Cierra Collins, 12-year-old livestock enthusiast began her involvement in the agriculture industry when she was a young girl.
Cierra said ever since she was an infant, she remembers her parents, Colby and Shellie Collins, taking her to cattle shows where she would play in the stalls with her toys, but she quickly got involved herself.
She started helping her father check pasture cows when she was 3-years-old. That same year, she attended her first Hereford Junior National Show in Grand Island, Nebraska. Four years later, she got to compete herself, exhibiting her first Hereford heifer, Madison, at the Junior National Show in Wisconsin.
Cierra’s love for the livestock industry inspired her to take initiative and start a podcast called, ‘Shooting for Grand.’ The podcast entails gaining a different perspective on other livestock exhibitors work ethic in their show barn while achieving their personal goals.
“My goal when creating this podcast was to inspire other youth to work hard and strive to achieve goals at livestock shows at the county, state, and national level. I hope it inspires others to shoot for grand.” she said.
When Cierra first had the thought about starting a podcast, she was listening to another popular livestock podcast, ‘Chute Side.’
“I thought it was a really cool podcast, and I liked how you did not have to get dressed up and travel to other areas to conduct the interviews.” Cierra said. “All you had to do was sit down and have a conversation.”
The idea stuck with Cierra for a few months before she fully committed to pursuing it. She was was sitting down talking with a few close show friends discussing how to start a podcast when she pulled out a notebook and began jotting down people to interview and went from there.
“I have learned from this process that it is really important to write ideas down,” she said, " Writing questions were a challenge at first but I soon learned how to make each interview unique in their own way.”
Cierra used her thinking skills to generate ideas for starter sponsors to help get ‘Shooting for Grand’ off to a great start.
Her aunt, Christy Collins, runs a ‘first of its kind’ live bidding and sale day management service known as CCI.live. So, Cierra reached out to her aunt about becoming a possible sponsor for her podcast, and she agreed to the terms. She nows shows her appreciation for CCI.live by mentioning it and showing gratitude at the beginning of each podcast.
Cierra’s podcast has kept her passion for the industry alive and she believes in the future of agriculture even with times being uncertain.
“I believe the future of agriculture is strong because agriculture is the backbone of America,” she said. “It is what got us started, from the people whom I have interviewed, I know they will be great advocators for the industry.”
Shooting for Grand is available on all major podcasts: Apple, Anchor, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Overcast.