Nebraska Farmers Union

08/26/2026

Our fall district meetings are coming up next month! You're welcome to attend any meeting listed below (in order by date). General Guidelines:
• Meal on your own with meeting to follow.
• Open to the public. Bring a friend, neighbor, family member, or member prospect!
• District candidates for the general election may be in attendance. If you're a candidate and would like to attend and say a few words, please contact the state office.

NeFU Districts 3 & 1 (southern, western and panhandle) Fall Meeting
Monday, September 21, 2026
12:45 p.m.
Zoom Meeting. Contact the state office to get the Zoom Link

NeFU District 6 (northeast) Fall Meeting
Monday, September 21, 2026
6:00 Supper with Meeting to Follow
Pizza Hut, 1781 E 23rd Avenue S, Fremont, NE 68025

NeFU District 4 (southeast) Fall Meeting
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
6:00 Supper with Meeting to Follow
Valentino's Restaurant, 701 Court St, Beatrice, NE 68310

NeFU District 7 (northeast) Fall Meeting
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
6:00 pm Supper with Meeting to Follow
Perkins Restaurant, 1229 Omaha Avenue, Norfolk, NE 68701

NeFU District 2 (Central) Fall Meeting
Monday, September 28, 2026
6:00 Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow
1301 Howard Avenue, Community Library, St. Paul, NE 68873

NeFU District 5 (east, southeast) Fall Meeting
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
5:30 Supper with Meeting to Follow
DaVinci's Restaurant, 745 South 11th Street, Lincoln, NE 68508

If you have questions, such as what district you're in, please contact the state office at 402-476-8815 or [email protected]

08/25/2026

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said, “Increasing imports doubles down on a failed strategy that has substituted foreign beef for rebuilding domestic production. Beef imports have already risen to record levels while retail beef prices continued climbing and the U.S. cattle herd continued shrinking. More imports will continue providing multinational beef packers and retailers with cheaper supplies, but they have not resulted in lower beef costs for consumers.

“Most importantly, this policy undermines the producer confidence necessary to rebuild the U.S. cattle herd. Herd expansion takes years,” Bullard said. “Producers deciding whether to retain heifers today must have confidence that future cattle prices will justify that investment.”

National Farmers Union President Rob Larew said, “Consumers deserve to know where their beef comes from, and American farmers and ranchers deserve credit for raising it. Imported beef is just a handout for monopoly meatpackers, who can mix cheap imported beef with American beef and pocket the difference, with no guarantee consumers ever see lower prices or ranchers see fair ones. Mandatory country-of-origin labeling fixes that: it holds packers accountable and lets the market work honestly for everyone. The Senate Agriculture Committee has already taken steps to advance it. Congress should finish the job and pass this commonsense, bipartisan policy now,” Larew said.

President Trump’s decision last week to allow 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to enter the country tariff-free for the next 90 days has upset farm leaders of all ideological stripes.  On Truth Social, Trump...

08/25/2026

John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said the agricultural sector is experiencing its worst slump since the 1980s.

Pam Johnson, a farmer in northern Iowa and former president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), said, "The [Iran] war has brought immense uncertainty to our farmers," adding, "It is projected that farmers will not make any money at all over the next two years."

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the national average price of diesel, widely used as agricultural machinery fuel, rose to 7,554 won per gallon (3.78541 liters), higher than the 5,280 won per gallon seen before the Iran war. Furthermore, hot and dry weather is expected to deal a blow to crop yields in some regions.

midterm elections about two months away, the UK daily Financial Times reported on the 24th local time that U.S.

08/25/2026

Iowa groups have championed farm to school programs, especially the COVID-era Local Food for Schools program that resulted in nearly $2 million to Iowa schools to purchase from local farmers, but was terminated March 2025.

Aaron Lehman, president of Iowa Farmers Union, said farmers are “still reeling” from the 2025 decision to cut the program that had a national investment of more than $1 billion in 2024 for local food for schools and a program that helped food banks and nonprofits purchase local food.

Lehman said the programs had “long demonstrated success” for farmers, classrooms and other institutions. Its cancellation, he said, was a “betrayal of farmers investing in a public-private partnership to feed those most in need in our communities.”

“Our farmers choose to farm because they want to grow things to feed people,” Lehman said in a statement. “Connecting farmers with children and other consumers is vitally important now more than ever, and we recognize the need for new efforts to make these connections.”

