93
Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
93
Paula Peterson - Farmer Paula Has a Farm
In this episode we visit with Paula Peterson, who farms and raises cattle north of Waverly, Nebraska. Paula is a servant leader--she's been involved in countless organizations ranging from 4-H and FFA to the Nebraska LEAD program and Nebraska Farm Bureau. She is an AGvocate--she's passionate about telling the story of Nebraska and its number one industry agriculture. Recently she launched a Facebook page called Farmer Paula Has a Farm as part of her effort. Giving back, each and every day.
Welcome to 93 the podcast, where we talk about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen. I'm Mark Falson, your host for today's episode, brought to you by Nebraska's law firm, Rimble Lucky. We're joined today by Paula Peterson, a farmer and an agricultural advocate, or I'll call her an advocate, who uh farms just north of Waverly and is one of the most amazing people I've ever had the opportunity to meet and spend time with. And she's going to tell you a little bit more about all the many things she's involved in. Paula, thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_02:Well, Mark, it's good to hear from you. I always like getting a chance to talk to you.
SPEAKER_01:You are so kind. So, in typical Paula Peterson fashion, you've been busy this month, this week, and this day. Uh, you've worked really hard on this very cold Nebraska day. And you just wrapped up some work, I believe, for Farm Bureau. What what's this day or what did today look like for you?
SPEAKER_02:Um, it it was cold. Um we we we started the day um getting to chop waterers um because we do raise cattle, and so the most important things cattle have to have is fresh water. Um honestly, when it's cold, it is twice as important as when it's hot. Uh average cow can drink about 15 gallons of water a day, which is about the size of a bathtub. So you've got to make sure you've got water out here for them all the time. Um then I got to actually, I did bookwork a little bit today and made cookies for the FF Waverly FFA chapter since it's national FFA week. You've got to make cookies for your characters.
SPEAKER_01:What kind of cookies?
SPEAKER_02:I made chocolate chip.
SPEAKER_01:Very nice.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't go anything too flamboyant, I just went with straight chocolate chip.
SPEAKER_01:So uh which is your chapter. Yeah, correct. That's the chapter I was uh again so very fortunate to have been a member of and that gave me so many tremendous opportunities. Like I I I can't, the older I get, the I the more I appreciate all the things I learned in the Waverly FFA chapter. So where where's your farm at?
SPEAKER_02:Uh we're just north of Waverly. Um pretty much like straight north of Waverly and straight east of Davy. So if you draw uh two straight lines, you that's where we intersect.
SPEAKER_01:So I ask a lot of our guests, and I can't ask you this, but I'm gonna ask you anyway. So most of our guests ask what your license plate free prefix is, but you're in Lancaster County, correct?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, my mine's actually AFA.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and the AFA stands for what?
SPEAKER_02:It's what they gave me.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So yeah, so back in the good old days, uh it was two. Two, correct. So we'll take credit for two, right?
SPEAKER_02:And I actually have grown up in 54 Proponney County. Okay, uh, 48 Red Willow, um, 14 Adams, 70 Dakota, and then I spent most of my time here in June now.
SPEAKER_01:So tell us about your family.
SPEAKER_02:I have two fabulous daughters that are grown that grew up in the Waverley FFA and Rock Creek Ranchers for each.
SPEAKER_01:You need to start with your husband, though. Tell us about your husband. Really?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. Well, yeah. So, well, Tom and I've been together for 38 years. It'll be 39 this year. We met at the university. Um, he was a farm boy, a lifelong farm boy. And um I can't I can't imagine doing this without him. He's the reason I do it every day. He's the reason I go out and chop waters when it's negative, whatever it was this morning that I didn't have the guts to look at before I walked outside. Um, and then we have two daughters that are grown. Um Amanda works for Eustace Body Shop here in Lincoln. She's been pretty busy the last few days. Uh I'm sure. And then Amanda Erica is up in Duncan and she works for Bomgars.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So and she has a beautiful three-year-old granddaughter. I have a three-year-old granddaughter, and then Amanda has two kids, Callie, who graduated last year, and then Christian, who's a junior at Waverly this year.
SPEAKER_01:So it's Grandma Paula.
SPEAKER_02:It is grandma Paula.
SPEAKER_01:You raise cattle. What else do you do on your farm?
