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The Northeast Nebraska RC&D has five main priority areas. They are:
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 Agriculture
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Distillers' Grain Research Project
The Distillers' Grain Research project came about after discussion concerning the marketing of distillers' grain and how ethanol plants could stay competitive with that by-product as more plants come on line. The project was implemented in July 2006 and testing concluded June 2007. It was funded in part by a grant from the Nebraska Rural Development Commission's Agricultural Innovation and Value-Added Ag Partnership Act. For a copy of the report click on the link below.
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St. James Marketplace
The ultimate goal of St. James Marketplace is to provide their value-added, Ag-based members with a retail outlet for their products. It is an association of committed rural entrepreneurs working to remain on the farm, with an eye to saving their community.
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Food, Land and People
Building a Nebraska Sandwich doesn’t seem like a proper title for an adult workshop session, but it is just one of the ways that Food, Land & People (FLP) presents information in their teacher’s workshops. This hands-on training also includes activities called “Buzzy, Buzzy Bee”, “Amazing Grazing”, “Less Elbowroom” and more. These classroom materials with intriguing titles are available in the 55-lesson Resource book that is correlated to the Nebraska state standards. They focus on agriculture, the environment, conservation and people.
The Food, Land & People (FLP) program is definitely gaining momentum in Nebraska as more and more teachers and facilitators become aware of the materials. To date there are 20 adults trained as FLP facilitators prepared to give workshops for teachers and adults or programs for students and other groups. About 75 teachers have had workshop training on the 55 lessons too. It is estimated that about 450 students and 110-120 adults have already been exposed to some of the lessons this year. The possibility of these 75 teachers reaching another 6000 Pre-K to 12th students across the state is very real.
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Dairy Study
A group of small dairy producers has run into obstacles when trying to implement on-farm processing as a way of adding value to their products. A dairy forum and an interim study supported by the local state senator have helped in determining that legislative changes are needed. A bill will be drafted for the 2005 Nebraska Unicameral session with hopes that creating a two-tiered system will allow more flexibility for small processors. It will also include criteria for allowing the advertising and delivery of unprocessed milk direct to consumers.
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Wau-Col Regional Water System
At the October 30th meeting participants discussed future plans for this project. Osmond elected to drop out so those involved are Wausa and Coleridge who will be supplying water and Magnet, McLean and Belden that will be receiving water along with rural users. The project engineer, JEO Consulting Group, redesigned the system for those entities, but more work is needed to finalize cost estimates. USDA Rural Development had put together a proposed financing package, but now will need to take another look at that to make sure the project is still feasible as it relates to operational costs.
Each participating community as well as the Lower Elkhorn NRD, Lewis & Clark NRD and the RC&D have a new map showing the system’s layout. Anyone with an interest in the project is encouraged to take a look at this map. More rural users are still welcome and encouraged to join in the project too.
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