93
Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
93
Don Arp & Duane Gangwish--Nebraska Brand Committee
In this episode, we explore the role, history, and future of the Nebraska Brand Committee amid recent scrutiny. Featuring Executive Director Don Arp and Committee Chair Duane Gangwish, the conversation examines why cattle branding remains central to Nebraska’s beef industry, how the Committee carries out its enforcement and inspection duties, and what recent calls for reform would mean for producers. The episode also discusses a December 2025 Wall Street Journal article that brought national attention to Nebraska’s brand system, addressing misconceptions, modernization efforts, and the balance between tradition and regulation in a changing agricultural landscape.
It's 93 caps. Better home innovative individuals. Welcome to 93.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to 93. This is a podcast about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen. I'm Mark Falton, your host for today's episode, brought to you by Nebraska's law firm, Rembolt Lucky. Today we're talking about an issue that sits at the crossroads of tradition, law enforcement, agriculture, and modern regulation, cattle branding in Nebraska, and the agency charged with overseeing it, the Nebraska Brand Committee. For more than 80 years, the Nebraska Brand Committee has played a central role in protecting property rights, deterring livestock theft, and maintaining confidence and integrity in Nebraska's cattle industry. But in recent years, that role has come under scrutiny. In December of 2025, the Wall Street Journal published an article examining Nebraska's brand system, highlighting tensions between cow calf producers and feedlot owners. The piece sparked debate well beyond the ag community, raising questions about regulation, enforcement, and how long-standing institutions adapt to a changing environment. To help unpack those questions, we're joined today by two people who live these issues each and every day. Don Arp is the executive director of the Nebraska Brand Committee. Dwayne Gangwish is the chair of the Nebraska Brand Committee and a longtime leader in Nebraska's kettle industry. Don Arp. Dwayne Gangwish, welcome to 93 the podcast. How are you gentlemen doing today?
SPEAKER_00:Great. Doing well. It's a beautiful day in Nebraska.
SPEAKER_02:Duane, where are you at today?
SPEAKER_00:I'm in uh Lexington in my office uh out at the feed yard. And uh things start early here, so we're just doing our part to feed the world.
SPEAKER_02:Duane, give folks uh your background. Where do you hail from and what do you do for a living?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I uh started out in uh eastern Buffalo County. Um grew up on a farm there. My father was in the seed corn business and set off in life to find my fame and fortune in the livestock industry.
SPEAKER_02:Have you found that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'll let others judge. I can speak to the fo I can speak to the fortune, not yet. And uh the fame will let others speak about that. But uh uh my wife Trisha and I, we we live just north of Lexington here. Uh I I'm the uh work at DAR feedlot, uh take care of the finances and uh IT data analysis activities.
SPEAKER_02:And what county is DAR feedlot in?
SPEAKER_00:DAR feedlot is in Dawson County.
SPEAKER_02:And the license plate prefix?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it would be 18. Um I uh my my personal vehicle, I have the cattleman plates on, so nobody can tell where I'm from.
SPEAKER_02:I I do as well. So I like that when I'm out west, and so people don't think I'm from Lincoln, which is where I'm actually from. One of the ways you've given back to the industry is by being a uh volunteer uh appointed member of the Nebraska Brand Committee. When did you first become a member of the Nebraska brand committee?
SPEAKER_00:In my age, uh memory starts to fade a little, but I think it's been about or 2022 was when I when I came on the committee. Um first, just as uh a member of the statutes require one of the one of the five members of the committee. Uh all of them have to be uh livestock owners. Uh all of them have to live in the brand inspection area. And but one of them has to be uh represent the the registered feedlots. We may use the term RFLs in this count conversation, and that's my uh spot on the committee is uh as a uh representing the RFLs. The other members are uh CowCAF or Stalker or Seatstock, and uh those aren't those aren't uh quantified in statute, but that's their participation in the industry.
