CVA Highlight | Laura Carlson

Laura Carlson always knew the farm was a place of growth and happiness. She grew up watching her grandpa and father take pride from being farmers. While finishing up high school, she realized she had a similar passion. Through botany classes, Laura realized that she felt a responsibility to plants and the growth of them and began to recognize the impact that one profession like agriculture could have not only on her community but on the world. Today, Laura is proud to be helping her family farm 2,000 acres and manage a cow/calf operation.

Last winter, Laura received a message inviting her to take over the twitter account ‘Ag of the World’ to show others within and outside of the ag community her day to day operations. At that time, she was still in school at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, working on her Business degree, so she passed on the opportunity but made sure to stay in contact, as she felt that this was an excellent opportunity to meet and learn from the people in the ag community. Then a few weeks ago, schooling and her role on the farm changed when COVID-19 caused schools to go online. Laura saw this opportunity to go back home and start learning about farming from plant to harvest. After beginning work on the farm, she reached back out to her contact and took the chance to take over a twitter account, Ag of the World, for the week.
 
As she started the week, she quickly realized that not only was she going to teach others about planting, but she was going to do some learning herself. Laura said, “If I did not fully understand what I was doing, enough to explain it to others, then I knew I needed to ask my dad and grandpa more clarifying questions.” Laura took every video and tweet as a chance to grow her perspective of farming and the view of farming to people all over the world.
 

Through this process, Laura learned that not only is she passionate about growing plants and the responsibility that entails, but also about the education of the process. Laura has created a YouTube page called Laura Farms, where she gives people an inside look into farming and the benefits and challenges that come with it. Currently, she has over 21 thousand subscribers for her page and has taken her Twitter account from 2,000 followers to 6,000 followers and is seeing growth every day.
 
“I am grateful for the chance that Ag of the World gave me and am excited to see how I can make more of change," said Laura.
 
Laura is committed to educating others on the impact agriculture has on the world and showing others the hard work and the dedication, it takes to be a grower. “I am blessed to have the privilege of working next to the best people in the world,” said Laura. “And towards a profession that has an impact on my community.”

 
You can follow Laura Carlson on YouTube at Laura Farms and on Twitter at @carlsonlaura64.