Anne Burkholder has found a niche for her feedyard and with it has come success and recognition for her vision and hard work. Burkholder, co-owner and head cowboy at Will Feed Inc., Cozad, was recognized with the 2009 Beef Quality Assurance Award, sponsored by the Beef Checkoff Program, Safeway and Cargill.

NC asked economist Darrell Mark if he believes 2009 will be bullish or bearish for each of the following six Cs: cattle, corn, crude oil, commerce (specifically exports), critters (such as poultry and pork) and currency. Mark provided some very insightful predictions.

When former National Football League quarterback Michael Vick got caught and convicted of possession of dogs for the purpose of illegal fighting with gambling implications, it gave the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal rights groups two important tools. The first was money – large sums of it – to promote efforts to protect all animals better. Second, these groups got a broader base in the media for them to attack others beyond the obvious need to have law enforcement control illegal activity such as dog fighting and improper care of dogs and cats.

Born and raised in Holt County on the family ranch near Stuart, Ramm now ranches in Atkinson. His grandparents and parents started and built Valley View Angus Ranch in Stuart where they specialized in producing Angus bred heifers and two-year-old bulls, along with feeder steers that were usually marketed in January.

This is the Retail Value Steer Challenge’s 10^th year. Serving as the primary fundraising event for the Nebraska Cattlemen Research and Education Foundation, the RVSC has raised thousands of dollars over the last decade that allowed the foundation to grant additional scholarships, support leadership development programs for both youth and adults, and fund research and education projects and infrastructure development.

On April 25, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a final rule in the Federal Register entitled “Substances Prohibited from Use in Animal Food or Feed.” This rule finalizes a proposed rule that the FDA issued for public comment in 2005 regarding some additional feed ban requirements, which according to FDA, are intended to further strengthen existing safeguards against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

Despite the economy,the discussions, crowd, weather and food were all good for the NC Convention and Trade Show in Kearney Dec. 10-12. NC membership conducted the association’s business with over 500 attendees participating.

The Nebraska Cattlemen Hall of Fame Award is one of the association’s highest honors – a way to thank great leaders in the cattle industry for their inspirational service. Honorees are selected for their contributions to the beef cattle industry, to NC and to their communities.

The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has five Spires of Excellence that address key Nebraska needs. These spires, IANR strengths our faculty have built with their expertise, dedication and enthusiasm, include beef systems; water and climate; crops for the future; food, nutrition and health; and youth development

Few would argue that 2008 was an extremely interesting year. With market fluctuations rarely seen in this business, pooled with the fact that every time we turned around there was negative news for all of us to deal with, you can safely say I was genuinely concerned about how many people would make the effort to attend the NC Convention.

When farmers gaze at the trees that fill their shelterbelts and rim their farms, they see wind protection for their cattle, shade for picnics and habitat for wildlife. But when Duane and Sarah Fanta of Creighton look at the trees that dot their farmstead, including cottonwood, cedars, ash and even mulberry, they see cupboards, tables and buffets. That’s because when the Fantas dreamed of building a new home, they dreamed of building it with wood – inside and out.

Al Svajgr gave Diller, his hometown in southeast Nebraska, 48 fat heifers. “I really wanted to give something back to the community in honor of my parents, who were instrumental in my success,” Svajgr says. Svajgr’s parents, Ed and Bessie Svajgr, raised their children on a farm near Diller.

This fictitious example can be finished one of several ways. If I were Chuck, I sure wouldn’t be carrying a bid for John based on his identification method. While plenty of bids are carried for folks who are unable to make a sale, I’m confident that a plethora of identification information goes along with the bid. Nobody wants to come home with the wrong bull.

Sometimes it’s good to stay inside the box and then other times, well, the box just doesn’t fit. It’s too small, too short or not long enough or … just too confining. For A.B. Cox, the recipient of the 2008 Leopold Conservation Award (see sidebar for more about this award), the box just didn’t seem to fit.

Quiet and unassuming, Kay Christen still gets a kick out of the cows she and her family produce. Born and raised in the industry, she’s spent time in the show ring, among the mama cows, tending to the records, on a tractor and out in the pastures. And it’s still the cattle, raised at the Christen Ranch near Steinauer, that she enjoys the most. “People say we ranch,” Christen explains, “but we say we run cattle.”

