Nebraska Program Offers Young Ranchers Aid, Loans

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CALLAWAY, Neb. (AP) -- To pay the bills, Richard Cool drives 45 miles down a lonely highway from the family ranch to a small-town auto parts factory where he works the overnight shift.

Like others with country roots, the simple love of working outside with cattle is what appeals to Cool. For years, his dream of doing it full-time seemed unattainable.

Now it's within his grasp because of a first-of-its-kind program launched at a small school in western Nebraska.

The 100-Cow Program, which is confined to the state, offers hopeful ranchers low-interest, government loans of up to $300,000 if they complete a ranch management course.

Besides teaching students the best way to raise livestock, it teaches them how to run a ranch as a successful business. And participants must complete a business plan to present to U.S. Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency, which lends the money.

Industry experts say it could be a template for the rest of the country.

''Not only have I been hoping for the past 15 years that I could own cattle of my own, I'm now seeing it becoming a real possibility,'' said Cool, a burly 35-year-old who now carries textbooks in his pickup.

High land prices, poor planning for the transfer of ranchland from one generation to another, the allure of city lights and other factors have slowly been draining Nebraska and other agricultural states of ranchers -- and the cattle they raise. The iconic image of young men riding the range on horseback is mostly a myth now -- graybeards in their 60s and 70s are the fastest-growing segment of the ranching population.

The number of ranches and other operations where cows are raised for beef has reached a new low, leading some observers to worry that an important thread that has helped bind rural areas for generations is becoming dangerously frayed. Some are even worried about the nation's food supply.

Last year, the number of beef cows in the U.S. dropped to 41.8 million, an all-time low, down from a high of 50.2 million reached in 1982.

In 2007, the last year for which data are available, the number of calves they produced reached its lowest mark since 1951.

And the number of ranches and other types of beef-cow operations has dropped to fewer than 758,000. That's the fewest on record and a 22 percent decline over the past two decades, according to statistics provided by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

''I am concerned,'' said Andy Groseta, a third-generation Arizona rancher whose term as president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association just ended. ''There's not enough young people. It's a dying industry. There will be a point where this country won't be able to feed itself.''

While participants in the 100 Cow-Program are paying off their up to $300,000 loan, participants will have to annually give the Farm Service Agency a business plan.

A hundred cows often isn't enough to make a living for a family -- it takes more like 500 -- and $300,000 falls short as well. A more realistic amount needed to start a cattle operation is around $1 million, mainly due to land prices that continue to hover at record-highs.

But creators of the program think they have a way of closing the distance: Participants like Cool have to partner up with established, older ranchers who agree to let them use their land and equipment at a low cost.

The herds belonging to the young and old ranchers will run together until the youngster gains a foothold, creates a track record of business success, and gains the collateral he needs to get another loan from the local bank, instead of the government.

The hope is that years later, ranchers who once could only answer ''no'' to questions from private banks about whether they had business experience and collateral, should be able to answer ''yes'' when seeking loans to buy their own ranches, said Weldon Sleight. He is the main architect of the program that is offered by the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, where he is the dean.

With Groseta's encouragement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association recently started the Young Producers Council, which met for the first time on Jan. 29 in Phoenix. The goal is to get more people ages 18 to 35 involved in policy issues surrounding the beef industry.

Formed partially to help increase communication, the need for the group is also a sign of the widening cultural cracks in remote rural areas caused by ranching demographics.

''Our grandparents, when they faced challenges, they could go to the coffee shop and talk to others having the same challenges,'' said ranch owner Trent Fredenburg, 31, a member of the council and a rancher near Greenfield, Ind.

''That's not the case today. Young people have challenges, but they're so spread out across the country. They aren't at the coffee shop.''

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