Sandhills Cattle Association Annual Convention & Trade Show Coming To Atkinson

For 83 years, the Sandhills Cattle Association has been holding its Annual Membership Meeting. Over the years, we’ve added a trade show, cattle contests, educational speakers, and entertainment. This year we will be moving our Annual Convention & Trade Show back to the Spring and holding it on May 26 & 27 at the Atkinson Community Center in Atkinson, Nebraska. Since it is just around the corner, we’d like to invite you and your family to enjoy a couple of days of fun in the Sandhills of Nebraska.

After last year’s success, we’ve decided to keep our Cookoff Contest in our lineup of usual events! We will be holding our Cookoff Contest as a fundraiser again, and teams need to sign up as soon as possible! Teams will meet at Atkinson-Stuart Country Club on Wednesday, May 25, to receive their meats and have a short meeting about rules and expectations. Teams will start cooking their meat in the morning on Thursday, May 26, and at 5:00 pm, our judging team will judge the various meats, and then the public can decide whom they think is the best for the People’s Choice Award! Teams are required to bring a meat smoker, a side dish, any spices, or sauces that they may prefer and pay a small entry fee of $50.00. Please join us for this great social event, show us your fantastic BBQ skills, and win some awesome prizes!

Also on Thursday, May 26, we’ll also be holding our 25th Annual Sandhills Golf Classic! Enjoy the afternoon on the course with ag-minded individuals during this fun-filled fundraiser to support the ongoing efforts of the Association. Funds raised during the tournament will be utilized to promote the people and cattle raised in the Sandhills and expand our educational programs. This Sandhills Golf Classic is a four-person scramble with a shotgun start. There will be a $5 per mulligan per team per 9 holes and a $10 buy-in for the $10,000 Hole-In-One contest! We will be implementing the snowman rule where no scores will be over eight, and there is a cap of 18 teams this year, so register early! A complimentary supper will be provided, and also cash prize for 1st place, 2nd & 3rd place awards, and pin prizes!

On Friday, May 27, is our 83rd Annual Convention & Trade Show. For those that want to join us in the morning, we will start the day around 9:00 am with a quick tour of Cottonwood Feeders of Stuart, NE, where our Educational, Performance, and Contest calves are located. After this brief tour, we will head back to the Atkinson Community Center for registration and a quick lunch and get ready for our opening at noon! Our first speaker of the day will be Scott Ruzicka with Suther’s Feed, and then after his presentation, we will welcome the Nebraska Department of Ag and the Nebraska Brand Committee. We will break between these speakers and have time to judge our Pen of Three Replacement Heifer Contest, view the trade show, and mingle.

Our prominent speaker of the afternoon will be the one and only Amanda Radke at 3:30 pm. We are so excited to have Amanda speak at our convention this year, and you won’t want to miss her thoughts about the beef industry today. We are changing things up slightly this year and will have our SCA Annual Membership Meeting, and Scholarship Winners Announced at 5:00 pm. Then we will have a nice served supper while we listen to Rob Sharkey ‘The Shark Farmer’! After that, the excitement really kicks up with the Live Scholarship Benefit Auction starting at 6:45 pm. Please bid on items to raise money supporting our Sandhills Cattle Association scholarship program! This program has awarded over $117,750.00 in scholarships to the youth of the Sandhills in the last 30 years! For the rest of the evening’s entertainment, we will have Twin River Band from Merriman, NE, play for the crowd while everyone enjoys beverages and socializing with each other