Who puts beef in her facebook post?

I do, that's who! Without pause, today, this small victory was accomplished by advertising beef in my status update! Let me back up, for those of you "non-Facebookers," posting your status means that you're letting all of your friends online know what you're doing. I'm generally not a huge fan of the status report. Usually it winds up sounding like either too much information, too vague or just too mundane.

Regardless, Joe and I are social media users. We email, Facebook (Joe is new, please "friend" him), instant message, text, and the like. So we decided to use this venue to sell some of our steers that are being fed for beef. There was a time that this farm wife would have never even dreamt about putting anything about beef for sale in her Facebook status, but today was not that day! I gladly and proudly posted that we were selling halves and quarters to the first few customers, and we have some takers! As my brother would say, we're using the Internet for "good!"

Social media and farming seem to be colliding a lot more around these parts. My quest for more information on farming led me to "become a fan" on Facebook of Beef Today which led me to read a really great article by Amanda Nolz (the editor for the Beef Today website) in regards to running and eating beef as a part of your training meals, which then led me to join Team ZIP (Team Zinc, Iron, and Protein), and order a running jersey to wear to my upcoming half marathon, which will allow me to proudly wear my passion for our livelihood. . . and steak.

Gone are the days that I simply mention in passing that we raise cattle, and eat them. I am wearing a picture of a piece of meat on my shirt in a few weeks. Who does that? This farm wife does. Gone are the days that I would shy away from mentioning selling beef in a public forum, fearing that I might offend some vegetarian friends. The use of social media to promote our way of life is good, regardless of whether some one agrees with our practices or not. My hope is that through using outlets such as Facebook, farming can get a better, and more hip reputation, and possibly some new shoes from the sale of these animals!