Raising Herefords in Hereford: Views From the Farm

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Meet Jodie Nay

Jodie Nay is an organic wheat farmer and cattle producer from Hereford, Colorado. She captures the beauty of her family’s farm and ranch in photographs and shares them with the rest of the world through her social media accounts, Views From the Farm.

Nay chooses to let her images of the Eastern Plains of Colorado speak for themselves. While she answers questions her followers may have about farming and ranching, she uses minimal captions in an effort to let readers come to their own conclusions. 

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Transcript

Please note: This transcript has not been edited.

Lisa Foust Prater: Welcome to the 15 Minutes With a Farmer podcast from Successful Farming. I’m your host, Lisa Foust Prater. My guest today is Jodie Nay, an organic wheat grower and cattle producer from Hereford, Colorado. She captures the beauty of her family’s farm and ranch in photographs and shares them with the rest of the world on social media.

In each episode, I have a quick 15 minute conversation with a farmer to hear their story and share their experience, expertise, and life lessons. 

Jodi, thank you so much for joining me today on 15 minutes with a farmer.

Jodie Nay: Thank you for having me.

Lisa Foust Prater: I’ve been following you on social media and it’s been fun to see all of your beautiful photos. But before we get into all that, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about your history and also about the ranch.

Jodie Nay: I’ve been farming and ranching my whole life in the same area. It’s Hereford, Colorado, middle of nowhere. It’s all family oriented. There’s one out of six kids, there’s five of us still out here doing farming and ranching. I helped my dad most often during the winter and then I worked with my one brother most of time during the summertime.

Lisa Foust Prater: So tell us about the crops, the animals, what you guys are doing out there in Hereford.

Jodie Nay: Mainly we do a lot of organic wheat. That actually works the best in our area. It’s not the best area, I guess you could say, for crops, but it works for us. We have plenty of acres and we’ll have a lot of pasture ground for a lot of cows. Grew up, my family actually, when we came up here, my family started with a feedlot and a dairy and they still do that. That’s my aunt and uncle’s. And then I just, my dad always liked the farming and the pasture cattle more. So I always grew up doing that and I just have stayed doing it.

Lisa Foust Prater: Interesting. You know, I don’t when I think of dairies, I don’t really think of Colorado. But I suppose you know, there’s a niche for that everywhere. So tell us about that. That’s kind of interesting.

Jodie Nay: Actually, there’s a really big dairy close to us here. It’s neighbors. But Greeley has like a cheese factory. So a lot of milk around the area, actually. And it’s the dairy. The family doesn’t have the dairy anymore. It was really little. And if you don’t have a big dairy, probably not going to make it real great. But the feedlot, they that does really good. They do custom in it and have their own cattle. We tend to take our calves up there, too. Good way to sell.

Lisa Foust Prater: Sure, So, organic wheat, tell me about that.

Jodie Nay: We’ve never been fan of chemicals just the whole spraying aspect. My dad is always the one in the tractor doing all the crops. That’s what he always was So that’s we I learned how to farm from him from watching him and him telling me how to do it basically so it’s just tractor time has always been one of my favorites and Organic that’s I mean you get a lot of tractor time then you got to till the ground to be able to get rid of anything Otherwise weeds take over so it’s fun. It’s different way of doing it. There is a couple people that spray out here and it’s I like it, but I like my tractor time.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, it’s good kind of clear your head time. You can listen to some music or just think clear your head.

Jodie Nay: Yeah. Podcasts are becoming huge. They’re always fun to listen to.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s great. Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. I like to hear that. So tell us about the livestock and what you’re doing there.

Jodie Nay: Right now is actually my funnest time because we’re kind of done with the crops finally out of field so kind of got that and then basically moving cattle to kind of different pastures and getting them ready got all sorting the calves off and I tend to make cows really friendly to me so I hang out there a lot with them and I have a lot of pets so this time of year I can be out there with the cows pretty much all day and just hang out.

Lisa Foust Prater: I love that so you’re living in in Hereford or near Hereford. So are you raising Herefords?

Jodie Nay: We do, yes. That has always been my favorite cow actually. I love the way they look. We usually do, it’s the Hereford Angus mix. We have the Angus bulls and the Hereford mamas and you get the black baldies. So they’re always fun. But we did get a Hereford bull this year. So we are, next year we’re gonna be splitting some up and we’re just gonna have some straight Herefords. It’s gonna be pretty cool.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s great. I love the Herefords too. We had Herefords for quite a while and then we got an Angus Bull and yeah, the Herefords are just so beautiful and they’re such good mamas and I just, I love them too. They’re my favorite. So I love to hear, I love to hear, I love to talk to people who are raising Herefords cause they’re just, they’re such great cows. So I love that. 

