Nebraska Beef Industry Scholars Tour

     The Nebraska Beef Industry Scholars program is a certificate program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in which I enrolled in m yearsy freshman year. The program is carried out over a four year term in which we take classes on top of our required undergraduate curriculum. NBIS was one reason I chose to attend UNL. It allows us to network with industry leaders, expand our communication skills, learn about the policy end of agriculture, and many other opportunities that a typical college curriculm may not offer.
     Spring semester 2012 was the semester in which our class got the opportunity to plan and travel on an industry tour. My class consists of 15 students from a variety of cattle backgrounds. This past week, May 7th through May 10th was our planned trip. It was a great learning experience and one that allowed us to see basically all aspects of the industry. From meeting industry leaders, learning about the unique twists each business cattlemen put on their operation, seeing some gorgeous land, and bonding with each other made for a tour that will never be forgotten!
    
     The tour:
May 7th:     USMARC (Clay Center, NE), Heartland Cattle Co. (McCook, NE), Maddux Cattle Co. (Wauneta, NE)
May 8th:     USMEF, CattleFax, and NCBA in Denver, CO
May 9th:     Colorado State University- ARDEC (Ft. Collins, CO) and Connealy Angus (Whitman, NE)
May 10th:   Rex Ranch (Ashby, NE) and Adams Land and Cattle (Broken Bow, NE)