SPEAKER_02:Um, we raise corn and soybeans and alfalfa. Uh, most of the alfalfa we raise is safe back for our cows, so we have it during the now. Uh we use a lot of mix of grass, hay and alfalfa as part of the ration to make sure we've got some really good nutrition out there for the cows. Um, we are a cow calf operation, which means we raise baby calves for a living. Um, so we're getting close to where we're gonna start calving. The majority of our calves will come um uh first part of March until the first part of May before we get ready to turn them out on pasture. Our cows will spend the first part of May, depending on if we get rain. That's always the kicker on you don't know when you're gonna turn them out on pasture. You know that. Um, that you just have to really make sure that you're gonna have good, nutritious grass for the cows. Um, we'll keep an eye on them all summer long. Last year, come August, we had to start supplementing them with feed up here in the lot because the grass was not there anymore. So it's really, really important that we know we've got good quality feed for our cows. And that's part of what you know, the alfalfa we raise goes for that. Um, the corn, we actually keep grow corn silage also, which is a very, very high protein, high energy feed for cattle, uh, especially when you're raising a lot of mama cows, that you really need that extra nutrition, especially going into this time of year.
SPEAKER_01:So, Paula, you're so you're just so involved in so many organizations, agriculture, non-agriculture, community, whatever may be, what's currently occupying your time?
SPEAKER_02:Um right now I'm working on um a very, very exciting project with the Raymond Central FFA. They didn't know what they um got themselves signed up for when they signed up for Connecting Chapters. Connecting Chapters is a really unique opportunity that Nebraska Farm Bureau offers FFA chapters across the state. It's actually where the County Farm Bureau gets to partner with the local FFAs. Um, Raymond Central is partnering with Lancaster County Farm Bureau, which I'm involved in. And we are actually going to do for the first time ever during National Ag Week, we are going to put on a farm safety breakfast theater.
SPEAKER_01:A theater, a theater?
SPEAKER_02:A theater. I am uh have talked four Raymond Central FFA students into helping me perform skits.
SPEAKER_01:I know how persuasive you are. How did you talk them into this?
SPEAKER_02:I'm I'm gonna say cookies might be promised. Breakfast was definitely promised. Um food works with teenagers.
SPEAKER_01:It does, adults too, by the way.
SPEAKER_02:It yeah, it I I've yeah, cook cookies have gotten me a long ways in my life. No, my God bless my grandma for teaching me how to make cookies and pies. I've gotten my I got a lot of volunteers for people with cookies and pies. Um, but yes, we're gonna have um part I had an opportunity to be involved in a a webinar a few months ago, and they were talking about doing a farm safety dinner theater and bringing some of those tough topics out in the open. So you feel like you can it's it's not taboo to talk about how do you make transitions. Are you getting slower on the farm? Are you having trouble hearing? Well, the a lady from the University of Kentucky did really did some really cute little skits, and um she just got them out there for anybody who's interested in it. So I thought, well, I I want to be able to have these discussions. I think it is really, really important, um not just as farmers, but I mean farmers I think are really, really bad about thinking I have to do it all on my own. Um, that I can't, that nobody else really knows what I'm going through. I'll just have to deal with it, and and we move forward. But I the concept of these skits are you'll go through the skits, and we've got a couple on how young farmers are raising their families and and transitioning over to the next generation, and how you have those conversations with your parents. And so we're gonna do these. We got two skits that we're gonna do, and in between skits, we have discussion that we're going to sit down and have people have at their tables after they're eating breakfast, because you can common food food is a great leveler, and so have the conversations that people don't really talk about about what you're doing on your farm to get ready for the next generation. Do you have a plan? Um, is it are what are your concerns? And so just being able to bring it out in the open, I think, is gonna be a really positive. And if nothing else, they get a free breakfast out of it.
SPEAKER_01:So, in addition to Farm Bureau, in addition to helping some of these local FFA chapters, what other organizations do you find pleasure helping, assisting things like that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I I'm involved in with the Waverly Grange. Uh, we do more with uh youth. We still do um provide dictionaries to third graders for the rural um schools in Lancaster County. We do uh Malcolm, Valparaiso Ceresco, Waverly, and Eagle. We provide dictionaries to all the third graders, and they are a huge supporter of my Fun at the Farm exhibit at the County Fair. Lancaster County Farm Bureau and Waverly Grange have been fabulous on helping me really take agriculture to kids uh with my fun at the farm.