Jodie Nay: They’re like the easiest to tame down too. They kind of decide on their own when they want to be your friend.

Lisa Foust Prater: So talk to us a little bit about your photography and how you got started in that.

Jodie Nay: I always liked pictures. Out here is gorgeous. Middle of nowhere, mean the sunrise and sunsets. It’s very flat so you can see everything for miles. So it’s always been just neat looking to me. And my husband got me a camera a few years ago and kind of said have fun and decided to make a page and take a lot more pictures than I ever used to. But it’s been a blast and I love showing what we do, and that it’s not what everybody thinks it is, I guess.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, sharing those photos, which are so beautiful, by the way, you’re doing such a great job of capturing day-to-day just activities and also just the beautiful scenery. So how did you go from just capturing photos of the beautiful things around you to thinking, I should share these and maybe talk to people about agriculture?

Jodie Nay: Thank you. I guess I just I wanted to show the pictures. I didn’t really think I’m not good at talking I guess you could say so I’m very simple with like my captions on my pictures and stuff and I will answer when people ask me questions but otherwise I just like letting people see what we do and kind of making up their own mind. I guess about what we do and that it’s just something just make up your mind. I guess about kind of a deal, I’ll show you the beauty of it and let you decide.

Lisa Foust Prater: Right, yeah, and it’s great that you are there to answer questions for people. And I think it’s great for people to see too that it’s like real humans that are doing this work. And it’s not all corporate agriculture that there’s families and there’s people that are, this is their livelihood and they care about the land and they care about their animals. And you can see that in your photo. So it’s really fun to see.

Jodie Nay: It’s very enjoyable and the family aspect makes it even funner. That’s pretty much everything I do. There’s some family usually around somewhere. And between them and the dogs, I mean, there’s always something going on that’s pretty fun to pay attention to.

Lisa Foust Prater: Right, and just sort of having a camera and thinking about taking photos does make you sort of look around yourself differently and see the view and the everyday things as like something beautiful and something worth photographing. It changes your own point of view too when you’re thinking about photographing things, I think.

Jodie Nay: It very much has. I definitely think I have a different outlook, like, especially when I’m in the tractor. I look for those pretty views and like I pay more attention, it seems like. So it’s almost, it’s brought me – makes me put my phone down a lot more, I guess I should say. So that’s a good thing.

Lisa Foust Prater: Right. And you know, using like a camera camera versus a phone camera, it feels like maybe there’s less distraction from other things on your phone. And I think it’s just kind of a beautiful thing to use a real camera once in a while and get away from the phone a little.

Jodie Nay: Yeah, that’s just kind of disappearing my own little world with it.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, absolutely. So when you talked about family, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your family and who’s all working together and who you’ve got out there in Hereford.

Jodie Nay: That’s pretty big family, that’s helping my dad most of the time. My sister helps him, even drives tractor for him during the summer. So I just kind of help during with the cows. And I tend to see him pretty much every day anyways. But then my other brother, go and help him most. And he has four kids himself. So they’re always around too, and two of them are old enough now. They’re always out there with us. So I’m always with my nieces and nephews. My other I brother help him. His kids are out there too and it’s just everybody has all of us helping each other. And so it makes it easier I guess you could say because it’s not as intense work environment. It’s very easy going. All of us make fun of each other. Rough house. Have fun with it.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s so good. You know, I mean, sometimes it can be hard to work with family and sort of stressful if you’re, you know, there’s a battle for like who’s in charge or, or whatever. know that can be, that can be hard. So how does your family work through those things and, getting along? sounds like you get along pretty well.

Jodie Nay: We kind of took that aspect out of it, I guess you could say. Like me and myself, like my husband and I, we do have a combine, a truck, cows and stuff. But so it’s not like really enough to be on our own. So that’s why we help everybody. Like everybody has their separate stuff, I guess. But it’s in the same close enough vicinity, we can all help each other. So you don’t. The boss aspect never really worries anybody because there’s not really anything like that luckily between us because everything’s separate, but we do it all together.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s great. It’s nice that you’re all close enough to do that and that you’re close enough to get some good sibling time and niece and nephew time too. That’s fun. That’s so great. I love that. I love that. So with the holidays coming up, I’m wondering what that looks like for you guys and the family. you have like a big celebration or do you things on your own or what does that look like for you?

Jodie Nay: We don’t. tend to, I guess certain times it’s really weird. It’s kind of spur of the moment when we do things all together. So like holidays, it’s kind of hard because everybody’s married. So everybody has their other families to go to and everything and have their own families obviously started. So their own stuff going on. So we just kind of, we’ve never made a big deal to get together on holidays, but we will find times to get together.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, yeah, when you see each other every day or, you know, most every day, then that’s just great. That’s just great that you can just maintain those relationships throughout the whole year. I love that. That’s so great. 

