
[00:54:00] are the people that will defend you at the end of the day and stand for your livelihood with you.
[00:54:05] Cal: Oh yes. So someone's starting this, how do they learn what their audience likes when they should post?
[00:54:13] Ashlynn: So there's a lot of different ways you can do it. I was very basic and I would just hop on Google and be like, when's the best time to post on Facebook? Or when's the best time to post on Instagram? And there's people out there that have done research for years and can tell you the correct times and whatnot. And I just started from there. And if it
[00:54:30] showed, okay, yeah. a lot of my people, so I'll be honest, I had a, my trends going ups and downs and there was a while in there where 8 a. m. was my post time, like on the dot, I swear it was all the high school students checking their phones and all the adults checking their phones when they got to work.
[00:54:49] But yeah, 8 a. m. was my, 8 a. m. was my time. And then it shifted and all of a sudden went to 1 p. m. And then it
[00:54:57] went to 4 p. m. So it just was an ebb and flow. And I learned that just by posting and seeing what type of reactions I would get.
[00:55:05] As for content, I walk out and I have a very strong following on Facebook already from my family and friends, and they've told me they like my ag stuff, and that's become my personality, is just people know me as the ag girl.
[00:55:19] Like, I talk about
[00:55:20] cows, I love my cows, I have my dog, I have chickens, I was an ag teacher at the Faze in Portland. Like, that was just who I was. So I would say for anyone that's trying to figure out what their content should be, take a minute and just look at like, what does your personality say about you?
[00:55:36] Are you someone that rides horses a lot? Are you someone that shows livestock? Are you somebody that works for a local mechanic? Like, that's a personality. Like, and just start
[00:55:46] sharing bits and pieces of that. It does not have to be a video. You could post a picture or honestly, stories. Stories are a huge area that people miss out on. Not everyone wants to have to scroll through how many pages and links. They just want to tap on the stories and go right through. So just start with your
[00:56:03] Cal: Oh yeah.
[00:56:04] Ashlynn: find something that works for you and works for your audience and go with it.
[00:56:09] Cal: Very good. One thing I pick out from there, lean into whatever you're doing, lean into it and use that. Don't try and figure out something else to add to what you're doing. Just lean in.
[00:56:23] Ashlynn: Exactly.
[00:56:25] Cal: Well, Ashlynn, it is almost time for us to do the famous four, but before we get there Do you have anything you'd like to share that maybe I didn't cover or you thought I might and you're like, Hey, I'd like to share this. Is there something you'd like to add?
[00:56:40] Ashlynn: Honestly, I'll say your questions were phenomenal. I feel like we covered everything that I feel like I know really well and fits the podcast. So I'm going to say no, you did a very good job.
[00:56:52] Cal: Well, well, thank you , it's nice to hear that. Hey, maybe I did
[00:56:56] Ashlynn: I support it. I think you did fantastic. Gold star.
[00:56:59] Cal: Well, thank you. Well, Ashlynnn, it is time for us to transition to our famous four questions. And yes, I know I say transition every time. And when I record an episode, I'm always like, I got to learn a new word there.
[00:57:12] And then when I go to do the next episode, it's transition again.
[00:57:16] Ashlynn: It's a
[00:57:16] Cal: It's time to transition. It is. It is because it's just almost on autopilot when I hit. Oh, it's this point. I just, it just comes out, just rolls, rolls out as we transition to the famous four questions sponsored by Kencove Farm Fence.
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[00:58:41] There's same four questions we ask of all of our guests.
[00:58:44] Our first question, Ashley, what is your favorite grazing grass related book or resource?
[00:58:50] Ashlynn: So my favorite resource would honestly be our extension and outreach. I
[00:58:56] am not a reader, which is terrible to say because I was a teacher, but I'm not a reader. I enjoy like conversation or watching video.
[00:59:04] So Iowa State Extension has a lot of stuff that we bounce ideas off of. And then honestly, I use people in my network.
[00:59:14] I found out there's more
[00:59:15] people that are doing, or trying to do grazing. And just having conversation with what works for them, what doesn't, has helped me a ton. I'll be
[00:59:25] honest. I'll speak on my husband's half. If he had a pick, it would either be his grazing management book from Iowa state or Tik TOK. That is where he goes for a
[00:59:33] Cal: Oh, yes.
[00:59:34] Ashlynn: So it's a good balance between us. We use a lot of
[00:59:37] Cal: Yeah. There you go.