SPEAKER_01:So tell us about that fun at the farm at the county fair. What is that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, fun at the farm at the county fair is a kids exhibit um where we have different stations where kids get to hands-on see how soil is affected by what we're doing on our farms. They get to actually do soil testing. That was new this year. They get to plant either corn or soybeans, they get to learn about animals, they get to learn about where their food is coming from. We've got a whole fun grocery aisle aisle that helps them learn what's in their food and why it's important to know what's in their food. Um, the last couple of years we've added quite a bit with water quality and water sustainability and the different things that farmers are doing and have been doing for years and years to make sure that we're taking care of the soil, we're taking care of the water, we're trying to make sure that everything we're doing is going to be here for the next generation and the next generation. I am a fifth generation Nebraska farmer. Um, I have hopes of my seventh generation. He's a junior at Waverly right now. He loves the animal part of it. I'm not sure he's sold on the corn and soybeans yet, but he absolutely loves the cattle side and raising pigs, which you know all about.
SPEAKER_01:Right, correct. Paula, you've been involved in the LEED program. How recently, and tell us about that experience.
SPEAKER_02:Um, uh yeah, I'm one of the oldest people to go through LEED, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Um you're a spring chicken.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. Nope. I um I went through Nebraska LEED program, uh LEED number 38. And so it was a very, very unique opportunity, and I really credit between LEED and Nebraska Farm Bureau for my ability to um reach out and talk to reporters and the different media that I've had an opportunity to work at, um, be involved with. I'm part of Nebraska Common Ground, which is a group of farm women who get to talk to consumers and everyday people about where their food comes from and why it's important to know how it's grown. Those, all those organizations have really given me a very strong voice in agriculture. And that that I think is really, really important. Recently, I've kind of gotten involved with the Nebraska Agribusiness Club. I'm still kind of waiting my way through it to see where I'm gonna fit in there, but it that's been a really unique opportunity to get different sides of agriculture than I see here. The cool thing about Nebraska is there's something for everyone. Um, it depends on where you're at in the state. I mean, what's goes on in the east and what goes on the west, it it's incredible what Nebraska has to offer. And I think it's really, really important to continue learning about what the state has. I felt like I was really comfortable in what I knew our part of the state was. Um, lead program really showed me what the rest of the state has to offer. And I think if you are somebody very passionate about agriculture in Nebraska and want to make a difference, the Nebraska LEED program is something you really should check into.
SPEAKER_01:So you're you're a proponent.
SPEAKER_02:I'm a huge proponent, even for a little old gal like me that went through it. I was the top end of their, you know. That's okay. But it is, you know, that's okay. So you and your my my grandpa always said, if you're not learning, you're not living. So I keep trying to keep learning.
SPEAKER_01:Those are good words. So you and your lovely husband Tom are tremendous hosts, and I believe you've hosted a number of dignitaries, people from foreign countries at your farm. Can you share with our listeners some of the folks that have visited your farm that you've hosted?
SPEAKER_02:Well, right now I actually have a young lady from Spain living with us. Um, she is a foreign exchange student from Badalona, Spain. She came here last August. She's a junior uh sophomore in Waverly, and uh she'll be with us till May. We have had we had a young man who was a reporter um in Germany. He came and stayed with us for a while. Uh, Marcus Priest. We have had um a young woman from Greece and Italy, we had a young lady stay with us from England, we've had um a young man from Germany and Taiwan. A couple years ago, we were a stop for the Bright Lights program in Lincoln. They did a partnership with a school in Japan, and so we actually had kids from Japan out on the farm getting to see what the different farm equipment is, getting to see the animals up close. We took them out to see cows in the pasture and they got to feed range tubes to cows. Um so I mean we've had a lot of really unique opportunities for that. We had um we were last fall, we were a part of a program with the Nebraska Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Soybean Board called Nourish the Future. And we brought middle school and high school science teachers out to the farm and had them go through the same type of program. I work with AG in the classroom, and we bring out different classrooms here. And so they got to see what equipment we use for the um farming, what feed we feed the cattle, they got to see cows up close, they've got to learn about where their food comes from and how much of the soil is of the earth, the whole earth is actually able to be used for agriculture. So we've had opportunities to do programs like that. I've been doing ag in the classroom for probably 14 years now, and we bring, I think on right now I've got five classrooms scheduled to come out between now and um when schools uh well August, first of August.
SPEAKER_01:So Paula, tell our listeners about ag in the classroom. What is it?
SPEAKER_02:Ag in the classroom is a partnership with Nebraska Farm Bureau that connects farmers and ranchers from all over the state with classrooms in Nebraska. And right now I've got two classrooms I'm working with, both of them are in Omaha, Crestridge Magnet School and Palisades Elementary. We have bring have opportunities of either we go up there or we bring them down here to the farm.