Do you want to hear some good news? Prices are down, unemployment is up, businesses are failing and it sounds like it will get worse in the coming months. We read these scary headlines every day. The good news is that, in the cattle-feeding business, we always make more money when we’re scared of the future and lose more when optimistic. To confirm this you only have to look back five months to last summer and remember how “good” it was and that it was only supposed to get better ahead.

The Nebraska Cattlemen Research and Education Foundation is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. During the 1967 Nebraska Stock Growers Association convention, a resolution to form the NSGA Research and Education Foundation was passed.

Aside from being a husband and father, Todd Schroeder has had only two jobs and has loved both. He is anticipating adding another to the list this month – NC president.

Meet Now, Talk Later

The Ag Section of Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has added some new faces to its inspector corps. So in the spirit of continued communication between NC and DEQ, we are providing an introduction of the new inspectors.

Michaele Oleson, Mark Henning and Waylon Hullinger are new program specialists with responsibilities for inspection of animal feeding operations for compliance with Title 130. Our article allows you to meet your inspector before you talk with them. Learn about the background and responsibilities of each inspector here:
Mark Henning
Waylon Hullinger
Michaele Oleson

Click map for larger image

Mark Henning

Mark Henning has been with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality since 2001, but just recently changed positions to become a program specialist in the agency’s agriculture section.

Waylon Hullinger

Waylon Hullinger was hired as a livestock program specialist with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality in April, 2008.

Michaele Oleson

Michaele Oleson joined the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality in June of 2007, and works in the agency’s northeast field office in Norfolk. Oleson is responsible for compliance inspections for the agency’s agriculture section, as well as the waste division. She also is responsible for complaint investigations and compliance assistance.

In his too-short life, Jim Hanna contributed much to Nebraska’s beef industry. He was a leader because he listened to others and served the industry. When he spoke he did so with an end in mind and a strategy for gaining the support of other cattlemen. Parliamentary procedure was one his most honed tools.

The Lincoln Journal Star article, appearing just after the June 30 USDA crop report, was titled “Crimp in corn price won’t last.” The USDA report revealed that farmers had planted a million acres more than the March survey had shown. The market immediately responded by sending corn down 30 cents at the Chicago Board of Trade. So why the title of the article?

Participants made favorable comments about all the NC Midyear activities, from the opening golf tournament and steak fry near Ashland to the closing Beef State documentary reception and PAC fundraiser in Lincoln.

The Nebraska Beef Industry Scholars (NBIS) program is a unique educational opportunity at UNL. Although the program is coordinated and partially “taught” by UNL faculty, much of the “instruction” and learning experiences come from interactions with Nebraska and beef industry leaders. Incoming freshman who have an interest in pursuing a career in the beef cattle or allied industries, regardless of major in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, are identified through an application process as candidates for the certificate program.

For nearly a decade, cattlemen and women – feedlot producers and herdsmen, calf ropers and cowpunchers, trail bosses, top hands and even cowboy wannabes – have sashayed over to the Cattlemen’s Ball of Nebraska.

Managers and owners of today’s feedlots and other ag-related businesses often find themselves rifling through a stack of government paperwork, both state and federal, to comply with employment-related governmental regulations. Unlike large businesses with a 10-member human resources department, many feedlots have one bookkeeper who wears a variety of seed caps and cowboy hats while answering the phone, taking questions from salesmen and tracking cattle in the pen, all the while trying to locate companies with the most affordable insurance packages and recording workmen’s compensation claims.

Traditionally, when selling cattle in any industry segment or marketing channel, the more uniform the lot, the higher the price. Also, retailers are increasingly demanding beef cuts that are more consistent in taste and more uniform in size. In response to these market signals, seedstock breeders search for selection practices that will result in herd bulls with less variation in their offspring.

Do you look at the food on your plate and appreciate the hands it passed through and the economies created from conception to consumption? 

Don Beermann promotes beef. He doesn’t stand at the grocery store with a tray of delectable beef products for customers to sample or broadcast over radio air waves the benefits of a diet that includes beef. And he doesn’t necessarily promote beef by scooping corn into feedbunks.

Not every Nebraska legislator can say they were sent out to plow the family farm at the tender age of nine. Not every Nebraska legislator can say that their father warmed their seat in the Nebraska Unicameral, serving as a legislator decades before they got there. And not every Nebraska legislator has been named to the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame as Bob Kremer was.

Change is hard. For many, it’s more comfortable to settle into a routine than it is to forge ahead into new territory. Memories and pride make it difficult for us to critically evaluate programs we helped create long ago. There’s no doubt it takes much more effort to create new, successful programs. Some folks embrace these new challenges and others resist. There is healthy skepticism that new initiatives will accomplish their intended purpose.