SPEAKER_02:Don, let's segue to you. Uh give uh folks your background.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. Uh lifelong Nebraskan. Uh was actually born up in Burt County, uh moved to Lincoln when I was three. Uh been here ever since. Um background, spent a lot of time in public service, private sector, uh, oversight investigation stuff. Uh worked for the legislature for four and a half years, way back when, and then went to the private sector for a while and then came back to government in 2016. Uh, founded the Center of Operational Excellence. There was process improvement for Senator Rick, for now Senator Ricketts, then Governor Ricketts. Uh, then uh in 2018, he was uh he had me appointed a deputy director in children and family services and had a five-month tenure there until he asked me to join the cabinet and was the executive director of the crime commission until 2023. Uh, transitioned out of that and ended up with the brand committee.
SPEAKER_02:So you've been at the brand committee since 2023. Has it uh been pretty quiet for you?
SPEAKER_03:No, no, it hasn't. No, I I knew it wasn't going to be. I had uh done some process improvement for the brand committee back in 2017, and that's when I I really liked the agency. I liked the people both the that worked there and and the folks in the industry, and you know, having a history background, you got to appreciate kind of the the romance and the heritage of it all. And when the I was originally looking to go back into the private sector, but then when the job opened up, it was too good to pass up, and I went after it, and here I am.
SPEAKER_02:So, what is the history of the Nebraska Brand Committee? How long has it been around and what does it do?
SPEAKER_03:So the the current iteration of the brand committee was started in 1941. Um, the whole concept of brand inspection, brand recording goes back to even before statehood. So in about 18 late 1850s, uh the first, it was like 1856, before we were even a state, they they had county registers for brands. You had stockgrowers' associations doing inspections. There were there were various versions of things, but it was really codified as recording at the state and inspection of the state in 1941. They tried in 1939. The legislature only met every other year back then. Um weren't successful in 39, but got it done in 41. Um, the goal is, you know, as you'll see sometimes on our patches and stuff, it's record, inspect, and police. So we record brands, make sure they're the the recorded, the you have title to it, because it's prima facie evidence of ownership. So we record the brands, we inspect. So we do inspections in the brand inspection area. You'll hear us talk about that. It's the western two-thirds of the state. And then we police. I have four special state deputy sheriffs that have arrest authority and citation authority to enforce all of the laws in the Livestock Brand Act, including brand inspection, but also paperwork, transport, variety of other things selling without inspection, that type of thing.
SPEAKER_02:So both you and Duane have mentioned the brand inspection area, which you described as the western two-thirds of the state. Why why is the whole state not covered?
SPEAKER_03:Um, you know, it's it's been, I'll say part of it's been tradition. Going back to 1875, there was the Western stock district, which was Cherry County, which was uh sorry, Cheyenne County, uh Lincoln County, they and some of the unincorporated areas in the panhandle, and that was to try to organize roundups more to fix co-mingling. That didn't work. That was done away with in 1879. In 1877, it was replaced with a mandatory registration west of a line that's more or less where we have the brand inspection line now, a little a little farther west. Um then getting into when the the Nebraska stock growers took over inspection, they had a line that had to be approved after 1921 by the federal government with the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act. And then when it was codified in statute in 1941, it was the last version that had been approved at the federal level. Um, part of the reason behind it, really, you see some from some of the accounts, is is back then there weren't so many producers in the eastern part of the state. It was a lot more feeders, what we would now term a feedlot. Um CalCAF operations were west. So the chance to to co-mingle and have that was really in what they considered the brand inspection area then.
SPEAKER_02:Dwayne, uh, how often does the brand committee meet?
SPEAKER_00:We meet uh on a regular basis quarterly. And uh we move those around the inspection area. We've gone from Valentine to Alliance to Carney to Curtis to Deadbird, uh Broken Bow. We try and move those around. All of those meetings are uh operated under the Nebraska Open Meetings Act, and so we move them around to give uh constituents uh the public at large really the opportunity to attend and participate in the discussions. And we have uh on occasion there's necessity for uh maybe a quick uh phone conference or uh video call. Uh those also are subject to the Open Meetings Act and the public can participate in that.
