She will do great things

My story is sorta in between everybody else's lol. My parents were both city slickers, but my mom has always loved animals, & my dad hates them. Well... my dad enlisted in the army and was stationed in Alabama, then my mom got moved to the same base as a civilian nurse- and then love,marriage, baby carriage- you know the drill . So they both lived on base in the married couples housing and thats where I was born- they decided to settle nearby in Georgia in a little town of about 300 people 30 mins west of Atlanta. Thats where my ag story starts My dad had gone to college before the army so he got a job managing an USDA slaughter plant- and his supervisor lived across the road from us and managed a 300+ head herd of Angus crosses. He would take me out every morning on the front of the 4 wheeler to check on the herd and I fell in love! Much to my dads displeasure my love of animals, specifically livestock, has stuck with me through the moves and big cities. And now I show cattle, and plan to start my own herd

Different Path, Exciting Life

I didn't start out on a farm.  My poor parents ended up with a little one after I brought home a couple runt pigs and lambs for FFA/4-H.  I had livestock flowing thru my blood since the day I was born.  I was suppose to be the 6th generation of butchers in our family.  Sadly, I lasted 4 days and am on the producing end now.  My greatgrandfather was a butcher in PA, he also logged in the mountains there.  My grandfather as a little guy often rode the draft horses down the mountains with the logs.  He came to Ohio when my mom was very young.  He was the head kill forman at Sandusky Dressed Beef were he retired.  He was also a horse trader (yeah he had a line let me tell ya lol).

I always thought horses would be my passion, but it didn't end up that way.  Met a guy that was a dairy farmer on the way to the National FFA convention in 1986, what a girl will do to impress a guy lol.  I started showing for them and helping him milk when I got a chance.  My love of cattle started there.  Went to OSU/ATI thought about Dairy (the guy didn't work out lol) and new it was impossible for me to start my own so I went to beef reproduction and management.

Thru that dairy guy, and playing mud volleyball I met my husband.  Boy, I'm glad I ended up with him lol.  We did row crops and had a small feed lot of dairy steers.  Land values and rent went sky high and knew we had to do a change if we wanted to continue farming.  We bought our ranch in Missouri in 1999.  We now run 30 cows, no row crops, and are doing grass fed lamb.

Funny how life gives you twists and turns and how it all turns out!

This is agriculture!

Like several others have mentioned here, I am the 3rd generation on this farm. My grandparents homesteaded here in 1903. They boarded a train on their wedding night and headed west to check out a piece of land that was available to homestead. All they had heard was that this land had a small creek running across it. They settled here and had 12 children on this farm. I am always amazed at the fortitude these early settlers must have had as my grandparents lost their 3 oldest children in a two week period... two to rheumatic fever and one to an ruptured appendix. I think this would probably destroy most of us today, but they continued on and raised another 9 children.

Shorthorn cattle arrived here shortly after they arrived in 1903, and part of our farm was broken by a Shorthorn steer and a large mule hooked together. Apparently they worked very well together. All the farm work was done by horses, and in a few years there were over 50 horses tied in our barn, just to do the field work. I am old enough to remember the last of these teams which were used mainly to feed the cattle in the winter, but I can also remember over 20 sets of harness hanging by each stall. In 1917, the Scottish government gathered an entire ship load of Shorthorns and brought them across the ocean to Canada. They were then shipped by rail over 2500 miles to Brandon, Manitoba where they were sold in an auction. Scotland had been through some devastating floods and the Scottish government arranged this sale to assist some of their farmers. This sale was called the Scottish Flood Relief sale, and my grandfather wanted to help his countrymen out. He took the train ( over 200 miles) to Brandon, and purchased his first purebred registered Shorthorns. I doubt very much if he had any idea what he was starting when he purchased these cattle, as we are still raising Shorthorn cattle today.

I feel very fortunate in that I have had the opportunity to do the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I do not remember any time in my life when raising cattle wasn't what I wanted to do. I will say that there have been many 'bumps" along this road, but looking back, I do not think I was wrong in sticking it out. I may not be rich in terms of my bank account, by I feel that I have been given more wealth that cannot be purchased with money.

