December 2025 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN 15 Disease, ID and the Next Crisis He raises another point most people don’t like to think about until it’s on their doorstep, which is animal disease. For years, the big disease fear in beef was always foot-andmouth disease. A lot of emergency planning, surveillance thinking and traceability work was built around that. Then reality showed up with different problems. “We never dreamt that bird flu would affect the cattle industry,” he says. “Now we’re talking about screwworm again. These are totally different challenges than we anticipated.” Electronic ID (EID), traceability, disease surveillance – these have been hot-button fights in some parts of the beef world. Uden’s tired of pretending they’re optional. “I’m glad the dairy industry had EID tracking so we could at least monitor and find out where those cows went,” he says, referring to recent bird flu disease tracebacks. That, to him, should have been a wakeup call. “You just don’t want to have to get into a disaster in order for everything to have to change.” Uden has spent decades being the guy who worries about the thing that “isn’t an issue yet.” He’s not apologizing for it. “I’ve been accused many times of worrying about things that aren’t an issue today,” he says. “But generally somewhere along the line, they become an issue.” Gate-to-Plate or Plate-to-Gate One of the reasons Uden talks the way he does – from biosecurity to urban influence to retail beef demand – is that he’s sat in almost every room this industry has: feedyard owner, rancher, national association leadership, state leadership, checkoff and consumer marketing, foundation work, university partnerships. He’s just as comfortable talking about screwworm traceability as he is about consumer cooking habits. “I’ve always kind of been a gate-to-plate thinker,” he says. “But after being on the Beef Council and understanding the consumer, I’m not sure I’m not plate-to-gate now.” What he means is that once you actually see how beef is sold, merchandised, portioned and positioned to the modern buyer, you stop pretending the job ends when the truck leaves your chute. You work backwards. “You see how many people are involved in every step,” Uden says. “Genetics, nutrition, management, fabrication, packaging, distribution, figuring out what cuts go where in the country and what time of year. This business is way bigger than most people think.” That scale, he argues, is what Nebraska Cattlemen has to get better at showing its own members. “We can get wrapped up in policy so hard that we don’t get anything else done,” he says. “What I’d really like to see us do is educate and expose our members to the bigger picture of what this industry really is.” He believes Nebraska is uniquely positioned to do that. Unlike a lot of states that are dominated by one slice of production, Nebraska truly has it all – cow-calf, stocker, feedyard, packing, further processing. “Every facet of the industry happens in this state,” he says. “And it’s under one umbrella called Nebraska Cattlemen. That gives us a unique opportunity.” But only if the organization stops letting people retreat into their corners. Breaking Silos Uden wants to change how Nebraska Cattlemen governs itself internally. Less silo. More exposure. Fewer people hiding in their comfort zones. Right now, like most member-led groups, Nebraska Cattlemen uses councils and committees to represent interests, discuss issues, and create and advance policy. The upside is representation. The downside is tribalism. “We’re looking at maybe restructuring part of our governance so we don’t have all these siloed councils,” he says. “We need to knock down some of those places that people can just run to when they don’t agree with something. We need to have it all out in the open.” To him, an issue like screwworm isn’t just animal health. It touches brand, property rights, transportation, marketing, traceability, labor – all of it. That means more people need to hear the same conversation at the same time. “God help us, we might learn something,” he says, laughing. Uden checks performance reports at Darr Feedlot with staff Trish Gangwish, left, and Nicole Johnston, right. CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 These are good times for the cattle business, but they won’t last forever. So we can’t just protect the industry. We’ve got to make it grow and make it resilient for what comes next.
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