SPEAKER_02:So at your regular meetings, what types of things do you discuss and decide?
SPEAKER_00:Well, there's there's a normal course of business things that we uh are uh address. Um for instance, um uh personnel updates, maybe there's retirements, there's new hires, there's uh transfers within the uh the organization. We have both full-time and part-time inspectors. So we'll go through and and just so that the committee can be aware of the of who works for us. There's about 70, 71 employees total. Um and so we we just have kept abreast of that. Also, the finances were a cash-funded agency. Um what's that mean? Well, what that means is if you take a department like uh pick on health and human services or department of roads or department of corrections, those those are what in terms are called code agencies. And all of their funding comes from taxes, taxes or other fees, uh, but they are uh uh funded, if you will, I'll just say loosely through the state. Um the brand committee, um, and there are a couple others, maybe John could delineate those, but none of our uh revenue comes from taxes, tax uh receipts from the state. Um, so we only we have fees that are charged for our services, those might be inspections, those might be uh transfers of other things, might be uh registering a brand or renewing a brand, or certain activities we have uh uh fees for those. And so our only revenue is a service provided to our constituents, and then our expenses for our employees and travel, etc. So we're we're watching that closely all the time, so an update on our finances. Um other activities are uh occasionally there'll be a possibly a brand that is requested or somebody would like to a new brand, so they have to determine whether that's um they call it in conflict with maybe another one that's nearby or in the same county or something. So we have some guidelines for that. Uh sometimes great-great-grandpa had a a brand, and now uh great-great-grandson would like to have that brand again, but it expired, and so now they're through the process again to make sure that uh say if John wanted a brand and he lived in the same county I did, and they were so similar that a reasonable person may be confused as to whose was whose, then we call that in conflict, and that might be denied. We also have conversations uh as we're looking into the future, we um we've we've implemented a fair amount of technology into this process that we do. All the all the inspectors have an iPad that they can do their work of the day on. Um but there's a constant uh okay, keeping up with technology. We don't want to be on the bleeding edge of technology, but we need to keep up with things. So there's there's um planning and strategic planning that goes into some of our meetings in that way.
SPEAKER_02:Where's where's the headquarters for the brand committee at?
SPEAKER_00:The headquarters are in alliance, and they have been for I'll say forever. Uh that may not be uh technically true, but the uh we have some I think there are three staff in our office in Alliance that 99.9% of the work is done out in the country.
SPEAKER_02:Don Don, what's the size of the budget of the Nebraska brand committee?
SPEAKER_03:It's about uh 6.5 million a year. And the the important thing about our budget, you know, is Dwayne was talking about since we're fee funding, our budget isn't the amount of money we receive, it's a limit on how much we can spend. So it's a limit on spending authority.
SPEAKER_02:Why a brand? Are there what is the purpose of the brand? Assume I'm from New York City and uh uh I'm hearing about something called a brand, and I've seen uh Western shows about it. Uh what's the purpose of the brand and why is it still exist today?
SPEAKER_03:You know, I I think one of the best explanations I heard recently from a CowCAF producer was he sees it as his return address. That if something gets lost and cattle wonder, you know, they can go missing for a variety of reasons, either under their own power or or someone else's, you know, someone can take them, but it's that return address, you know, whose belongs to who if it gets co-mangled if somebody finds it. Um I equate it to like a vehicle identification number on a car or a serial number on a firearm. You know, it's it's a transportable, high value, easily convertible asset that people have a lot invested in. And having that brand on there gets gets a stray animal or a stolen animal back to where it belongs. Also, there's you know a deep heritage in it that it's that's your family brand. It's almost like a coat of arms in a way. That you know, it's it's it's on uh a board hanging by over your driveway, coming up to the ranch. It's it's on ranch apparel, it could be on your truck, but it's it's that tie to the the four or five generations ago that started everything that that had that brand. So you have both the kind of trademark status, but also the ownership status.