[00:59:38] Ashlynn: Yeah. There's not
[00:59:39] like one main book or anything I would give out. It's really just finding that group for us. That group is Iowa state extension and then our cattle friends.
[00:59:51] So I'm free.
[00:59:52] I'll use myself as a resource if someone needs them, if you want, you can use
[00:59:56] me as someone in your network.
[00:59:59] Cal: Wonderful. Our second question, what is your favorite tool for the farm?
[01:00:06] Ashlynn: My favorite tool would probably be, I thought on this one really hard because there's a lot. I love our batwing because when we can't get to our
[01:00:17] paddocks, it helps keep them in the best vegetative state as possible. But I also love our UTV. I love our UTV because it is a truck. It can haul
[01:00:35] fence posts. It helps us move cattle.
[01:00:37] It hauls feed. I don't know what we would do without it. So, I don't know, maybe a toss up between one of those two. Or even just our fence structure we have now because it helps us
[01:00:49] move the cows. There's not one main one, I'm very grateful for a lot of the tools we have.
[01:00:56] Cal: I've mentioned this on the podcast before. When I was working out the structure for the podcast, I knew I wanted to end. with where people can find out more about you. And I knew I wanted a question in there about resources, and I knew I wanted advice question. So that's one coming up. But then that last question I was trying to figure out, I wasn't even sure what I should ask.
[01:01:23] And I landed up on what's your favorite tool? And. When I first started, I was like, I just don't know about this. It's actually one of my favorite questions now. I enjoy them all, but I love the answers because they're so varied and different points of view. And I get answers, I'm not anticipating.
[01:01:43] Sometimes I anticipate them, but I always look forward to what's a person's favorite tool for the farm.
[01:01:49] Ashlynn: It's like, uh, if you could be a part of a cheeseburger, what would you be? Question. You don't know what's going to
[01:01:53] Cal: yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Our third question, Ashlynnn, what would you tell someone just getting started?
[01:02:03] Ashlynn: I would tell someone just getting started to dump out yourself. Don't get in that analysis paralysis. Just try. The fact that you care enough to think about the decision you're making is what matters. If you do the wrong thing, so what? You can bounce back. It'll be okay. You just have to try. And if you really are stuck, reach out, ask for help.
[01:02:27] In the ag world, that's something I've learned is we are very much a family and we want
[01:02:32] other people to succeed. There, there are very few individuals that will turn you down because they don't want you to succeed. And if you find one of those people, cut them from your circle. They're not meant to be there. There's too many other people that want you to succeed and help you. So yeah, just keep trying. And again, if you get stuck, push forward, find someone to help you and just don't stop. We need people in agriculture. Do not stop trying. We need you here.
[01:03:01] Cal: excellent advice. I think the two things, try it, get started. And then the community is so supportive, so helpful to other people, or at least that's what I found as well. So yeah, reach out. And lastly, Ashlynn, where can others find out more about you?
[01:03:19] Ashlynn: You can find me on three main social media platforms. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. All of them are the same name. I'm under Ashlynn Lingle Jones. Feel free to follow me, message, whatever you would like. I am here just to help. I want to answer questions. I want to help you find your ag story.
[01:03:39] I want you to find your place in ag. So honestly, I had somebody reach out earlier this year asking if I knew anyone that needed summer help because they want to get more experience on the farm.
[01:03:48] And I gave them a list of friends I had in the area. So whatever you need, find me on one of those platforms.
[01:03:54] I'm more than happy to help you. And if I can't, I
[01:03:58] Cal: Very good, Ashlyn. Oh, there you go. Ashlynnn, we really appreciate you coming on and sharing with us today. Really enjoyed the conversation.
[01:04:08] Ashlynn: Thank you. I really enjoyed my time and I can't wait to hopefully have more conversations.
[01:04:14] Cal: Wonderful.
[01:04:15] I really hope you enjoyed today's conversation. I know I did. Thank you for listening, and if you found something useful, please share it. Share it on your social media. Tell your friends. Get the word out about the podcast. Helps us grow. If you happen to be a grass farmer and you'd like to share about your journey, go to grazinggrass.
[01:04:39] com and click on Be Our Guest. Fill out the form and I'll be in touch.
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[01:05:10] You can visit the website grazing grass.com. Click on support and they'll have the links there. Also, if you haven't left us a review, please do. It really helps us as people are searching for podcasts. And I was just checking them and we do not have very many reviews for 2024. So if you haven't left us a review, please do.
[01:05:34] And until next time, keep on grazing grass.
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