People.Passion.Purpose- Driving Agriculture: Sandhills Ranch Expo

Last week, Wednesday and Thursday, I joined Denny in Bassett, Nebraska for the Sandhills Ranch Expo. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Services had two booths: 4-H Shooting Sports Trailer and the Mobile Beef Lab. The two day event was a lot of fun! I enjoyed comparing it to FarmFest which a farm show in Minnesota. I have helped at the Minnesota State Cattlemen's booth here for serveral years. In comparison, FarmFest is about 4x larger than Ranch Expo and also goes for 4 days rather than 2 days, but they both have similar exhibits and all include bringing agriculture enthusiasts together!
The Shooting Sports trailer was there both days and that is the trailer that Denny and I ran. Now, this was an experience. I have never really shot any guns but Denny is bound and determined to make me Calamity Jane by the end of the summer. It is not that I don't like shooting it was just that no one in my family really used guns except to kill off rodents inhabited on our farm. To say the least, I got several rounds of practice in on a 20 gauge shootgun while helping and watching both young and old feel the adrenaline of the fire.

The other trailer was only there on Wednesday but saw a lot of curious spectators throughout the day. The University has two Mobile Beef Labs in which they talk about ruminant nutrition by exhibiting a rumen-fisculated steer. Now, this is really a cool deal! They basically have made a hole in the side of the steer so you can see into the rumen part of the steer's stomach. The hole has a plug and does not hurt the animal at all. Numerous cattle through the University have these and have had them for many years. It is a pretty unique deal and some of the kids really loved it while others were kind of scared; I don't blame them though because if he coughs...WATCH OUT!