FAYETTEVILLE — Curtis Moore learned to network showing cattle, and now he's a Facebooking, Twittering maven, working those social networking sites like a bull grazing a tasty field. So when he says he wants to save the American family farm, he's not talking Colonial Williamsburg.
At 20, Moore is a Keller Williams Realtor, a Northwest Arkansas Community College student, a budding wedding planner-photographer, a blogger and a beef ambassador. The latter is an actual post in the Beef Checkoff Program, a national advocacy organization within the Cattleman's Beef Promotion and Research Board.
This year, the national beef ambassador competition will be held Oct. 9-11 in Fort Smith. The winners will be in line for scholarships. To qualify, Moore must produce several news clips about himself or his role in beef advocacy and make several presentations in local schools. He made hamburgers with students at Vandergriff Elementary in Fayetteville last spring and examined each stratum of the food pyramid.
At the competition, he'll be askedto debate the pillars of beef's supremacy and generally act the part of a skilled red-meat ambassador.
This is only his latest effort to master and promote farming and the farming life. Last year, he was the Star Farmer in his Future Farmers of America chapter, and this year, he has been approved at the state level for the American Degree, the highest award in the FFA. When he was in high school he was president of the county 4-H Club, a group his mother formed.
Of his 700 or so Facebook friends, dozens are longtime FFA and 4-H friends he met while presenting animals at national shows.
"The national Simmental [cattle] shows, I went to 15 of them in a row. That's where I grew up, making friends with everyone."
Today, they can follow his cares and pursuits on Twitter, where over the summer he posted a series of Tweets explaining the process of producing silage feed for cattle, from cutting and fermentation to feed. Maybe Twitter - with its quick, brief bursts of information - is exactly how America will accept a lesson on silage.
The farming life is empowering. Moore sees it in himself, and in his young niece. At age 6, she takes on chores around the farm. She's a selfstarter.
Then again, his family and their 200 head of cattle probably couldn't survive if they weren't fifth-generation farmers, if their land wasn't paid off long ago. Low, low commodities prices and big industrial outfits squeeze family farms, and with it the last vestiges of the American pioneer.
Moore would like to dedicate his life to agricultural advocacy, but he's not sure how to do it. For years he thought he would make his living in real estate; today he's less sure.
"I know that I don't want to barely get by, and I know with a farm that will be the way. There's not a lot of profit anymore unless you own the land and have had cattle for a long time. I know I'm going tohave to work outside." Notable Neighbor highlights the unusual accomplishments and contributions Northwest Arkansas residents make to the area. Suggestions can be e-mailed to
Northwest Profile, Pages 50 on 09/27/2009