Brandi Buzzard Frobose didn’t really grow up with a production agriculture background, but she has developed a great appreciation for it. She will be a featured speaker during Cattle U and Trade Show, July 29 and 30 in Dodge City, Kansas. The event is sponsored by High Plains Journal.
“I guess we had what you’d call a hobby ranch,” she said. “I rodeoed my entire life. So we’ve always had horses.”
The family had roping steers and calves in addition to 4-H animals while she was growing up. Now, Buzzard and her husband Hyatt and daughter Oakley have a cattle operation of their own, selling Gelbvieh and Balancer bulls near Greeley, Kansas.
“I just always knew that I wanted to work in agriculture with other farmers and ranchers,” Buzzard Frobose said. “I just I have a distinct need to stand up for an industry that I love.”
The nature of having a full-time job as the communications manager for the Red Angus Association, another full-time job ranch job that takes up her nights and weekends, Buzzard Frobose admits it’s pretty hectic.
“We love being in the industry and having cattle and we’re both pretty passionate about raising good, sound cattle that are ready to go out and do the work,” she said. “It’s something we get to do together and we really enjoy that.”
Buzzard Frobose has a deep-rooted passion for telling her ranch story and agriculture’s facts.
“I don’t want to see the industry that we all love, fade into nothing or be ran by a bunch of animal rights activists,” she said.
Buzzard Frobose has done her best so far in her young career to advocate for the beef industry and agriculture. She began blogging in 2009 and Buzzard’s Beat has allowed her to share her thoughts and opinions on important issues.
She was recognized by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association as the 2019 Advocate of the Year, an honor given annually to outstanding Masters of Beef Advocacy program graduates to recognize their success in reaching and educating consumers who want to learn more about beef and raising cattle.
Her advocacy blossomed because of her blog, and learning how to connect with people and telling their stories. She and her husband lived in Australia in 2011 while he was working on his Fulbright Scholar research and she was freelancing and working on her master’s thesis and blogging. After college she worked for the Beef Cattle Institute, and later NCBA. All her experiences helped lead her to NCBA where she helped train beef producers to become better online advocates.
“That was just kind of a natural fit for me to go into that position and that was really great,” she said. “Kind of the jumping off point for me in this kind of, I guess, advocacy career.”
At NCBA she trained hundreds of beef producers to be better advocates and continued to blog.
“I got experience with training people to be on TV,” she said. “Just a whole lot of experiences that all help with being an advocate for agriculture.”
At Cattle U, Buzzard Frobose will be leading a workshop session about using social media to tell your story.
The keynote will be more of a call-to-action about not being complacent or not being happy with the status quo—the way things are going and whether that is on their own operations or others, she said.
“The whole point is that you can’t wait on other people to stand up for you. The time for action is now,” Buzzard Frobose said. “That applies across all areas of our life or when it gets down to the wire, you’re going to stand up and say something. Are you going to take control of your destiny?”
For more information about Cattle U and Trade Show visit www.cattleu.net.
Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].