SPEAKER_02:One thing I've noticed on brand committee agendas and one of the reports that you publish is on something called an astray with an E. What is an astray and what the heck does the brand committee do with them?
SPEAKER_03:So an astray is is a critter that's found not where it belongs. So um sometimes they're found and they're branded, and we can run the brand and get them back to where they belong. Sometimes they're unbranded, what we call a slick. And it's it's a little bit more problematic trying to get them back to where they belong. Um they can show up, you know, neighbors can find them, um, non-neighbors can find them, they can show up at sale barns. Sometimes folks will be collecting the the animals they're gonna bring into a sale and find find one that's not theirs, uh, and bring it, they'll bring it into the sale barn and turn it over to our inspectors, or they'll call an inspector or an investigator when they they find one. So what we do is we investigate. It's you know, our inspectors, if they if they see a brand, they'll run it and just get it back to the to where it belongs. Um, if it requires a little more work, it's referred to one of our four criminal investigators just because they have more time to uh to dig into it. And they'll try to trace it, match it to missing reports, um, see what matches, see if they can they can find where it goes. If not, um then it's it's sold off, and then the proceeds go into what's called an astray fund. And what we can do with that is after a certain period of time, we can take out expenses, so what our investigatory expenses were, um, etc. And then it is the the remaining funds are sent to the state school fund, much like uh a fine from you know a speeding ticket.
SPEAKER_02:Does cattle rustling still occur?
SPEAKER_03:It does.
SPEAKER_02:So what can you describe some of the Dwayne? Yeah, you can jump in here too. Any recent cases you're aware of or the brand committee's been involved in?
SPEAKER_03:There's you know, there's the we've had a couple. Um, just in the this past probably six months, past few days, uh, there was a report out of Keith County. We had uh 1.24 million in calves that were taken from a sale barn. Um, individual said that they had uh a financial backer, uh, took off with, you know, bought but did not pay for about 453 calves, loaded them up and got them to a feedlot in McCook. Uh the sale barn reported to one of my investigators they had a no-pay, and at$1.24 million, it was, you know, it was pretty prevalent. Um through some great investigative work, uh my investigators tracked it down, found where the animals were, got the animals recovered, got them back to the sale barn. Um very minimal loss, um, no more loss than you'd expect for for calves that age moving around as stressed as they are. Um, and that is in the process of going through the district court. Um, individual's been was arrested uh by one of my investigators and has been charged with uh theft and identity theft.
SPEAKER_02:Dwayne, do you have any examples of cattle rustling?
SPEAKER_00:Well, there's the there's the non-nefarious version. Uh I'll I'll kind of the anecdotal. Maybe I'm I'm rounded up and and uh branding my calves or I'm branding up uh to take from my calves to to to pasture or to grass or I'm gathering, and all of a sudden I find one of uh one of yours in my group. I call this non nefarious rustling. I I I didn't do anything intentionally, but I found one of yours now. Technically, we call that an astray. But most of the time in those cases, what happens is I call you and I say, Hey Mark, uh, I got two of your calves. Do you you want to come get them or you want me to bring them over? And and they're returned without any official action and probably not even reported to the brand committee. I'm just, hey, I found yours, here they are. Um, there have been cases through history where um uh people I'm hesitant to use names and and addresses, but people have uh uh come up beside the road, um open the gate, shake a can of corn, and most cows will perk their head and and follow you. And the the thing today is that if you bring a a calf into at the sale barn and it gets sold today, it's gonna be worth uh somewhere between maybe three and four dollars a pound today. Uh six weeks ago it was maybe between four and five dollars a pound. Um we have a middle-aged cow that might we'll call it a cull cow, might be worth three thousand dollars. Um, and you might have some seed stock animals that can be worth uh six digits, and so the temptation to uh uh mark or uh Don used the term that they're a highly mobile, highly convertible asset, if you can get away with it, you know, one animal is two or three thousand dollars, and uh there are people out there that um will take it upon themselves to uh permanently borrow your property, and that's part of the process of the brand committee is to make sure that as Don explained that this is uh uh ownership, um and if you're lost or stolen, it's an asset recovery service that we provide.
