Trio taking bull by the horns to re-start organization

HARTINGTON — Young people involved in agriculture are taking the bull by the horns to re-start a local cattle organization.

Ty Dybdal, Alex Heine and Ashley Keiser know it’s important to have a voice and they’re not afraid to raise theirs when it comes to advocating for their way of life.

The trio have been instrumental in re-launching a county affiliate of the Nebraska Cattlemen Association with an informational meeting last week. About 30 people attended as well as Brenda Masek, the Nebraska Cattlemen Association president from Purdum, and Pete McClymont of Lincoln, executive vice president of the state association.

“There’s a lot of us younger people coming home from college, coming back to work in the ag field, and we just started talking about it and thinking about it,” Dybdal said. Cedar County used to have a local

Cedar County used to have a local affiliate but it disbanded about 20 years ago, Heine said.

“There was still a number that were active and have always been active at the state level, we just didn’t have the local affiliate,” he said.

There are 42 affiliates across the state involved in a wide variety of activities throughout the year, including grilling beef products at local events, hosting annual banquets, working at county fairs, and sponsoring numerous local activities, according to the Nebraska Cattlemen Association website.

Keiser said she’s looking forward to being more involved in the community and promoting agriculture and beef producers. The local affiliate aims to do a few social and a few educational events each year, she said.

“We really do have a great community of ag producers in Cedar County,” she said. “We can really utilize that to bring the community together.”

Heine said the local affiliate will benefit from belonging to the state organization and having the producers’ collective voices heard. The state Cattlemen Association can help represent the local group as it lobbies and advocates for producers both at the state and national levels with their own political action committee and policy positions.

“If there was anything us local people wanted changed, we could voice those and be heard,” Dybdal said.

Heine, Dybdal and Keiser will be out spreading the word about the organizational re-launch at the Cedar County Fair this week.

“We would like to learn from people that are there and see if they are interested in joining something like this,” Heine said.

Keiser said she’s excited to take in the beef show at the fair as well as promote the Cattlemen message.

“I have many good memories at the Cedar County Fair,” she said, recalling her time showing cattle and horses. “We really want to promote the youth.”