Brandi Buzzard Frobose said her parents told her when she was still living at home and rodeoing that it wasn’t about what you drove to the rodeo, but instead what you backed out of the trailer and how you performed in the arena.
“I’ve always taken that advice really to heart because it’s hard when you go down the road, not only rodeos, but you see people who have more than you do,” she said. “You see people who have 10,000 acres and 500 cows and it’s easy to maybe get down on ourselves, but it’s not about the trailer.”
Buzzard spoke Sept. 8 at the virtual Cattle U and Trade Show event sponsored by High Plains Journal. Along with her husband Hyatt Frobose and daughter, Oakley, they raise seed stock and purebred Gelbvieh and Balancer cattle. The family has been ranching for about five years, and for more than a decade she’s been a passionate agriculture advocate. She was recently selected as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Masters of Beef Advocacy Advocate of the Year in 2019 and a Top 10 Industry Leader Under 40 by Cattle Business Weekly.
Along the way, she’s tried to not get bogged down in the big things that are hard to change in agriculture, but instead works to change little things to get better every day.
“That is true in advocacy and sustainability,” she said. “It’s about improving your pasture a little bit every year, improving your genetic selection, improving your animal health protocols, getting outside your comfort zone and speaking at the VA meeting.”
Speaking on national television, visiting the White House or having a viral blog post aren’t necessarily what makes an impact.
“It’s little things getting better,” she said. “Like incrementally—that will have a big impact.”
The same approach goes for her seedstock operation in southeast Kansas. The family members didn’t have many options for land or own a lot of land; however, they committed to finding ways to get the most out of the land they did have available.
“We are just doing. We try to do a little bit, something better every year,” she said. “We try to get fewer weeds in the pastures every year. I get more hay off of our forage pastures every year, and we didn’t realize as we got started, but doing those little things a little bit better every year is actually working towards sustainability. And that’s what we’re doing and that’s what our goal is.”
Being a beef advocate and standing up for the industry isn’t always easy Buzzard said, but she believes it is worth it. But why is the hard work worth doing?
“I think it’s important question to ask,” she said. “Why do we advocate for agriculture? And one of the reasons is there’s a lot of misinformation.”
Buzzard hopes she’s able to spread the correct information about agriculture and educate consumers about the story their food has to tell.
Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].
