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5 days ago | 
northplattebulletin.com | Ruth Nicolaus
When Jim Gragg takes vacation, he goes to work, and loves every minute of it. For the past 50 years, the Tryon resident has spent four days in June in North Platte, volunteering at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo. And even though it’s work, he loves it. Since 1974, Gragg has untied calves after every tie-down roping run at the rodeo. He was a high school sophomore when he began helping, and he’s never missed an evening performance nor Wednesday morning slack.
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1 week ago | 
agupdate.com | Ruth Nicolaus
Raegyn Beachner lives for the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte. The 14-year-old cowgirl, a resident of Hershey, Neb., volunteers at the rodeo, carrying sponsor flags during the grand entry of each night of rodeo, and saddling, unsaddling and warming up horses that the rodeo queens ride. Beachner has been helping at the rodeo the past four years, but she’s been attending it since she was a baby.
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1 week ago | 
tsln.com | Ruth Nicolaus
A sixth-generation Nebraska cattle rancher is raising Surf and Turf on the same ranch. Grant Jones, from Haigler, Nebraska, in the far southwestern corner of the state, started the shrimp part of his ag work, Champion Shrimp, in 2020. A 2014 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he came back to the ranch, and wanted something of “his own” on the family operation. He had read an article about using old hog barns to raise shrimp, and was intrigued.
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1 week ago | 
tsln.com | Ruth Nicolaus
Alexa Schneider’s business is buzzing. She’s the owner of three bee hives, as part of her FFA SAE (Supervised Ag Experience) as a junior at St. Cecilia High School in Hastings, Nebraska. Alexa has been a beekeeper for the past three years, the hives a gift from Bill and Judy Weston of Juniata, Nebraska, who taught her how to take care of the bees and harvest the honey. About every two weeks, Alexa checks on the hives, which are about a seven-mile drive from her house.
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1 week ago | 
northplattebulletin.com | Ruth Nicolaus
Raegyn Beachner lives for the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte. The 14-year-old cowgirl, a resident of Hershey, volunteers at the rodeo, carrying sponsor flags during the grand entry each night, and saddling, unsaddling and warming up the horses that the rodeo queens ride. Beachner has been helping at the rodeo for four years, and she’s been attending it since she was a baby. The daughter of Ashley and Tylan Gayman and Levi Beachner, her grandparents, Tom and Shelli Arensdorf, live near Hershey.
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3 weeks ago | 
agupdate.com | Ruth Nicolaus
The Appaloosa horse breed is best known for its colorful spotted coats. A breed developed in North America by the Nez Perce Native Americans, cave paintings in Europe and Asia depicted leopard-spotted horses. The Spanish brought horses to the Americas when they first arrived in the 1500s, with written mention of one of them as a patterned horse among those brought by the explorer Cortez to Mexico.
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3 weeks ago | 
williamsonherald.com | Ruth Nicolaus
When fans pour into the Franklin Rodeo this weekend, they’ll see cowboys and cowgirls, bronc riding and bull riding, racing and roping. But behind the scenes, it’s the dozens of sponsors, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of hours that make the rodeo happen. The sponsors are crucial to the success of the Franklin Rodeo, said Devin Gilliam, rodeo director and a member of the Franklin Noon Rotary Club, which has produced the rodeo since 1949.
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3 weeks ago | 
williamsonherald.com | Ruth Nicolaus
Franklin Rodeo thrives with support from partnersWhen fans pour into the Franklin Rodeo this weekend, they’ll see cowboys and cowgirls, bronc riding and bull riding, racing and roping. But behind the scenes, it’s the dozens of sponsors, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of hours that make the rodeo happen. The sponsors are crucial to the success of the Franklin Rodeo, said Devin Gilliam, rodeo director and a member of the Franklin Noon Rotary Club, which has produced the rodeo since 1949.
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3 weeks ago | 
williamsonherald.com | Ruth Nicolaus
When the Franklin Rodeo kicks off this weekend, a pair of brothers will be ready to ride. Luke Herbert and Houston Herbert of College Grove are bareback riders who will compete at the Franklin Rodeo, held May 15-17 at the Williamson County Ag Expo Park. The brothers, who are 32 and 29 respectively, follow in the footsteps of their dad, Joey Herbert, who was a bareback rider and bullfighter. While a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Luke began riding bareback horses.
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4 weeks ago | 
thefencepost.com | Ruth Nicolaus
Rare tornado damages Cover family’s Sandhills ranch headquartersA devastating tornado has destroyed much of Tim and Kathy Cover’s ranch headquarters, but it won’t crush their spirit. On Sunday, April 27, at about 5:40 p.m. MT, a wedge tornado touched the ground in the far northeast corner of Garden County, Nebraska, and traveled 20 miles to the northwest, demolishing much of the Cover Ranch, west of Ashby, Neb., on Highway 2. Of 11 buildings, barns and shops, five remain standing.
