Commissioners receive Livestock Friendly appeal

Thayer County Farm Bureau members Andy Schmidt and Gregg Wiedel visited with county leaders last week seeking support for making the county livestock friendly. Accompanied by Nebraska Department of Agriculture’s Ag Promotion Coordinator Steve Martin and a few other members from both groups, Schmidt and Wiedel shared benefits to the county should it be designated livestock friendly.

“The point of this program is economic development,” Martin said. “Livestock friendly means something; people are asking is this an ag friendly area. We have 26 designated counties in Nebraska now, and another five applying.”

Commission president Dave Bruning said the board had looked into this issue a few years ago, even to the point of having a hearing, and it never happened. “I’m not against this, but back then you had 13 counties signed up, if I can remember correctly, and now you’re saying you have 26. That’s only 13 new counties in the last seven years or so. If this is so beneficial you’d think everyone would be jumping on the bandwagon.”

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