28 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN January 2026 Bill Rishel Honored With 2025 Saddle & Sirloin Portrait Award RISHEL NOMINATING COMMITTEE William H. (Bill) Rishel of North Platte has been named the 2025 inductee of the prestigious Saddle & Sirloin Portrait Gallery. Rishel became the 380th member of this historic gallery when his portrait was unveiled at an induction banquet on Nov. 16, 2025, during the North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Ky. “Since 1966, the year I was privileged to be on the Penn State National Champion Livestock Judging Team in Chicago, l have admired the stories and lifetime contributions of previous honorees of the Saddle & Sirloin Club,” Rishel explained during research for his nomination. “I believe that early exposure to this special place was my driving force not only to breed a great herd of purebred Angus but also to become actively involved in cattle industry organizations, contributing my ideas and time to help make all beef producers more successful.” Not many Angus producers can claim to have successfully touched every segment of the beef industry during their lives. Even fewer can say they produced a groundbreaking purebred bull that, today, has more than 3 million registered descendants going 11 generations back. Rishel can claim both of those accomplishments. From his childhood days managing successful 4-H beef projects, to his animal science degrees and impressive livestock judging record at Penn State University during the 1960s, Rishel was well prepared for a career in the beef industry. In 1975, with limited resources, he and his wife, Barb, made the bold decision to leave New York and move to Nebraska to establish themselves within the western cattle industry. With their three young daughters, Jill, Joy and Judy, the bull New Criterion, 12 purebred Angus females, a shared passion for good cattle and a vision of excellence, together, they began developing Rishel Angus at North Platte. Rishel’s distinguished, unselfish service to the beef cattle industry stands as testimony to the roots from which he originated in Pennsylvania. Early in life, he realized that hard work and determination were attributes needed for success in any endeavor. Always with an eye to the value of maternal inheritance, he crafted his own brand of genetic selection to produce game-changing Angus cattle that led the worldwide industry toward a more focused consumer product. “Our committee documented Bill’s lifetime commitment to the beef cattle industry as inspiration for future generations of breeders, producers and leaders,” says Saddle & Sirloin Nominating Committee Chair Michael Bishop, Ph.D. “We are pleased that he has been recognized with our industry’s lifetime achievement award. It is our goal to tell the Bill Rishel story as an inspirational pathway for younger generations to courageously follow his footsteps of perseverance, hard work and foresight with every aspect of their careers.” The self-described “fearless to a fault” Angus breeder has always been willing to seek wisdom from those he respects, not to be afraid to be in the minority, to accept change when it is predicated on real economic value and to base breeding decisions on sound principles that will create success for all segments of the industry with the consumer at the front of the line. Rishel has had many industry firsts and achievements through the decades. In 1974, he led a group of breeders, Genetic Breed Improvers, in the purchase of the first syndicated bull in the history of the Angus breed, Northern Prospector 14. In 1981, Rishel Angus purchased the bull AAR New Trend. The commercial industry recognized the value of the bull and, in 1986, Rishel embarked on a structured sire evaluation program, beginning with New Trend, to measure carcass merit, placing emphasis on quality and a satisfactory eating experience for consumers that continues today. In 1990, a grandson of New Trend, B/R New Design 036, was born into the herd and later became a leading sire of Angus Pathfinder females and the foundation sire of all New Design Angus cattle. He was the top sire for Angus registrations in 2001 and 2002. Today, 036 is recognized as one of the top carcass quality Angus sires with more than 3.2 million descendants in the American Angus Association pedigrees. In 1996, along with three of his bull customers, Rishel attended one of the first organizational meetings of U.S. Premium Beef in Hays, Kan. He became part of the first wave of producers to invest in the new company model as a value-added system in the beef value chain. The next year, Rishel was struck by the fact he had been heavily invested in testing for carcass merit but did not have an idea what, if any, the value difference was between a superior individual and an average individual in the population for total product value. He contacted Glen Dolezal, then working at Oklahoma State University, to take carcass data from some of the tested sires and process it through the “Box Beef Calculator” Dolezal had developed to calculate retail CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 PEOPLE
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