SPEAKER_02:So some folks may be asking, why not just an ear tag? Why is an ear tag not sufficient?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's and I'm very familiar with that conversation. Um the statutes actually allow us, allow the brand committee to use what are defined in statutes, non-visual identifiers. And those non-visual, the brand is very visual, obviously. Um an ear tag, its presence or absence is visual, but just because you put a blue ear tag or a yellow tag or a pink tag in your ear doesn't and it can be easily removed. That's that's why it's not permanent. There are some things that we have the technology, the technologies available today. We as a brand committee don't have the infrastructure or the software to be able to utilize those, but things like DNA, um uh retinal scan. If you watch some uh movies, you might see the security offer. They put the the eye up to the camera. Those retinals, the retinal scans are very unique. Uh we'll tattoo the animal sometimes in the um uh on the nose or in the lip or something, or on the ear, those are very permanent, but you have to you have to touch the animal, you have to get close to it. Maybe you have to remove some hair or some things in order to see it. We also have technology today that is used globally. It's um an ear tag, it's a single-use um uh uh tag that has um has some electronics in it that we have a unique number. It's a 15-digit non-repeating number. And that that tag can be scanned, one one kind of tag can be scanned at about 18 to 24 inches, and another kind of tag can be scanned at about 10 meters. Um, there's some benefits and drawbacks to both of them, but those are available, and we can use these non-visual identifiers as currently as secondary forms of identification. Uh if we had the we would we would like to move to where we can use some of those things that are uh uh like the retinal scan or the DNA or the tattoo, even facial recognition. Some some might chuckle when they hear this, but there is software out there that that does facial recognition in cattle just as they do in people. And um the the challenge is how do we how do we commingle those uh technologies and be able to use them at the speed of commerce and also to be able to defend them if there was ever a um we got into the legal system because uh some of those tags can be removed. Actually, all of the tags can be removed. Um if they're a certain type of tag, it's a federal offense to move that tag, remove that tag. But I don't think those that are stealing cattle are going to be worrying about the uh federal laws any more than they are in our state laws.
SPEAKER_02:Have you had uh conversations with some in the banking or financial industry, services industry about whether they think the brand helps them determine whether there's actually collateral there to support perhaps a loan that they're making? Do they do they support the brand?
SPEAKER_00:We we have had those conversations and um last summer Don and I attended what's called the International Livestock Identification Association meetings. And there's it is international. There's representatives from from Europe, from Australia, from New Zealand, uh Canada, other countries. And so the conversation specific to bankers kind of depends on what they're accustomed to and what their um their their what their rules are for collateral. If I'm a banker in Virginia, um Virginia is a non-brand state, they may brand them, but it we call it a non-brand state. And so that banker in his history, his experience may or may not know what a cattle brand is and may or may not need it for collateral. Uh you go to a state like New Mexico where it is mandatory that you brand your animals. And you talk to lenders in New Mexico, of course it's a bigger country, uh, fewer people, and uh they view it as a a very significant component of their uh uh loan justification, their collateral. Here in Nebraska, it it varies from my example of the banker in Virginia to the banker in New Mexico. It it's all over the place. But uh personally, we've had interactions with uh lenders that they want to see it. They want to they want to know how many, they want to see the paper for their collateral.
SPEAKER_03:And it's a a service our inspectors will provide. We'll go out and inspect for a bank to verify ownership. The the bank pays the costs and the the per head inspection fee, but we'll verify that the assets there. Um we will also have been called in to do inspections in support of civil actions, um, you know, asset division after a divorce, etc. So we do provide those for for the usual inspection fee and and cost for for banks and lending institutions.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell Don, one uh if I'm not mistaken, in recent years, the brand committee has been called upon to serve in a sort sort of slightly different law enforcement function, and that that that deals with uh some animal welfare cases that have arisen in Nebraska. Can you tell folks about how the brand committee has been called in to assist on those?
