Nebraska entered the 21st century with impressive statistics. As of 2006, Nebraska had the top three beef cattle counties in the U.S., including the nation’s No. 1 cattle county — Cherry County, with nearly 165,000 cattle. Holt County was No. 2 (101,000) and Custer County was No. 3 (93,000). Also among the top counties in the nation was Lincoln County at No. 15 (69,000).
January 2006 figures showed that Nebraska continued to have far more cattle than people. Cattle outnumbered Nebraskans nearly 4 to 1. There were 1.93 million cattle but just 1.7 million Nebraska residents. Those cattle plus the 4.7 million head that were sent here to be fed annually totaled nearly 6.64 million cattle.
The cattle industry continued to be Nebraska’s largest industry, with nearly $7 billion in sales. When you consider all of the other businesses that supported the cattle industry (like veterinary medicine), that number jumped to just over $12 billion.
There were about 4,500 feeding operations in Nebraska in the early 2000s. While some lots were enormous, nearly 800 of them took care of more than 1,000 animals. That meant there were over 3,700 feedlots that each held less than 1000 animals at a time.
Nebraska led the nation in beef exports, and world trade was growing, linking Nebraska to a much larger global economy.
But those exports were injured severely by a single sick animal.
