“My hope for the future would be that my kids have all the opportunities and more than what I’ve had. That they can go out, enjoy, and if they’ve learned from me and from other people – new and unique ideas – that they could do that. I think that’s the most important thing.”
“I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and I’ve been in Holdrege since 2001. I came out here, involved in animal agriculture and the ag-industry, so came out here to work in that industry locally here in Holdrege.”
“I went to college at the University of Nebraska so I took up aviation while I was going to school there. Got my private license while I was in college. And then Holdrege has been a very active aviation community – got involved early-on when I moved out here – and I continued to get all of my ratings and licenses through commercial helicopter, commercial fixed-wing, and stayed active in it and used it for my work in agriculture over the years and been lucky enough to let it to expand into a lot of fun things.”
“No military, all private. A lot of good mentors – certainly around the Holdrege area – that have been involved in agricultural aviation and other types of aviation. Got some really good opportunities early on and stuck with it. Ended up getting the chance to build a lot of hours in a lot of fun airplanes and helicopters.”
“The view is great. The ability to get to places in a timely fashion is ultimately the efficiency of it (flying). The thing that I really love is that it takes 100% of your mental attention. So, while you’re flying, you’re 100% committed to it, the rest of the world fades away until you land. You don’t think about everything else in life. It’s a break from the other stresses of the day.”
“Went to school and got a degree in Animal Science from the University of Nebraska. I stayed in commercial production ag (agriculture) – primarily beef production on a commercial level, in the feeding operations.
“Pretty large scale. I managed the feedyard here at Holdrege for ten years, that was about 13,000 head capacity. That’s a pretty large scale, though not necessarily large for Nebraska. It was a family run operation, out here, doing their part.”
“Other than about three years – again in commercial agriculture – in California, I’ve been in Nebraska my whole life.”
“The commercial beef industry is different across the United States, but the people are generally a lot the same. The same goals, the same products that they’re trying to produce, but they’re doing it under different environmental conditions, different geographic regions. California’s obviously a lot higher in population, so there’s a lot of different challenges in California than there is here. But generally speaking, everybody talks ‘the same language’ across the United States though it’s definitely different how they get to that point and how they run their operations.”
“Nebraska brings a unique lifestyle. Fairly slow paced, very safe, good place to raise kids, good place to be involved in outdoor activities. Not a lot of people – we have a few stoplights and a few stop signs in town, but that’s about as fast paced as it gets here. The pace, the friendliness of people, the openness of people, the majority of people are involved in agriculture, so a lot of the same interests. But those are also the things I would enjoy in a larger city or more populated areas: being able to see a different perspective of how things operate.”
“I have three boys. They’re all involved in outdoor activities – hunting, fishing – they’ve helped out on the feedlot, they’ve enjoyed aviation, and enjoyed the lifestyle that Nebraska gives. It’s been a great opportunity for them to have some freedoms that they might not be able to have in a bigger city.”
“I’ve been able to be involved in a lot of different activities, different professions, and all of that comes from hard work and really enjoying what I’m doing. I think if you enjoy something as much as I enjoy aviation, I enjoy the livestock industry, work isn’t so bad and it can be fun and you convey that to other people.”
“It’s [agriculture] been a great industry – being able to be active, seeing how proactive producers are, how efficient you need to be to feed the growing population that we have. Everybody does it in commercial agriculture – generally speaking – very honorably, and they treat livestock much better than is portrayed on a lot of media outlets, and they truly are stewards of the Earth in producing food at remarkable levels and remarkable efficiencies so people can live and have a great life.”
“I think there is a concern – to be able to produce the amount of food that we can produce at an efficient level to where people can afford it and everybody can afford to eat – I think we still have a population of people that are not eating properly, and a lot of that’s due to costs. There is a point, and I think the population is growing faster than we can produce if regulations and things come in and start choking agriculture down, the people that’ll pay the price are the people who can’t afford the food today. So it really needs to be an open effort to see how we’re producing, what we’re doing, do it right, do it sustainably for the future – but keeping in mind all those hungry need to be fed, one way or the other. And I think that’s certainly how the industry views it: doing it the right way but it needs to be done on a large scale.”
Limited edition print available (alpha edition):
Giclée (Archival Inkjet) print w/ quotes, in window cutout, typed on artist’s 1955 Olympia SM3 Typewriter.
1” Matte Black Frame, 2” Ivory Mat, Archival Hinge Mount, UV Glass.
8.75″ x 12.25″ (Framed: 14.75″ x 18.25″)
$999
Click here for more information about limited edition prints.