December 2025 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN 17 /agribusiness Member FDIC | From Forbes ©️ 2025 Forbes Media LLC. All rights reserved. Used under license. ONE THAT PROVIDES. Time-tested Agribusiness banking. 1/4 Vertical Nebraska Cattleman 4 Color Masonic Eastern Star Home for Children December 2025 Masonic-Eastern Star Home for Children A home away from home for children in need. Fremont, Neb. | 402-721-1185 | www.meshc.org Merry Christmas from the Rawhide Wranglers 4-H Club’s 4-H’er of the Year, Dylan. Masonic-Eastern Star Fremont, Neb. Merry Christmas from the Rawhide Wranglers 4-H Club! ment years ago, he’s still deeply involved. “I still do the buying and oversee customer procurement and marketing,” he says. “I’ve got a really talented crew, and I want them to spread their wings, but I still have final say in a lot of things.” Uden and his wife, Terri, also have a significant cow-calf operation, with their family heavily involved. Daughter Blair and husband Jon Caraway manage the day-to-day of the cow-calf operation and own cattle of their own. Son Andrew and wife Nicolette live in Seward, where Andrew works on technology and process improvement across the feeding sector. Both couples feed a few cattle and are Nebraska Cattlemen members. Craig and Terri have six grandkids, split evenly “girl, boy, boy, girl, boy, girl,” and all are already in 4-H. These things matter to him for two reasons. First, he practices what he’s preaching about generational transfer – he’s already bringing in younger partners and letting them lead. Second, he believes involvement in the association should reflect families, not just individuals. “When we get young people in, we need to get the husband and the wife as members,” he says. “You don’t want one membership. You want two. You want different ideas. You want both of them able to go to meetings.” Looking Ahead Ask Uden what headline he wants on his presidency, and he doesn’t talk about a single bill or a single crisis. He talks about keeping the organization functional in a fractured time. “I want everybody to take a breath and have an open mind,” he says. “We need help. We need information. We need involvement. It starts at the ground level.” He knows what Nebraska is up against. The political center of gravity in this state keeps moving east, into the Lincoln/ Omaha corridor. Rural Nebraska does not control the map the way it used to. That’s not anger or frustration talking. That’s math. “We’ve got to start working with instead of against,” he says. “Not just on business but socially and culturally. Nebraska is changing.” And then, the closer – the part that’s less pep talk, more warning. “We’re shaking a pretty large tree out there in the world today,” he says. “Nothing stays the same. Change is constant. 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.” That’s the tone Craig Uden is bringing into the job: steady hand, open door, no nonsense. Less shouting. More thinking. Keep producing beef that people trust and keep this industry worth inheriting. ~NC~
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