Lehman said the investments in the Harvest to Hallways initiative “fall far short” of the “damage” done to farmers from previous USDA cuts. He pushed for Congress to reinstate the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchasing Agreement programs as it deliberates on a new farm bill.

USDA announced efforts to increase the nutritional value of school lunches, including a push for more locally grown foods at school.

08/24/2026

As chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, Fischer said she and ranking member Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico, are leading a bipartisan working group to evaluate federal broadband programs and funding.

Fischer said that a lot of the work the Universal Service Fund Working Group is doing centers around how the Universal Service Fund and unspent Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program funding can be used by states to better bridge the digital divide in rural and unserved communities nationwide.

While Nebraska was awarded $405 million through the federal BEAD program to grow broadband access in 2023 under the Biden administration, Gov. Jim Pillen announced last December the state intended to only award $44.5 million of the $405 million to expand broadband access.

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer said Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats shouldn't be playing hardball on the 2026 Farm Bill with time running out to get the bill passed before Sept. 30.

08/24/2026

President Donald Trump announced via social media Friday that he would allow foreign beef to enter the U.S. without high tariffs. Though the move is intended to lower consumer prices at the grocery store, Nebraska cattle producers and ag leaders say it could slow a healthy U.S. cattle market.

This time of year, Nebraska Cattlemen President Craig Uden said cattle producers are making decisions about whether or not to increase their herd sizes. “Timing wasn't good because this is the time we make those decisions, and it creates a lot of volatility in our markets,” Uden said. “People get real restless as to whether they want to make that long-term financial commitment to increase their herd.”

A small total U.S. cattle herd and continued consumer demand despite higher prices has pushed up beef prices. “Markets are cyclical. Fundamentally, we disagree with the premise that we can import our way out to lower beef prices long term,” Uden said.

President Donald Trump announced via social media Friday that he would allow foreign beef to enter the U.S. without high tariffs. Though the move is intended to lower consumer prices at the grocery store, Nebraska cattle producers and ag leaders say it could slow a healthy U.S. cattle market.

08/24/2026

[NeFU Member] Bill Armbrust is retiring from farming. His family has farmed their land north of Elkhorn for 170 years. Armbrust decided to retire a little early, citing questionable weather and profitability over the last few years. He says the delay in passing a farm bill has not helped.

“I was going to have to retire in the next couple of years, so I decided sitting in the tractor that there might be other things I can do,” Armbrust said.

[NeFU Member] Nebraska Lt. Governor candidate Ben Steffen, also a farmer, attended Armbrust’s equipment auction. Steffen expressed concern about the lack of progress on a farm bill.

“We’re in a deep period of financial stress in agriculture, and we have a farm bill that’s way out of date, and we are nowhere near passing a farm bill, let alone passing a better farm bill. So it’s really disheartening to see we can’t make progress,” Steffen said.

A family business that lasted more than a century and a half is shutting down production. But that decision will help another family business grow from the same property.

08/24/2026

National Farmers Union (NFU) President Rob Larew released the following statement after the Trump administration announced its plan to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the United States with lower tariffs over the next 90 days:

“Consumers deserve to know where their beef comes from, and American farmers and ranchers deserve credit for raising it. Imported beef is just a handout for monopoly meatpackers, who can mix cheap imported beef with American beef and pocket the difference, with no guarantee consumers ever see lower prices or ranchers see fair ones. Mandatory country-of-origin labeling fixes that: it holds packers accountable and lets the market work honestly for everyone. The Senate Agriculture Committee has already taken steps to advance it. Congress should finish the job and pass this commonsense, bipartisan policy now.”

WASHINGTON — National Farmers Union (NFU) President Rob Larew today released the following statement after the Trump administration announced its plan to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the United States with lower tariffs over the next 90 days. “Consumers dese...

08/24/2026

Nebraska's all-Republican federal delegation slammed President Donald Trump's decision to exempt 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef from tariffs for three months in an effort to lower prices ahead of the Midterm election.

Trump announced the deal in a social media post Friday, saying it will "substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families" by allowing the beef to be imported without an "out-of-quota tariff" in the next 90 days.

Beef prices are at a record high as the U.S. sees a historically small cattle herd size caused, in part, by rising input costs and persistent droughts in key cattle-producing states like Nebraska.

The average price of ground beef per pound was $6.89 in July, up from $6.25 per pound in July 2025 and $5.50 per pound in July 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shared by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Nebraska's all-Republican federal delegation slammed President Trump's decision to exempt 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef from tariffs for three months in an effort to lower prices.