A college student graduates with an ag degree in hand, eager to make farming or ranching a lifelong career. He or she works 10 or 20 years, with plans to buy the ranch one day, only to find that there is no option to buy once the original owner retires. By that time, a lifetime of work has been invested in vain.

The second session of the 100^th Legislature offers interesting if not unique issues in the Unicameral’s history. 2008 will be the last year for 15 term-limited senators while 20 freshman senators graced the halls of the state Capitol building in 2007. Three previous ballot measures to enact term limits were passed by Nebraskans, but were struck down by the courts for various reasons.

The Blizzard of 1948-49 staggers the imagination. A series of storms began in November and continued through February. The snow stopped trains, buried houses and threatened nearly 4 million head of cattle. Operation Haylift was a massive, perhaps desperate, effort to save livestock. In 1950 this story hit the silver screen in Operation Haylift, a B movie starring Bill Williams and Ann Rutherford.

Every Monday morning, your NC staff gathers by conference call for a staff meeting. We review the past week’s activities as well as those coming up. We discuss current issues and the strategies we should employ to be both proactive and reactive, depending on the issue.

The North Platte Livestock Market in North Platte held its first annual Beef Quality Assurance calf sale Oct. 23, 2007. North Platte Livestock’s owner, Holly Hullings Roeser, understands the BQA program’s importance and the need for its implementation in the industry.

Near the small southeastern Nebraska community of Steinauer, in the midst of rolling grasslands, lives the Christen family – Rod, Amy and their children, Rod’s sister, Kay, and their parents, Richard and Sharon.

If I can get a smile on their faces, I can get in their pocketbooks.” That’s the modus operandi of Beatrice auctioneer Dennis Henrichs. With the personality of a stand-up comic, the enticing power of a snake charmer and the salesmanship of a world-class auctioneer, Henrichs gets people to participate.

Four young men and women from Nebraska were among the nation’s FFA students excelling in ag production this year, so much so that they have been named national winners. The four received Agricultural Proficiency Awards at the 80^th National FFA Convention. Their projects focused on beef, soybean, canine and swine production.

One of the most common questions both Nebraska Cattlemen members and the media have asked me is: What are your goals for your year as NC president?

Nebraska Cattlemen’s membership continues to grow thanks to our members’ recruiting efforts. As part of the NC Top Hand Cash Reward program, NC members who recruit three new members with dues totaling $300 earn three percent in a cash-back rebate. Top Hand members for the past recruitment year were recognized at the Annual Convention Trade Show Reception. As has become the tradition, many of the rebate winners donated their checks to the Nebraska Cattlemen Research and Education Foundation.

The 2007 Nebraska Cattlemen Annual Convention was a great success! Attendance and participation were excellent! Over 500 beef producers attended the event. Jay Wolf, NC immediate past president, put it best when he said, “There is no event that a cattleman can attend where he will receive more information about his business and industry than the NC Annual Convention.”

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary provides the following as a definition of religion: “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” Interesting! Notice that first word – “cause.” A synonym for cause could be activism, don’t you agree? If you ponder for a moment the activist movements that champion animal rights and environmentalism, you may find yourself thinking that activism is a new religion.

Three miles southwest of Ashland, tall shade trees guard the Platte River Valley. It is in this valley that Larry Smith started his first purebred Angus cattle herd. Smith began his one-year term as Nebraska Cattlemen president at the annual convention in Kearney Nov. 28-30.

A number of outside forces influence livestock prices – the cost of pasture ground, the abundance of rain, the outlay for corn, the proximity of an ethanol plant, and the rise and fall of the futures market. Ultimately though, livestock prices are determined in the various markets where the animals are sold, whether cried out by an auctioneer in the sale ring, the marketing expert at the terminal market or the individual producer by way of private treaty sales.

As the Legislature convenes on Jan. 9, 2008, there may be issues related to beef producers that will be introduced, debated and either killed or passed. Nebraska Cattlemen leadership and staff will be present in the upcoming 60-day session, working for members and their policy.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary provides the following as a definition of religion: “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” Interesting! Notice that first word – “cause.” A synonym for cause could be activism, don’t you agree? If you ponder for a moment the activist movements that champion animal rights and environmentalism, you may find yourself thinking that activism is a new religion.

