Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Gov. Pete Ricketts presents a proclamation to local agriculture leaders during the luncheon Wednesday in Sidney.
Gov. Pete Ricketts greets North Elementary School fourth grade student Max Green, a local 4-H member, at Agri-Plastics Wednesday.
Agri-Plastics CEO and co-founder Darren VanBuuren, left, explains the hutches to Gov. Ricketts during a tour of the plant Wednesday.
The hutches are made with a form that heats the plastic, then cools it before it is completed. The company is assembling a second machine which will require more staff.
National Agriculture Week was March 18-24, and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts sees it as a time to celebrate Nebraska as well.
"Agriculture is the heart and soul of what we do," Gov. Ricketts said Wednesday. "If we're going to grow Nebraska, we have to grow agriculture."
Gov. Ricketts said one in four jobs in Nebraska are agriculture-related.
Gov. Ricketts stopped in Sidney for a lunch hosted by the the Cheyenne County Farm Bureau. Following the lunch, the governor, Director of Agriculture Steve Wellman and Farm Bureau representatives toured the Agri-Plastics plant in Sidney.
Gov. Ricketts said expanding agriculture has three components: international trade, value-added agriculture and the third is property tax. He said 95 percent of the state's consumers are outside of the borders.
"That's why I go out on trade missions. They're great opportunities. By continuing to keep the pressure on, we can open up those markets," he said.
He said he met then-candidate Trump in 2016, explaining that the Chinese market was closed to American beef, specifically Nebraska beef. Soon after getting elected, President Trump met with the Chinese president and two months later, Gov. Ricketts was loading the first boxes of Nebraska beef destined for China.
He has traveled to China, Japan, the European Union and Canada. He added when he traveled to Canada in 2016, he met with the founders of Agri-Plastics. The company has since expanded, opening its first U.S. plant in Sidney.
Following the luncheon, Gov. Ricketts and agriculture representatives toured the Agri-Plastics facility in Sidney. The facility currently has 11 employees with plans to expand to 20. The process involves mixing plastic pellets in a heated form, then a cooling stage.
The plant is focused on construction of hutches capable of housing up to six calves. The plant is operating with one machine forming the hutches. More staff are expected to be added as a second machine is assembled.
Agri-Plastics markets itself as "designed for farmers by farmers." In 1995, Darren and Rob VanBuuren, third-generation dairy farmers, founded Agri-Plastics. They began experimenting with new designs for hutches with a goal of a healthier design and more comfortable environment for calves, according to the company's website.
"We've got five different divisions, but agriculture is 70 percent of our business," he said.
Since then, the company has expanded into other product lines including calf milk bars, buckets and rain barrels.
"We'll get orders for 30 up to 10,000 (units)," Darren VanBuuren said in the tour of the plant.
The Sidney facility sent out its first order last week, he said.
The hutches can be easily shipped by truck, fitting 100 units per truck, and are very durable, according to VanBuuren.
"The life span is quite long (more than 20 years)," he said.
VanBuuren said they plan on bringing in the resin for the forms by rail in the future.
The plant is powered by gas and electricity.
A grand opening is planned for June.
Reader Comments(0)