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.