SPEAKER_03:Aaron Powell Absolutely. Um, you know, the the four investigators I have all have a background in one way or another in in livestock, in in animal welfare. So sometimes a county sheriff will come across a situation that they're not sure how to interpret. What's the condition of the animals? Is it is it neglect? Is it you know just the the nature of the environment? You know, sometimes in some some drought-ridden areas, cattle can look a little scrawny, and it's not neglect, it's it's just it's just the the drought and the issues. So my investigators will go out and consult. We don't have primary jurisdiction, so the the case isn't ours, but we provide expertise to the the agency that is investigating to go, yeah, that's not right. Here are the issues, here's what you need to do, um, and then work to mitigate that. Sometimes we'll help advise on how to seize the animals, how to get control of them, where to move them to, but definitely give an opinion on condition and what to do, and then help them resolve that. But the primary jurisdiction is with that local agency.
SPEAKER_02:So recently, gentlemen, your committee was in the Wall Street Journal of all newspapers on uh Christmas Eve with a rather uh colorful headline entitled, A Civil War Erupts Over Cattle Branding in Nebraska. Don, let's start with you. Uh uh what's your take on that article?
SPEAKER_03:You know, it was it was an interesting article. It uh it brought up some, you know, I think the the the discussion in the different parties involved, um a little bit different between, you know, the the feedlot groups and and the cow calf producers. I think the one thing it got across, apart from, you know, there were some some issues with some of the facts in it that weren't quite quite right, I think it did a good job of capturing how divisive the issue is. You know, you think about an industry that has cow calf producers, then goes to feeders, then goes to packers, and then you have kind of the fourth part, the sale barn part. Everybody has a different part of the market. You know, the the industry is segmented as the animal passes through its life cycle and its you know, its economic cycle. And and brand has differing values to differing people depending on their perspective. Some see it as a cost without a benefit, some see it as a very cheap expense to cover a very valuable asset. One of the things that you know that I talk to people about, especially with you know, trying to bridge the diverse opinions, is the value of the system. You have to have the recorded brand, but you also have to have the inspection. And you have that system to have a chain of custody so that we know when we find something, we have paperwork, we can start backtracking where it belongs, where'd it come from, who did they, you know, if it was a nefarious criminal act, where did where'd they take it from? How did they come into possession for uh of this animal? With if you remove one part of it, the evidence chain's gone. And with that, the the success of an investigation is is greatly hampered. So, you know, some some see value, some don't, and I think that was captured well in the article. Um, it is it is a divisive issue for people that have had it for, you know, you think about an industry where a lot of folks go back three, four, five generations. That brand is is very important to them, so they they see a value to it. Groups that are are feeding and moving things on don't. So, you know, it's probably a little bit of a sign of the times of how the the industry has developed using more more feedlots than than had been used before. Not something new, but definitely the the increased use I think was was has painted some issues that were brought up in that article.
SPEAKER_02:Dwayne, is it truly a civil war as the article calls it?
