A Maternal, Efficient & Constantly Improving Operation
Kolin Scheele is a young rancher with an entrepreneurial mindset. Located in in Southeast Nebraska, Kolin and his family run a small, diversified operation that could be described as maternal, efficient and constantly improving. The Scheele family primary focus on the cow-calf side of their business, but also have row crops. Kolin also enjoys working in feed sales and nutrition consulting outside of his ranch work.
Kolin has been a part of the RancherMind program since the very first event. He shows up to these calls with great questions that are sure to make everyone think. Learn more about Kolin and his take on the beef industry in this blog post,
What part of your ranch or career in the beef industry are you the proudest of?
The part of the ranch that I am post proud of is building a strong cow herd. We have put a lot of focus and selection pressure the material side to allow us a great foundation for our herd.
When did you start ranching?
I started back when I was a little kid and started to have ownership in my early teens.
What are you excited about when it comes to the future of the beef industry?
The ability to improve the beef production system through technology and management selection tools is what is the most exciting for me. The amount of technology and tools that have been created for us to improve management decisions, which in turn improve our production with less resources is truly amazing. Genomics and things of that nature have truly changed our ability to be better managers. I cannot wait to see these develop and continue to improve.
What’s the most challenging part about ranching/the beef industry?
We are faced with many challenges, but access to resources, land and labor seem to be some of our biggest challenges at the time. As we lose land and grass for production we have to adapt how we would traditionally run the beef industry, whether that is a hoop building, intensive grazing, or alternative feed sources. The labor aspect is becoming more challenging, as most people do not want to work in that environment or are removed from production agriculture. Now we have to educate those willing to learn or find ways to reduce labor demand.
What’s the most rewarding part about being in the beef industry?
Being able to provide a nutrient rich protein to the food chain is one of the most rewarding parts for me. It is taking a natural accruing resource in the environment like grass or crop residues, running them through the cow’s system and turning that into a high quality protein.
What’s your wish for the future of the industry?
I wish we as an industry will be able to continue to educate the consumers to understand our practices and the amount of hard work and passion we put into our animal. I hope we continue to see new ways to bridge the gap between the consumer and producer.
Kolin has a lot of passion for the beef industry and it is exciting to have him in the RancherMind group. Kolin wants the industry to connect better with the consumer. Do you agree that this needs to be a part of our industry? Tell me in the comments below ⬇️