SPEAKER_01:So you are fairly active on social media. Uh, you have a Facebook page called Farmer Paula Has a Farm. Tell our listeners about that and what's your goal with that page?
SPEAKER_02:Um, well, I started out using wanting a resource for the classrooms that I was involved with, and now we're up to about 950 followers, which I know isn't big for a lot of people, but I'm super, super excited that we're we've got that many followers. And what we're doing is just I'm I'm showing what we do on our farm on a regular basis. I started a new series uh about a little over a month ago. We had a baby calf um born outside of our normal window, and so I decided to do a program. I'm doing a series called Watch Me Grow. And so each week on our Facebook page, you will see what the calf looked like when it was born, and then I have an up-to-date picture and video of what she looks like right now. And the fact is, she is Christian's 4-H cow's calf. She will never leave the farm, she will be here forever.
SPEAKER_01:Do you have a lot of animals that will never leave the farm?
SPEAKER_02:Um, not as many as we did. Um, when the girls were showing 4-H, Christian kind of got into high school and he doesn't show cattle anymore. Um, he just shows hogs, and those are just market, so they don't get to stay near as long as the cows do. Um, so we we are going down on uh on that a little. And this this concept of doing the watch me grow was actually brought to me. Um, we do have another little thing that I get involved with. We're a host family for salt dog players.
SPEAKER_01:So what are the salt dogs?
SPEAKER_02:The Lincoln Salt Dogs is an independent league baseball team based out of Lincoln, Nebraska. And we have the opportunity to bring in base the baseball players from all over the country, and they'll stay with us from the first of May to the first of September. And we had two young men this last year. Max Hewitt was from Canada, and Adam Scoggins from Arkansas. And they would come home from a game, sit out on the front steps, uh, watch the cows and the they see the corn and everything grow. And Max came in as he said, I got an idea for your next book. And he said, I want a watch me grow book. And I want you to take it from the beginning of the cow life to when she has her first calf. And he said, I want you to do that for corn and soybeans. So I will be doing that too as we go. Um, but right now the corn and soybeans are happily in bags where it's warm. But um so that is going to be another project that I try to do.
SPEAKER_01:So I've personally seen you interact with livestock. For those who have the misperception that these we're all factory farms and we don't treat our treat our livestock well, what do you say to them? What how do you overcome that misperception?
SPEAKER_02:Um honestly, um, if if I when I have people that have uh difference of opinions on mine, I invite them here. It doesn't make dollars and cents to not take care of your animals, it just truly doesn't. And it doesn't make moral sense not to take care of your animals. I'm going to do everything I can. I the I will be the first one to say cattle are not my pets. I have a pet dog in the house who's sleeping on the couch as we speak. Um cattle are not pets, they are part of our farming organization. Um, but it's my responsibility, and I take it very, very seriously, that from the day they enter this farm to the day they leave this farm, I'm going to make them as comfortable and healthy as possible. That is my commitment to myself as a farmer.
SPEAKER_01:Paula, you're involved in so many things. You give back in so many ways. I mean, again, I'm not trying to go down a whole list. No, I I of course everybody does. But I mean, seriously, you're incredible, and I'm not sure when you sleep, but uh let me ask this. Why do you do it? What what what motivates you?
SPEAKER_02:I love what I do, and um honestly it goes back to probably when Erica was in 4-H and we had so many people, she would let people come up and pet her sheep and her cattle and and be a part of it. And there were so many people that were shocked with her, you know, take showing me how to take care of the animal and introducing her to the animal that I really understood that farmers are very quiet about what we do. Um, I'm not very good at being quiet. So I think it's it's it's just for me, it's it, I don't feel like I'm bragging when I talk about what we're doing on the farm. I'm just trying to explain. I think that people get scared when they don't understand things and don't know who to ask. And my goal has been to become somebody people can call and ask. The joy of being in in Lincoln, Nebraska, we are in a starter media um location with University of Nebraska we journalism, we put out some fabulous media people, and I I've got a very strong relationship with both of the local TV stations here in town that if they've got questions about agriculture, want to they're welcome to come out and they know it. I've um been able to, over the course of the years, between um working a little bit with Kurt Arnes with the Nebraska farmer, Kurt and I go back to UNL for H days. Um if he's got something he wants addressed as far as a farmer and consumer, he'll give me a call and reach out to me. This couple weekends ago, I got a call from a reporter with the Washington Post wanting to know how we are being impacted on our farm. I've done News Nation out of Chicago. I I think it's really, really important that they have farmers to go to. And that to me, I I I think Terry Haney told me one, Dr. Haney said that you know, if you're not willing to tell what's going on, they'll find somebody who is. And it's really important to me that what I do isn't really scary, it isn't very exciting for the most part. To me, it seems like what we do every day, but it is out of the ordinary. There's only about two percent of people in this entire nation that are production agriculture. And so it's reasonable that people aren't familiar with agriculture. And if you've got questions, you just need to ask.
