Do You Podcast?
I am fortunate to hold a professional position where I am blessed with the opportunity to educate, prophesize, and/or ramble about industry-relevant topics. The details of what I share are based on a decade of higher education, followed by a decade of industry involvement. More recently, my daily routine hadn’t allowed for as much continuing education as I’d like, until I discovered podcasts.
About 2 years ago, we decided to produce a monthly podcast for the U.S. sheep industry. This podcast is a collaborative effort of state extension specialists across the country and other leaders from ASI who also realized that jumping on the podcast bandwagon was a great way to spread awareness about happenings in the industry. Our goal is to provide monthly interviews with researchers, educators, and allied industry on current topics relevant to sheep farmers and ranchers.
Currently the podcast “ASI Research Update” reaches between 500 and 1,000 listeners each month and continues to grow. Erika Sanko, ASI Director of Analytics & Production Programs, coordinates this effort and Jake Thorne, Texas A&M AgriLife Sheep and Goat Program Specialist, serves as the host.
As an organizing member of this podcast effort, I’ve become a regular listener to a variety of other podcast channels as well. This allows me to keep up with current sheep topics here in the U.S. and internationally.
We are all so busy these days that is hard for most of us to dedicate time for continuing education, either in front of a computer or in person at a meeting or event. The fact that I can listen to podcasts in the car at my convenience really is ideal. My phone syncs with my vehicle and these podcasts auto play with minimal effort or forethought. I suggest researching channels that are of the most interest to you and subscribe. Don’t forget to go to your smart phone settings and allow notifications for new podcasts!
My favorite channels are listed below and hyperlinked. I hope you find them as enjoyable, educational, and thought provoking as I do.
Sheep Connect NSW (Australia)
Scene + Herd (New Zealand)
Now that I have included “learning” into my daily routine, my imagination has taken off as to what else I have been missing out on that can lead to a “better” me? Should I be shearing 10 sheep each morning for exercise? Or maybe racing my border collie on foot? Are there new lamb recipes that I haven’t heard of? Too much time to think however can really be dangerous for me. This is when I have to turn the dial back to the radio and allow music to calm my rambling mind.
To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7324. For general questions about sheep and goats, contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can