Their Agriculture Stories... Aaron

My grandparents bought 320 acres of pasture and farmground in 1948 just north of Rushville Nebraska.  This piece of land is just across the road from 640 acres that my great-grandfather homesteaded in 1918 when he immigrated to the United States from Denmark.  The story says he hit Rushville with 5 dollars and a saddle in 1912 when he was 17 years old.  His name was Antone Rasmus Rasmussen and he worked for the first few years in America for one of the largest ranches in America at the time, a ranch by the name of Modisett.  In 1930 William Antone Rasmussen was born and in 1948 he married my grandma and bought the half section that is still the current ranch headquarters.  They had 20 milk cows that they milked by hand, a few hereford beef cows and numerous chickens and hogs.  In 1959 my dad, Stuart William was born and in 1960 my uncle Dwight Aaron was born.  By this time, the beef cow herd had expanded to about 75 cows and they had about 1000 hogs on feed all the time as well as around 500 head of lambs on feed.  In 1978 my dad married Juliane Jacobson(my mom) and together they built a 80 cow grade A dairy.  In 1979, I was born and my sisters followed in 1981 and 1982.  Over the next several years we received state and national honors for record producing Holstein cows and also built the beef cow herd to about 200 angus and angus x shorthorn cows by 1990.  In 1991 we sold the dairy herd in it's entirety to a big outfit in North Dakota and increased the beef herd to about 300 cows and added about 2500 acres of pasture and 1500 more acres of farm ground.  In 2001 I married Tara Housh and A&T Cattle Co. was formed.  In 2004 Jett Aaron was born and in 2006 Jaelyn Jean arrived.  by 2007 A&T Cattle had grown to about 150 cows both commercial and registered shorthorn cows.  In 2009 my grand father William passed away and in 2010 my grandmother Shirley passed away, leaving Rasmussen Family Ranch Trust to my uncle, father and I.  Currently between Rasmussen Ranch and A&T Cattle we run about 900 cows on 10,000 acres of pasture land and we also farm about 2200 acres of cropland.  On top of our cattle operation we also do custom a.i. and embryo work for area ranchers.  We a.i. about 9,000 head annually for area ranches as well as almost all of our own cows.

Agriculture is not just for Men

In Africa, agriculture is the backbone of most economies. It employs nearly two-thirds of the population and accounts for an average one-third of the GDP. Women play a particularly important role, as they grow nearly 90% of the food on the continent and usually invest whatever income they earn on their families' health and education.
 Hardly seen but mostly their, women are taking more responsibility in the agriculture industry. We are here, and we are taking charge! Woot Woo!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Today, is a busy day for horticulture industry. Horticulture is the plants and flowers of agriculture and since it is valentines day that means they are on their toes with orders, and delivers. 189 million stem roses are sold in the U.S. on this romantic day and 1.2 billion flowers are sold throughout the day!! Pretty important huh? 58 millions pounds of chocolate is sold also on this day!! Agriculture is EVERYWHERE :)

Before the 21th century!!

Before the 21th century, society respected farmers because most of them where farmers. Little family owned operations that provided their own with products. Society believed that this was the way of life and raising livestock came naturally and was humane and beneficial. Today the agriculture industry is slandered, disrespect and frowned upon! How can this be so?? These You Tube links will explain it all!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlQlJrgZwOk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzTzAPYn2AA

Never Giving Up!

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Indepence signed, and on Oct. 19 , 1781, the British surrendered at Yorktown. Have you ever wondered how so few colonists defeated the world’s most powerful empire? Determination? Ambition? Independence? Fear of defeat? Intelligence? Strategy? SOMETIMES THE FARMERS WITH PITCHFORKS DO WIN. HSUS has a yearly budget of $120 million and growing. Only 3.64% of that budget goes to help animals across the country . The HSUS does not own one animal shelter, the money they raise goes to lobbying politicians, and advertisements. Spoken by Madison Dobbins!

Infinte Poetenial

I believe in the future of agriculture with a faith born not of words but of deeds.

The very first line of the FFA Creed, its powerful, its inviting and inspirational. What dose it mean to you?!  

Oprah Winfrey

We know her as the "mircale worker" giving out free things to make others happy, finding long lost family member and buying the love of america. I find that very disrespectful, espically when she happens to be basking Agriculture an trying to single handedly RUIN the cattle industry!

Caught with your fingers in the honey jar!

Now most of us have heard of the Humane Society of the United States and from what they are telling you you would believe that when we donate our money to them it is going to save the cats and dogs in the shelter. Wrong. The HSUS(Humane Society of the United States) is trying to shut down all farmers that produce an animal that would go to  slaughter. We have all seen the commercials were the animals are abused, most of that is a lie. I have several facts that need to be heard about the HSUS, these videos help prove my point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzTzAPYn2AA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlQlJrgZwOk&feature=related

Thease viedos display the WHOLE truth...and nothing but the TRUTH