New Neighbors in Farm Bureau Communities - Nick Jerke

Five generations of agricultural background and three generations of transportation industry later, you get me, Nick Jerke. I was born and raised in the Miles City MT area. After high school, I attended college in Powell WY, where I met my wife, Kira. We have two children (or adults now,). We reside in Clyde Park, MT, a small community nestled between the Crazy and Bridger mountains in the Shields Valley. We currently are operating a family cow-calf operation that was established in 1893. In addition to that we have a small livestock transportation business. I joined Farm Bureau in 2016. At that time Electronic Logging Devices were a hot issue in the livestock transportation industry. So, I was prompted to attend a Park County Annual meeting and express my concerns. I was nominated to be a delegate that night to present at the annual convention. The rest is history. I am currently serving my fourth year as Park County President.

The ACE Program was something that I was pushing off, to tell the truth. I had the do it later mentality. But with some heavy peer pressure and some very inspiring people saying to go through the program, you won't be sorry. I always wanted to do the program, no time like the present. I am looking to advance my leadership skills, sharpen my public speaking skills, and hone in on my confrontation handling skills.

My leadership goals once I have completed the ACE program are to advance forward. Currently in my fourth year of Presidency for Park County, I serve on the PAC board, and am the livestock committee chair. I would like to push myself a little further by running for District 10 chair.

There are several current issues in agriculture we are facing. In our county we are facing, what we call the "Yellowstone effect". We are losing family-run ranches to big outside money/corporations, that are taking the land out of production. Our cattle numbers in Park County have dropped significantly. This in turn affects our small rural community with things such as school enrollment, sales in local grocery stores, fuel sales, and repairs. The thing that does keep the local economy in business is the tourism aspect. I don't know if there is anything we can do about this issue. Actually nothing. As a free democracy, people have the ability to come and go and buy and sell as they please. Capitalism. We are beginning to see it all over the state, especially in the school districts, with the combining of districts, to combat low enrollment. I feel we are gradually losing our rural stakeholders, the backbone of the nation. I don't think that this is anything we can change. As we become more and more urbanized, the rural aspect is shifting.

As time goes on, the implementation of skills learned through the program has become advantageous. I am finding that inclusion, into the Farm Bureau family has been the key to developing good relationships with your community and neighbors. By hosting special events, whether it be a candidate forum, or taco Tuesday, we want to make sure all are welcome and feel like they are part of something. Public speaking is a large part of what I do in the role of president. Being able to speak and hold a crowd while addressing the issues, has been a challenge at times, but with the ACE program, I am using the skills to help out with some of these things.

This is one of the most important things that Farm Bureau provides, a voice. It is important that as agriculturalists we have a group of leaders that can take local issues and take them to a higher level. We need leaders for our industry, a voice. This is so important, because we are not going to be around forever, and we need people to carry forward, the voice, the issues that we face in agriculture.