SPEAKER_00:Uh in the true sense of the term no, um is there I remember an old joke to many years ago, you put uh and I'll I'll blame farmers, you put you put 10 farmers in a basement and you have 11 of opinions. Um so the challenge that we have here in Nebraska is because in 1941, as we talked earlier, predominantly in the eastern part of the state, uh, was where the um caller uh those were were feeders. They they would buy cattle and feed them to to market weight. And in in the western part of the state, and I'll say even up until the the advent of center pivot irrigation and some of the other activities, most of the western two-thirds of the state was was rangeland, and so you have different opinions. Um, you have a different value put on the process of uh brand inspection, brand recording, brand enforcement. Um has it been a topic of discussion for about the last 40 years? Yes. Um there are other states that are similar. I mean, South Dakota is similar to Nebraska in the the western part of the state, they call it West River, west of the Missouri River is inspected, and the East River, South Dakota is not. Um some places like Kansas, it's a it's a voluntary system. And uh there are some that are advocating for a voluntary system like Kansas, but they they don't uh there I get all the notices of missing livestock in Kansas, and it's one here, two there, something else. But you go and talk to their enforcement, isn't is housed in their attorney general's um division. And um they just don't have the means and mechanisms to to recover, and in some cases they have to be invited in. Uh I should say, in all cases in the county, they have to be the AG has to be invited to come and assist with a investigation. So the the term civil war, I think is um verbosity. It's a little verbose, it's a little exaggerated. Do we have difference of opinion? Yes. Um, you're an attorney, Mark. Um supposedly. Well, uh, at least by reputation. Uh uh, you know, tell the attorney joke, you know, one attorney in a small town is gonna starve to death, two attorneys in a small town are gonna do well. And it's it's a case of those different opinions. I think there's legitimacy in both conversations, and one of our challenges in today, uh last session in the legislature, this coming session in the legislature, we're going to continue to have the discussion of how do we how do we modernize um the processes that we do, and then how is that how are those processes paid for and who who pays for them and not. So uh some of the history behind that, as we said, is with the advent of irrigation, uh cattle feeding uh since probably the 60s has migrated to the drier areas of the U.S. So if you drew a line from maybe Sioux City, Iowa to um Amarillo, Texas, and then around that line you you go about a hundred miles, 150 miles around that, and then you you bump out into eastern Colorado and back in Nebraska, probably somewhere, we could argue somewhere around 90% of the fed cattle in the US are in that geographic area, and it's it's positive because it's a drier climate, uh more uniform climate, and the cattle do really well there. And we have learned over the years that we can we can move the grain to the cattle uh easier. And uh, although we've had some a little change in the packer packing industry recently here in Dawson County, um, the packers have moved to where the cattle are uh rather than those historic markets like the Chicago Livestock Exchange or the Omaha Livestock Exchange. Um those packers are moved closer to the cattle. Civil War, no, that's that's a bit of hyperbole. But there are passions on both sides.
SPEAKER_02:Don, pretend you're appearing before the Nebraska legislature and give us your pitch on why some of these proposed changes uh would impact the economic viability of uh Nebraska's beef cattle industry.
SPEAKER_03:You know, I think uh just going from a a pitch to a committee, like this has been the system since 1941. It's worked, it's it's how we operate. We have 33,000 little more registered brands in the state, and a lot of people use them. They see value in marking their asset, both in in a pride stance, but also in making sure that their investments are guarded. Banks have come to rely on this as backing collateral. So you have the the funding for the the cowcalf operations, the cowcalf operations themselves, all the way up into the sale barns. Sale barn owners have said if brand goes away, some of them will employ their own brand inspectors because they want to make sure they have clear title to what they're selling because it's their reputation too. So at the end of the day, for a very small investment, when you look at the overall value of the market, we're safeguarding the integrity of Nebraska's premier industry and safeguarding the integrity of all of the players in every segment, the cow calf, the sale barn, the packer, the feedlot, making sure that they have clean title to the asset that they're selling, and also that we can trace it back if it gets lost, that we can adjudicate those issues and be the peacemaker between neighbors and make sure everything gets back to where it goes. But it is the kind of the spine to the whole system, and it it keeps it tied together and it keeps everybody playing fair. But it also holds those accountable that would try to predate on it. And, you know, coming from a background where, you know, running the crime commission and working in law enforcement and public safety, you want your enforcement system to be proactive, not reactive. And if we're out there protecting the industry and holding those accountable that would take advantage of it, it's a further safeguard. But we need that brand, that brand inspection to be the backbone of what we do. So it is that full encompassing thing of record, inspect, and police that has served our cattle industry so well for over 80 years.
