Wareham: Expedition Beef
My dad, Jared Wareham, has written this column for close to a decade now. Much of that time, I have been blessed to travel alongside him as he has journeyed across North America working in the beef industry. In my 14 years, 14 and a half to be exact, I have discovered many great parts of our industry. From Connecticut to Idaho, Montana clear down to near Mexico, my sisters and I have come to appreciate and know the value of agriculture and the role this great industry plays in feeding the world.
I’ve come to love the sweet smell of silage and the wonderfully weird taste of steam flaked corn. Though they be brief, I’ve made many a friend with steers in feedyards of all sizes. Through these relationships, I have learned the value of technology. Innovation has a clear impact on a producer’s ability to care for the animals in their feedlot, as well as create more high-quality food with less. The same can be said for the dairies and calf ranches I’ve visited. The ingenuity put into recycling waste into bedding and irrigation water has opened my eyes to the lengths businesses can go to increase sustainability. Not to mention I love baby calves.
My time on ranches has shown me animal care is more layered than consumers realize. The hours of hard labor, long nights in the calving barn, and the investments made in technologies, such as equipment and medicines, is a fraction of what it takes to make food responsibly. Proper health practices at every stage of production is critical to keeping animals safe, hungry and efficient. Appropriate use of antibiotics shouldn’t scare consumers; it should be applauded. I now truly appreciate the value of good pen riders with his or her ranch horse and working cow dogs. The art of detecting sickness before it breaks cannot be overstated.
Public school has helped me realize how foreign agriculture is to kids in my generation. Most don’t understand how complex feeding people really is. I was overwhelmed myself when my dad started dragging me around with him, and I’ve grown up working with my family in a cow-calf operation. If I struggled to fully understand and appreciate the size and scope of our industry, as well as the detail and precision used every day, I’m not surprised those with no connection to ag feel the same. For example, as I began to write this article, I prodded a few of my friends with no link to agriculture about their knowledge of beef production. I received responses such as, “Cows are big and give us milk,” or “They look cute when they wear sunglasses.”
I see a real need to help my generation understand their food doesn’t magically appear on store shelves. That gorgeously marbled steak cooked to a perfect medium rare is a product of hard work, technology and responsible animal care. It’s important to advocate and share agriculture’s story — better yet, your agriculture story. Sharing your stories could spark an interest in others, and they might start to seek answers about our industry. If we don’t actively share, what are the odds they will capture this knowledge on their own?
My “Expedition Beef” experiences have turned me into a superfan of our industry. Each perspective and individual contribution is an important chapter, and by being an advocate for ag, we write a novel for others that illustrates the efforts and ingenuity it takes to fill grocery stores. I plan to challenge myself to share my story. In the future, when I ask classmates questions about beef production, I hope to hear responses such as, “I had a fillet last night, and it was lit — no cap. I wish I could tell the rancher that it was bussin’.”
Mikah Wareham, a middle school student from Missouri, lives on her family’s cow-calf operation. She loves her horses, dogs and traveling with her father visiting cattle ranches and feedyards. Mikah wants
to share her perspectives and experiences to connect her generation to agriculture’s story.
Jared Wareham is the North American business development manager for ABS NuEra. He has been involved in the cattle industry for over two decades, in business development roles growing genetics-focused companies that service producers along the beef value chain by driving the integration of precision-based production.
