Andrea Severtson Q&A
24 year old Andrea Severtson grew up on a small Southwest Minnesota beef + row crop operation. She attended South Dakota State University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Animal Science in 2018.
Upon graduation, she returned home to the family farm and jumped right back in. Her husband joined the operation shortly after her return and they got married this past September. He's a farrier and she also work as a health + fitness coach outside of the farm. Since starting college at SDSU, she has grown a passion for advocating for agriculture (AGvocating!) in the past few years — specifically animal care and welfare, sustainability, animal products in a healthy diet and like to incorporate fitness, and overall health into it too.
I was anxious to visit with Severtson because of her background in nutrition. Often times, it’s portrayed to the public that beef (and sometimes even meat as a whole) factors into an UNHEALTHY diet. I think it’s awesome to see someone who fights for beef as a healthy source of protein with facts and creditentials to back it up.
Q: How did you begin your career within the beef industry?
A: I grew up on a family's farm and have been around cattle as soon as I could spend time outside with them. I would sit in the stroller at 2 and help my mom bottle feed the 150-200 dairy bull calves we used to raise from 2-3 days old to finished weight. We had a small beef herd back then, but were more focused on the crop side of things (corn + soybeans) up until the past 10 years or so. My mom and I have grown our family's beef herd (Angus cows & Simmental bulls) to just under 100 in the past 10 years and we have started feeding more feeder calves all the way up to finished weight each year, as the space of our facilities allows. All my life, because of my love for livestock, I wanted to become a large animal veterinarian and focus on beef reproductive technologies and genetics. I went to South Dakota State University for animal science - science specialization but decided to no longer pursue the veterinary career after my first round of applying and returning home to the family farm to help out and manage the livestock side of our operation with my mom. From there, I started sharing more on social media and found a passion for it!
Q: How has your specific beef journey changed since you began?
A: I went from simply just 'helping with chores daily' to owning my own herd, managing a lot of the records and advocating for the beef industry on social media over the past few years. Our operation also shifted from holstein steers while I was in grade school to 100% beef cattle in our feedlot and grew our cow herd quite a bit over the past few years. Our feedlot has 3x'd the size in the past 6 years or so.
Q: What is the biggest issue facing the beef industry right now?
A: I would say the biggest issue facing the beef industry right now is the backlash from activists in regards to sustainability of beef and the nutrition side of things. False information is being spread like wildfire and it is our job to share the truth instead.
Q: How are you working to combat said issue?
A: I have continued to share our own operation's story and encouraged others to begin doing the same. Reels are an easy way to get information out there (both good and bad) quite quickly, so I've gotten creative and used them to my advantage in the past few months. In the past few months, I have spoken to a few different high school ag + college ag communication classes about advocating for agriculture as a whole as well.
Q: In your own words, how does beef help the environment?
A: Beef is a key factor in the delivering nutrients back into the soil through manure and carbon sequestration. With proper grazing practices (NOT overgrazing), fire risk can also be reduced and cattle can improve the quality of soil + roughage in the area. Plus.. the fact that a cow/steer/heifer can take inedible foods to humans (hello food waste!) and turn it into highly nutritious foods for humans deserves a round of applause in itself.
Q: Explain how you believe beef factors into a healthy diet?
A: A large percentage of the population struggles to get enough protein in throughout the day, as well as iron intake for many women. Beef is a delicious way to get in high amounts of protein in a single meal. Not to mention the other vitamins and minerals it provides the body -- B12, Zinc, Selenium + more. When paired with other food groups (carbs + vegetables), beef makes an excellent meal choice in the healthy diet!
Q: What’s your opinion on alternative protein?
A: I do not believe alternative protein has any level of competitiveness to regular animal protein. The overall ingredients are not sustainable, nor healthy long-term for the human body. The amount of ingredients listed on the 'human made meat' should be a warning in itself.
Q: What are some ways ranchers can advocate for the beef industry?
A: Ranchers + farmers can do a lot by simply sharing their own operation on social media or in person at local events. Whether it's just pictures and some stories, or going all out like so many of us 'agvocate' accounts do, the goal of advocating for the industry is to share the REAL behind what we do. The what, how, why, when, etc. is the important aspect. If you can educate just one person on what we do, you have done your job. Make that your goal! Also, be aware of what you put out there. While some events may be 'humorous' to you, they can be taken out of context and blown up on social media very quickly.
Q: Lastly, what’s your advice to someone wanting to break-into the beef industry?
A: Just start! Start messy. There's never going to be the 'perfect' time to do anything. It's going to be scary. You're going to second guess yourself, but don't let that hold you back. JUST START!