SPEAKER_00:I'm going to jump in and just kind of add a little bit to that. If if we take the inventory of cattle in Nebraska, just in Nebraska, and we put a modest price on them, the value of that those cattle in the state of Nebraska is somewhere north of 14 billion dollars. So the brand committee is charged in statute of uh protect and uh investigate and police. I think I got all three of those correct, but but for a fee of um somewhere around a dollar to a dollar and a quarter. Right now it's a dollar and ten cents per inspection for an animal that's worth uh$2,500 to$3,000 is an extremely modest um fee to ensure that that who owns that animal. Uh as we've talked to some other states, if you show up with a pickup and a trailer and you got 14, 15 calves in there, they count them and just assume you own them. That's not the case in Nebraska. Um you have to prove ownership. And so if I if I went into your house, Mark, and I uh you invited me over for dinner and I managed to walk out the door with uh$3,000 worth of your property, whether you were an attorney or not, I think you would seek some justice. And and so the brand committee is there to assist that. I think some of the passions and some of the argument within us, within us cattle people, is there's a difference in perception of the value of that dollar and ten cents. Um there may be some areas where there's a higher propensity for animals to be uh lost or stolen, and there's some areas where that propensity is less, but at the same time there is a to support the infrastructure to police and to support everyone, everybody gets to pay. Uh maybe it's a poor analogy, but uh my wife and I are of an age where our children are in their 40s, so we don't have any children or even grandchildren in in our local school district yet. My property taxes go to pay for that process. Some would say that, well, I don't we don't we don't see any value in it, so we don't think we should participate in the uh this brand conversation. And it's in my view, um a bit short-sighted now. Others will take issue with what I just said, and I I welcome that conversation.
SPEAKER_02:Gentlemen, something we ask all of our guests, and you get just one word, and Don, we're gonna start with you. Don, what is the one word that to you best describes and explains this great place in which uh you help run the Nebraska Brand Committee and support Nebraska's cattle industry? What's your one word for Nebraska?
SPEAKER_03:Ooh, one word. I think I'll go with tenacious. Explain. You know, you just think about the the toughness, the drive. You know, you've seen it with with marketing from various parts of government, the university, even the governor, grit. You know, we're we're a tough people. We're we've turned the the land into something productive, and we keep innovating. We keep starting new industries, we keep driving, we keep pushing. Um, we don't know quit. So I think being tenacious in in everything that we do, um, agriculture, you know, other businesses, yeah, that's Nebraska. That's we're we're pushing.
SPEAKER_02:Dwayne, what's your one word for Nebraska?
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna say privilege. And and to put that in context, um for me personally, I have the privilege of serving along with my fellow industry uh partners. Um it's it's a place of service, the brand committee. You and I I do I think technically, I technically I do get four free Jimmy John sandwiches a year in compensation. They're not always Jimmy John's, that's not an advertiser for Jimmy Johns. But being part of something bigger than myself, I I look to stand on the shoulders of those that have gone before us. You know, the brand committee is a is a five-member committee appointed by the governor, approved, or appoint approved by the legislature. And there's been generations of those since 1941. And then as we look into the future, how do we how do we bring this uh very robust industry that we you know 20% of the ETH in the U.S. comes from Nebraska? And so we have the privilege of feeding uh feeding our country and even parts of the world that with some of our products, and the privilege of getting to be a part of that process of feeding the world, the privilege of getting to live in a in a state where uh agriculture is highly valued and is the economic engine to our state. Um that's my word is privilege. It's it's an honor and sometimes uh a heavy heavy burden to uh to carry on a daily on a particular day or particular week, depending on the some of those conversations.
SPEAKER_02:Duane, Don, thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Give it a like and share it with someone who might enjoy it as well. Please keep on listening as we release additional episodes on Nebraska, its great communities, Nebraska's number one industry, agriculture, and the folks who make it happen.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks. This has been Nighty Three, the podcast, sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Rumboldt Blood Gate.