Three miles southwest of Ashland, tall shade trees guard the Platte River Valley. It is in this valley that Larry Smith started his first purebred Angus cattle herd. Smith began his one-year term as Nebraska Cattlemen president at the annual convention in Kearney Nov. 28-30.

A number of outside forces influence livestock prices – the cost of pasture ground, the abundance of rain, the outlay for corn, the proximity of an ethanol plant, and the rise and fall of the futures market. Ultimately though, livestock prices are determined in the various markets where the animals are sold, whether cried out by an auctioneer in the sale ring, the marketing expert at the terminal market or the individual producer by way of private treaty sales.

Concerns about the concentration of hormones in animal waste produced from concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs) have recently attracted the attention of the European Union Regulatory Agencies, Environmental Protection Agency and livestock industry groups.

How do you calculate the value of something? Is it what you paid for it? Is there a depreciation or appreciation schedule attached? Is it what you would sell it for? Do you include the worth that you received while you used it? How about the opportunity costs (all you ag economics guys rejoice)? Just how do you calculate the true value of something?

With some spectacular items – like the NC stained glass pictured at left – up for auction at the annual banquet during the NC Convention in Kearney, the winning bidder is the beneficiary as are all NC members and supporters.

NC President Jay Wolf, the NC Executive Committee and the Board of Directors strive to use all resources available to benefit members. The group of past presidents and leaders from the Nebraska Stock Growers, the Nebraska Livestock Feeders and the Nebraska Cattlemen are a valuable asset to be tapped. 

For 24 years, the Nebraska Cattlemen has operated the Beef Pit at the Nebraska State Fair, promoting Nebraska beef and beef producers. The 2007 Beef Pit had another successful year and, once again, Certified Angus Beef teamed up with the Beef Pit to serve great-tasting prime rib, roast beef and BBQ brisket meals to fairgoers. This year’s Beef Pit served over 12,500 meals during the 11-day event, a 5 percent increase over 2006. 

With this likely my last column for 2007, I’d like to take more of a “big picture” look at the marketing arena as we prepare for 2008 and beyond. In that spirit, let’s start out by looking at the biggest recent change in the ag commodities marketplace – and one that has had and will continue to have wide-reaching effects on many production ag sectors and eventually the consuming public.

Let’s take a minute together and look back over the Nebraska Cattlemen’s past year. I’d like to do it in the context of the goals NC set out as the year began.

President J.B. Milliken’s goal for the University of Nebraska is that we will be the best university in the country in terms of serving the interests of the citizens of the state. As a fervent believer in the land grant university system, I say amen.

It’s easier to understand the term foreign country when you see 6’3” Dave Hamilton (taller in his western boots and hat) towering above everyone in a sea of Japanese. Or, when a bunch of Nebraskans sit on the floor to eat dinner and they can’t pronounce anything that is served, but it sure looks like raw fish.

The NC Board has begun discussion on changes to the dues structure. NC’s dues structure is complex in that it tries to be fair to all segments involved in the organization. Some changes the Board has been looking at are a student membership for our youngest cattlemen; an adjustment to the cap on feedlot dues at $16,500; and an increase in the investment from members of the Seedstock, Farmer Stockman and Cow-Calf Councils.

The Unicameral won’t convene until Jan. 9, but that doesn’t mean little is happening in regards to potential legislation. In fact, successful legislation often is rooted in the months preceding a session. Nebraska Cattlemen is an active participant in many different issues leading up to the second session of the 100^th Legislature.

The Nebraska Cattlemen Research and Education Foundation’s Eighth Annual Retail Value Steer Challenge (RVSC) awarded its winners at Nebraska Cattlemen’s Midyear Conference in Columbus, June 7-8.

Summer is over, school has begun and I am ready for some football! However, before I jump headlong into the fall season, I need to give you a quick recap of a few items.

The state operating permits of small and medium animal feeding operations (AFOs) expired on Dec.31, 2005 – a result of amendments to Title 130, Livestock Waste Control Regulations.

In Longsdorf Cemetery, New Kingstown, Pa., stands a large granite headstone. The engraving on the headstone tells the story of the man buried beneath it.

Jeff Bash requested the minutes reflect that the NC Classic delivered the 2007 Classic commission check at the April 10 Board meeting. Seeing no other corrections, Homer Buell moved to accept the minutes as corrected. Steve Niemeyer seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

President Jay Wolf asked for approval of the May 8-9 NC Executive Committee minutes previously mailed to all Board members. Larry Smith moved to accept the minutes as presented. Todd Schroeder seconded. Motion passed unanimously.