For the past 10 months there has been a new, second voice sharing agricultural markets and news with farmers in Wisconsin. Kristin Smith joined WAXX 104.5 FM/WAYY 105.1 FM, Midwest Family Broadcasting’s Eau Claire farm department as the assistant farm director helping NAFB Hall of Fame Broadcaster Bob Bosold with the daily and weekly chores. “Kristin decided to get into broadcasting as she has a passion for agriculture and understands what the farmers want. She read the ad and thought ‘that’s perfect for me.’”
Kristin is no stranger to agriculture as she was born and raised on her family’s dairy farm in Loyal, WI. From the time she was two weeks old to her graduation from technical college, Kristin was out in the barn or in the fields. Kristin was busy on the farm as she went from feeding the calves to feeding and milking the cows to working with her family in the fields in the summer. As a member of her 4-H Club in Clark County, the summers were busy as she showed her family’s registered Holstein dairy cattle at the county, district and state fairs in Wisconsin. After graduating from technical college, Kristin stayed with her family roots and knowledge of dairy and worked at a veterinary office assisting veterinarians and clients in large animal health and in small animal procedures. In 2006, Kristin became the office manager at her family’s Golden Grain Storage facility in Loyal where she worked with area farmers and grain businesses in marketing and storing their corn, soybeans, and wheat. She managed the books for the business and worked with the Wisconsin Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection in licensing and was responsible for marketing grains for the business as well as buying and selling grains.
Kristin assisted more than 200 customers in storing, contracting, drying and trucking their grains to and from different locations throughout the state and beyond. She lives in Neillsville, WI, with her husband Luke who’s in the construction business. Also, he sells Dairyland seed to farmers. They have two children, a daughter, age 4, and a son, age 2. Kristin’s daughter will be following in her mother’s footsteps as she will be making her cattle showing debut later this year in the Little Britches Contest at the Clark County Fair. According to Bosold, Kristin has been a tremendous addition to the farm effort at the stations as “she came ready to learn broadcasting and do whatever was needed to get the message out to farmers.” Bob added, “Kristin has a great personality for this business and is learning fast and is a big help with the new technology that changes seemingly on a daily basis.” He continued, “Another big plus is that she knows what she’s talking about and the farmers like her. It’s been a remarkably quick transition for her to go from production agriculture and living the life to now talking about the life and seeing how important getting the message to farmers on a daily basis really is.” Bosold concluded, “She’s the real deal and a keeper.”