Jodie Nay: Yeah, we’ve all been pretty lucky. I’m not sure how we get along so well, but we do. It’s nice.

Lisa Foust Prater: So did you always know that you wanted to do this, that you wanted to stay close to home and and work with the family in agriculture?

Jodie Nay: I knew I always wanted to do agriculture. I just didn’t know where. I always grew up loving the cows. I always had the bottle calves. They were always my best friends growing up. I’ve always had dogs and cats. So I always knew I’d be farming, ranching somewhere. It’s just, I’m very lucky that I’m able to stay home and do it, I guess you could say.

Lisa Foust Prater: Absolutely. It’s such a great life. And when you’ve grown up with that and, you know, you have those bottle caps that are your best friends and and you see your folks and your siblings living that life. And it’s great that you can do that yourself, too. Did your husband grow up? Was he did he grow up in agriculture, too?

Jodie Nay: He grew up in the country but kind of horses and his dad did construction and dirt stuff so machinery he’s used to but the farming completely different world to him

Lisa Foust Prater: Well, that’s a good combo, Having someone who knows how to run the machinery.

Jodie Nay: That’s it. He jumped right in. He’s a mechanic too. He gets called for all the fixes and he always liked driving trucks. So he ended up getting himself a truck and that’s during harvest. He’s in his truck full time and he loves doing it.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s awesome. How fun. Yeah. And having a having a good mechanic is like so key for a farm. So, yeah, I’m sure he gets lots of calls from everybody.

Jodie Nay: Man. yeah. He never has a drought of anything to work on. He’s, he can always have something to do.

Lisa Foust Prater: I’m sure. I love that. So talk to me a little bit more about the photography and, you know, your plans for that. Like, are you are you planning on marketing that at all or turning that into, you know, I know I know you’re working on on that more as a business, but tell us about your plans for that.

Jodie Nay: So far I’ve just been doing craft shows kind of around the area here and I am expanding myself. I’m gonna go to Cheyenne and what next weekend? So I’ll see how that goes. Otherwise I am working on a website. I sold calendars last year and they did really well so I’m trying to do that again this year. So I sell pictures and I got stuff with mugs and stuff on them. My silly cow pictures I put on cool different stuff and I take custom orders.

Just any, most of my pictures are taken with a good camera, so they can be turned into anything I want. So that’s why anybody that sees a picture they want, they just have to hit me up and I can come up with something.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s so smart, I love that. 

Jodie Nay: I figured I’d try. Not a whole lot of people do what we do with agriculture. So it’s not as normal to find stuff with good pictures on it. So I figured I might as well try something like that. Farming people, it gives a little different opportunity for something to find for tractors and stuff.

Lisa Foust Prater: Right, absolutely. So what would your advice be to someone who looks around themselves and thinks, gosh, I live in such a beautiful area and I’m capturing it on my phone, but the quality’s not great or whatever. How do they make that leap into maybe trying to get better photos of the things around them?

Jodie Nay: I just say, honestly, the way most phones do pictures, I mean, they are beautiful. It’s just, find what is beautiful to you and take what like is beautiful to you, not what you think other people might think look neat. Like it’s, it’s your perspective. You need to do it your way.

Lisa Foust Prater: That’s good advice. And I think too, you just had a photo that you posted that was like the silhouettes with the sunset and there were some family members like silhouetted against that. That was so beautiful. And I think just kind of capturing those like when you think in your mind like this is a perfect moment, like just take a snapshot of that and just remember, know, so you have that memory to look back on those like sort of perfect moments with your family or whatever. That seemed like one of those perfect moments.

Jodie Nay: Yeah, that was neat. My nephews were up there running around and I looked up and it was, we were already watching the sunrise anyways, because gorgeous colors. But you just kind of look up and all of you kind of realize what’s going on and I was like, hey, just run up there and other people went up there and stuff and we just got a bunch of pictures then. We’re outside a lot, so it’s nice to, if you just look around, it’s amazing what you can see and is beautiful that you just didn’t realize before.

Lisa Foust Prater: Yeah, that’s so great. Yeah, we all, everyone who’s living in the country, who’s working on a farm or on a ranch, if you just look around you, you you’ll see the beautiful things, you know, maybe there are things you see every day. Yeah. that’s great advice. I love that. Well, Jodi, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. I love the work that you’re doing and I love following you on Instagram and seeing all the wonderful stuff you’re doing. So keep up the great work.

Jodie Nay: Thank you so much.

Lisa Foust Prater: Thank you for listening. Please subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Open the latest issue of Successful Farming and visit us online at agriculture.com for more interesting features and news for your farm and Join me next week for another episode of 15 Minutes With a Farmer.