SPEAKER_01:So you've mentioned a couple times 4-H. You've mentioned the Rock Creek Ranchers 4-H Club. What what what is 4-H and what's its importance or what role does it play?
SPEAKER_02:4-H is a youth development program for kids between the ages of 8 to 18. It is world-wide leadership opportunities and growth, personal growth for kids. Whether they're in a 4-H club, if they're independent, it's usually ran through the extension programs of your state. In Nebraska, I think I won't even try to guess how many kids are involved. It's it's it's an incredible number that are involved in agriculture in 4-H. 4-H just gives kids an opportunity to take personal responsibility. There are about 150 different programs kids can be involved. And my kids and grandkids have done the full gamut of livestock, cooking, baking, photography, woodworking, uh person uh history. Um, Erica even did a drama one one time. Uh, they do a lot of public speaking. There's uh public service announcements and the opportunity to do presentations or give speeches, and those are all tools you use every day of your life. I think kids that are involved in 4-H and FFA just have an extra ability to get the job done.
SPEAKER_01:There's so how long has the Rock Creek Ranchers uh Club been around? Any idea?
SPEAKER_02:Um since the late 50s.
SPEAKER_01:It's a long time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, 1950s, yeah. Um, Tom, my husband Tom was part of the Rock Creek Ranch.
SPEAKER_01:As was I.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. And uh and our daughters, uh both our my daughters and your daughters were Rock Creek Ranchers, and now my grandchildren are part of the Rock Creek Ranchers, and I'm the leader yet. Um, I was the leader when my kids were. I was out for a while, and now my grandkids are back in.
SPEAKER_01:So and of course you're back in. Of course you are. Hey, Paul, Paula, we're taping this episode during National FFA Week at the 1978 National FFA Convention in Kansas City. That was the 50th anniversary of FFA. A radio broadcaster gave a speech, and that radio broadcaster's name was Paul Harvey, and the speech was entitled, So God Made a Farmer. In 2013, it made a f it was made famous once again through a Super Bowl commercial, and it begins, and I can't do it justice, but I'm gonna try. And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker, so God made a farmer. The rest of Paul Harvey's speech is about hard work, not cutting corners, caring for livestock, caring for others, giving back to one's community, raising the next generation. And Paula, I gotta I gotta be honest with you when I hear all that, I think of you. I mean, you you the amount of time and effort that you give back to others and how hard you work, again, it's just amazing. And so, again, I'm just so grateful. I think all Nebraskans are grateful for the commitments that you've made to your communities, to youth, to agriculture. It's just amazing. So, again, I'm just I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to chat with you tonight. And uh thank you for all you do.
SPEAKER_02:I appreciate you too, Mark. And I'm thrilled that you gave your kids an opportunity to have the same opportunities you had.
SPEAKER_01:So, Paula's something we ask all of our guests. You get one word in just one word. Okay. That best describes and explains this great place in which we live, in which you and your lovely husband Tom Farm and your family's here, and you devote so many hours to agriculture and to community, the stay in Nebraska. What's one word that describes Nebraska?
SPEAKER_02:Diversified.
SPEAKER_01:Can you explain?
SPEAKER_02:I feel that Nebraska honestly has something for everyone. It doesn't matter what your interests are, you can find a place that'll be a home for you in Nebraska.
SPEAKER_01:Well said. Paula, thank you for joining us today to talk about agriculture, Nebraska, and giving back to our respective communities. If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or whatever your favorite podcast app is. If you have a friend or even someone who isn't a friend who doesn't understand modern production agriculture and the heart that goes into it as Paula described, please share this episode and tell them to check Farmer Paula has a farm on Facebook. Please keep listening as we release additional episodes on Nebraska. It's great communities. Nebraska's number one industry, agriculture, and the folks who make it happen.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks. This has been 93, the podcast. Sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Remboldt Blood Key.
