Wordless Wednesday: FarmHer

For this week's Wordless Wednesday I'm sharing another guest photographer's amazing work! Last week at the AgEI Entrepreneurship Roundtable, I was blessed to meet Marji Guyler-Alaniz. This sweet lady is on a mission to share the story of women in agriculture through her talents behind the camera. Her photos are currently featured at the Des Moines Social Club and have been picked up by Huffington Post and the popular site, Upworthy. I hope you are inspired by each of these photos as much as I have been!

I'd love to share more about my time with Marji and her business, but since I cheated last week, I better keep this Wordless Wednesday on track. Please visit the FarmHer website for more details and "Like" the FarmHer Facebook page to see the latest happenings with the project. Thanks for reading!

Monday Night Movie Night, 6th edition

This week's Monday Night Movie Night is a mix of a few different topics within agriculture that interest me. While browsing through YouTube, it really made me thankful for all the diversity within agriculture.

Recently, I found this super helpful YouTube channel, americashearland. They have all kinds of Agriculture 101 videos that explain common agricultural practices. Check out this one defining crop rotation.

In honor of #NationalPorkMonth, I'm sharing this video of Leah, a hog producer, and her daily morning chores routine. It's so cool to see other people my age advocating for agriculture by sharing their stories.

Did you know Ashton Kutcher is from Iowa? Click below to see the viral video of his "Iowa Story." After CALS Week last week, it really made me take time to think about what he said and I have to agree, "the greatest natural resource in Iowa... [is] the people." 

As always, thanks for reading! I hope you learned a little Agriculture 101, looked into #NationalPorkMonth, and Ashton Kutcher stirred up a little Iowa pride for all you Iowans out there!

Wordless Wednesday: Fall on the Farm

Last week I discovered my friend, Kaci Keitzer's beautiful fall photography and just had to share it for this week's Wordless Wednesday. She shot these gorgeous scenes back home a couple weekends ago. Kaci grew up on a family farm in Mediapolis, Iowa just about a half hour from my hometown of Columbus Junction. We are both studying Agricultural Business at Iowa State University and serve as Peer Mentors together. I'm sure you will enjoy her perspective on soybeans, John Deere equipment, and sheep.

I'm so thankful Kaci let me share her talent with all of you. Take some time to enjoy the beautiful autumn weather and amazing scenery this harvest season! Thanks for reading!

Fields of Corn Photo Contest

Today at work, while snooping around the Iowa Corn sTalk blog for some details on an upcoming event I ran across an exciting post. The National Corn Growers Association is hosting a "Fields of Corn" Photo Contest! It's a good thing it was close to my lunch hour when I made this discovery because I couldn't stop thinking of all the photos gathering cyber dust on my hard drive sitting at home. My pictures could be put to use telling the world about agriculture!! As soon as I took my break I began jotting down photos that came to mind and photographer friends to encourage to enter.

All this excitement brings me to a couple basic requests. If you are a farmer, love country life, live in the rural Midwest, are passionate about agriculture, or any and all of the above take a few minutes to submit a few photos. Who knows, your images may be used to explain to millions of consumers the industry and lifestyle we love! If you don't have any pictures to share, take some time look through the submissions and vote for your favorites. (I've submitted several and would appreciate your vote!)  :) Below are some of the pictures I plan to enter.

"Country Curves"

"Homestead Sunset"

"Harvest Me"