CALF_News_June_July_2018

organizations and distribution chan- nels for Elanco. She met HeathWilson, who at the time was checking livers at the packing plants. They now are mar- ried with three girls: Alex, 13, Riley, 10, and Reese, 8. In 2015, Wilson decided to step back from the travel demands of Elanco and start her own business, Know Forte, LLC. With marketing in her blood, she began consulting with Elanco and Micro Technologies. Today, she works at home and in Wi-Fi-connected coffee shops. Heath is CFO at Cactus Feeders. “CattleTales evolved when I became a feedyard guy’s wife,” she says.“As you look for beef advocate information to share, you realize how challenging it is to find information that is interesting and enter- taining for you to share with your friends outside of the industry.With research indicating consumers want to know where their food comes from and how it is produced, we came up with CattleTales as a way to reach those in the ag commu- nity and eventually all consumers.” The pro-beef, pro-dairy, pro-ag themed messages took off. On Facebook, the Cattle Tales site has some 5,700 fol- lowers. It consistently features posts that range from wheat fields, lush pastures and feedyard bunks to bottle-loving Holsteins, 4-H and FFA events, and farm families from all over. On Twitter, #CattleTales is popular among all phases of cattle, dairy and crop production and representation. There are regular tweets with the #Cattle- Tales hashtag from Texas Farm Bureau, NCBA, Micro Technologies, Elanco, Kirkland Feed Yard, Friona Industries and numerous individual farm, ranch and dairy families. “Our audience is consumers, cattle raisers and producers, feedlots, dairies, industry stakeholders, chefs, nutrition- ists and your family, friends and com- munity,”Wilson says.“And as we say on our Twitter site: ‘Every steak has a story. Every glass of milk has a narrative. From farm gate to dinner plate, we share the story of cattle.’ “I feel everyone in agriculture has a responsibility to tell their story. Kids today are three to four generations removed from the farm. They think food comes from the grocery store. “People in the ag community have a responsibility to share with consumers where food comes from. We have to keep in mind our friends want to be enter- tained with social media, so we need our information to be funny, light hearted and educational, all while having an entertainment value. We need to create this information and spread the word about how we practice good animal welfare, land stewardship and produce products high in protein and essential parts of healthy diets while not sounding preachy or boring.” There are a number of #CattleTales community hashtags: #humansofcattle- tales, #beeffacts, #beefitswhatsfordin- ner, #dairyamazing, #undeniablydairy, #onehealthforall, #dairygood, #pow- erofprotein, #FarmFactFriday and #SundaySupper. Continued on page 9  Feeding the New Frontier clay deady, ranch manager bridwell ranches  High Protein  High Energy  All Natural diamond nutrition (806) 716-6222 info@cattlecubes.com minimum guaranteed analysis Crude Protein 28.0% Crude Fat 9.5% Crude Fiber 10.0% Phosphorus 0.5% “We are really pleased with the upkeep on the cows with honestly 30-35% less feed than what I’ve fed in the past. We don’t buy horse feed anymore; everything on this ranch eats Diamond Energy Cubes.” www.cattlecubes.com 7 CALF News • June | July 2018 • www.calfnews.net