Rep. Bacon visits western, central Nebr.
WESTERN/CENTRAL NEBRASKA – During the Congressional break March 29 to April 9, U.S. Congressman Don Bacon took a four-day trip from his Congressional District 2 (Omaha metro, Douglas County and parts of Sarpy County) to travel the state.
“I was elected by the voters of District 2, but I represent the whole state and wanted to get out and travel and see what is happening outside of Omaha and Lincoln,” he said.
After visiting Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Bacon traveled west to meet several ranchers during their busiest time of year, calving season.
Bacon saw firsthand the ranching operations at the Shovel Dot Ranch at Bassett (owned and operated by brothers Homer and Larry Buell and their wives, Darla and Nickie), the Meeks family’s Upstream Ranch at Taylor and the Bestol-Masek ranch at Purdum. He garnered new insight into beef production and grazing, haying practices in Nebraska.
Bacon also visited Harsh Mercantile in Purdum where Mike Moody carries anything from groceries to ranching items such as belts, oil, fencing supplies. Moody gave insight into the struggles he is seeing in obtaining his supplies, saying,“COVID really has hurt the supply chain. It is hard for me to get items, such as steel tanks, livestock feed or vaccines in on a timely manner.”
Brenda Masek will become the Nebraska Cattlemen (NC) president for 2022 at the NC convention in December. The future NC President commended the Congressman for staying in Congress and not putting his hat in the ring for Nebraska Governor. “We need all the support we can get in Congress, and having Congressman Bacon out seeing our Sandhills’ agriculture firsthand this week will serve him and us (beef producers) well in D.C,” Masek said.
Bacon gave his views on issues affecting the cattle industry and received input from producers on issues. The Congressman and his staff toured the Gudmunson Sandhills Laboratory near Whitman on Wednesday and Thomas Livestock Co., Inc. of Broken Bow on Thursday.
At Thomas Livestock, Bacon toured a hog facility and visited with Tim Chancellor of Thomas Livestock and Shana and Bart Beattie of Beattie Family Farms of Sumner. Shana Beattie is the current president of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association. Topics discussed included bio-security, immigration, research, international trade and workforce.
Rep. Bacon is a member of the House Ag Committe and the House Armed Services Committee. He said his work on the next Farm Bill was one of the reasons for the trip.