By LaRayne Meyer

 

 

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.

That used to be the case. Today, thanks in large part to the vision of Weldon Sleight, there is a program offered through the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA) at Curtis that offers hope for wannabe farmers and ranchers. The key to the innovative, new program is that NCTA graduates return to make a living in rural Nebraska with enough assets to become a partner in an agriculture enterprise. This is of extreme importance to the rural areas of a state in which a full 40 percent of rural Nebraska communities maintain a population of 300 residents or fewer.

In addition, NCTA is also working on an extended 100 beef cow ownership program that will be available to those individuals that are currently working in the beef cattle industry but are not owners.

To aid in the revitalization of the Nebraska rural community, the college has developed the 100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage program, designed, as Sleight says, to help NCTA students return to their rural roots and become the next generation of ranchers.

“We know that if our students get started early in their careers with a sizable enterprise, they will be well on their way to actually operating a viable beef operation 30 years from now.”

The 100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage provides a forum where students, parents, employers and agencies come together to create successful business plans and farm and ranch transfers. The concept has been a long time in the works; for the past two decades, state and federal agencies, legislatures and commodity groups have worked together to encourage the transfer of agricultural enterprises to the next generation. Although a number of programs have presented research-based science and technology information related to production and marketing, few programs, if any, have focused on actual farm and ranch transfer techniques. Located in the heart of cattle country, the college at Curtis, however, offers entrepreneurship training across its entire curriculum.

The 100 Beef Cow Ownership program is a unique partnership between NCTA, the USDA Farm Service Agency, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, according to Sleight. The ranch transfer program, endorsed by the Nebraska Cattlemen and the Farm Bureau, includes traditional animal agriculture subject matter training, but also incorporates a healthy dose of agri-business entrepreneurship courses and a capstone course where students develop a business plan for a 100-cow enterprise. Students also complete a low interest loan application with the Farm Service Agency.

Students enroll in the college’s degree program in beef cattle management. They are required to develop a working business plan and present that plan to the Farm Service Agency for consideration for approval of a loan. The plan is also submitted to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture for consideration of a tax credit to the landlord, such as the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit, an incentive that goes to an eligible unrelated landowner willing to work with the student. In addition to the degree program, students and their parents, employers and landowners are required to attend a series of seminars to fine-tune the individual student’s business plans to make him or her functional in the environment in which the graduate will be working.

At the heart of the program is partnership. Upon graduation, with an approved loan in hand, the student will be able to purchase 100 cows and take them to a home ranch or a partner cooperator. The development of a 100-head, bred-heifer herd is an arbitrary figure, Sleight says, but feasible with the FSA and NDA financial guidelines, and also a wieldy number for a young rancher to manage and build.

According to Sleight’s vision, NCTA faculty believe that the initial cow herd ownership will provide a catalyst for the graduate, parents or employers to set in place a long range plan that will eventually provide graduates with a profitable beef cattle enterprise as well as an opportunity to retain their heritage with the land. Participating farm and ranch owners aid graduates in multiple ways to enable the younger generation to learn by experience.

The program is a win-win situation for both the farm and ranch owners and the graduates, making it possible for the young rancher to turn profit into additional cattle and, eventually, into land and equipment assets. Moreover, the program will encourage students to be an active part of their future and not just another hired hand.

The 100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage is anticipated to have far reaching benefits, increasing beef cow numbers in the nation’s Beef State and adding to the economic sustainability of rural Nebraska. In addition, if NCTA graduates return to their rural communities, establish families and become entrepreneurial leaders, the rural life Nebraskans have come to know and love will continue successfully. Y  By LaRayne Meyer, NC contributing writer.

 

w                    Feedlot Seminar

 

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