Grant to promote county's 'Livestock Friendly' status

Will Keech, third from the left, presents a $5,000 grant from the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska (AFAN) to members of the board of directors of the McCook Economic Development Corp., represented by, from the left: Linda Taylor, Jamie Mockry, Kim Schilling, Dennis Berry, Carol Schlegel, MEDC director Andy Long, Mark Graff and Angela Allen. Keech, now of Lincoln, is a former McCook resident, having been an ag banker at Wells Fargo Bank in McCook.

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — The Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska (AFAN) presented its first $5,000 “Livestock Friendly County Grant” to Red Willow County, in care of the McCook Economic Development Corp. Monday afternoon at the MEDC office in the Keystone Business Center.

MEDC director Andy Long told members of the Red Willow County board of commissioners at that board’s meeting Nov. 19 that the funds will go toward a marketing campaign to recruit companies to Red Willow County that will improve the agriculture economy and provide enhancements to current producers.

The AFAN grant is available to counties that have officially aligned themselves with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture’s “Livestock Friendly” program. Red Willow County was Nebraska’s 44th such county when county commissioners accepted the official designation from Gov. Pete Ricketts in January 2018.

Will Keech of Lincoln, AFAN’s director of livestock development, told MEDC board members Monday that the grant can be used for projects that focus on the economic development of agriculture.

The MEDC plans to use the grant for marketing, to set up a digital presence to describe the area’s resources that are important to agriculture, such as natural resources, zoning regulations and transportation.

Following the presentation, Keech and board members discussed livestock and livestock processing opportunities, such as the possibility of recruiting a processor of dairy products that could accept local milk. Locally-produced milk is now shipped to processors in Colorado.

Keech said a processor of fluid milk could create 50-75 full-time jobs, while a processor of milk products such as cheese and yogurt requires fewer full-time employees.

McCook would be a viable location, on two major highway corridors, Keech said, although several MEDC directors said that new opportunities like this often also present challenges such as housing, workforce availability, schools and emergency services that would also have to be addressed.

About AFAN

The Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska (AFAN) is a non-profit organization

formed by leading agricultural membership groups in Nebraska such as the Nebraska

Cattlemen, Nebraska Corn Growers Association, Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, Nebraska

Pork Producers Association, Midwest Dairy, Nebraska Poultry Industries and Nebraska Soybean Association.

With the support of other membership groups, commodity organizations and private business, AFAN works with individual producers and communities across Nebraska to encourage the development of environmentally-responsible and economically-viable livestock production in the state.

For more information about AFAN, go to becomeafan.org.