LINCOLN — The Nebraska Brand Committee could be gone. 

A bill from State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair would eliminate the governor-appointed state Brand Committee and transfer its responsibilities to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, which is run by a gubernatorial appointee. The proposal, Legislative Bill 1258, would make brand inspection voluntary, instead of required. 

Nebraska has a state brand law that applies mandatory inspections to cattle owners in the western two-thirds of the state. The Brand Committee is responsible for investigating cattle theft and verifying ownership through brand inspection when cattle are bought, sold or moved within or beyond the branding zone or area set in state law. Its services are funded entirely through fees, not by taxpayers. 

The proposal is the latest escalation in a divide over the future of the committee among rural and agricultural constituencies that flared up last legislative session. A north-central rural lawmaker said the bill is “trying to create a mockery” out of one of the state’s most valuable industries.

It comes after the Brand Committee explained in a Jan. 15 social media statement that it hadn’t been following part of a state law change from 2021, following a complaint filed with Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers’s office. 

The Attorney General’s Office declined to provide more information on the complaint. 

Don Arp, the committee’s executive director, posted that the group had chosen to continue charging $20 per inspection surcharge instead of calculating the state-required fee for the actual miles traveled by the inspectors to reach each inspection. The group’s post said the committee planned to start using the state-required system after the complaint. The commission had argued that the flat fee was a more practical way to calculate its costs.

Said Hansen: “The way we address branding in the state of Nebraska doesn’t seem like an efficient use of taxpayer dollars … or an efficient use of the producers’ time and their money.” 

Nebraska Does It Differently

Other cattle-feeding states, including Texas and Oklahoma, do not require branding, though it is encouraged as a deterrent to theft. In Wyoming and Colorado, brand inspections are mandatory for most sales and for cattle moved across state lines.

Nebraska’s livestock branding law was tweaked in 2021 to reduce inspection fees, provide advance notice of a brand inspection and transition from a flat surcharge to a charge for the miles traveled for each inspection, according to the Midwest Messenger. 

State Sen. Teresa Ibach of Sumner, of west-central Nebraska, proposed a bill last session that would exempt feedlots from brand inspection under the state’s livestock brand inspection law. Livestock brings in over $12 billion into the state’s economy annually, according to the state Ag Department.

The bill advanced to final reading after it was amended to set a lower fee for feedlots and clarify the mileage change. State Sen. Tanya Storer of Whitman, a rural lawmaker from north-central, expressed concerns about lawmakers making an uninformed decision about the future of the committee. 

Ibach told the Examiner she supports Hansen’s proposal, calling it a solution that “best serves Nebraska’s cattle producers.” She was “disappointed” that her bill didn’t pass last year, and still wants it to pass, but said “action this year is imperative.” 

“To remain competitive and sustainable in the future, the time has come to act to protect Nebraska’s cattle industry,” Ibach said. She said Hansen’s proposal “provides additional oversight to ensure proper enforcement of the law.”

Questions About Need For Change

Storer told KNEB in Scottsbluff-Gering that the cattle industry has to remain open-minded about changes, “but anything that degrades or erodes that basic provision for proof of ownership is not acceptable.”

“They’re not in the cattle business,” Storer told the Rural Radio Network about her legislative colleagues “They don’t understand the cattle business, but they’re willing to take a sledgehammer and try to destroy a system of proof of inspection.”

She said the Brand Committee is about preserving the integrity of a very valuable asset in the state, referring to cattle. 

Storer told the Examiner Monday that lawmakers who sponsored the bill probably “listened to a handful of feedlot owners who have hired a lobbyist to represent them” to paint a picture of the system they say is “out of date or unfair.”

“When four or five businesses come in and ask to be deregulated, that does not warrant grounds for deregulation,” Storer said. “I don’t feel like all segments of the industry have been fairly represented in this discussion.”

The Nebraska Cattlemen said it would meet later this week to decide its stance on the proposal. The Nebraska Farm Bureau is also currently reviewing the legislation. Last session, many urban lawmakers chose not to weigh in on the rural debate. Hansen said he expected another “spirited” debate. 

In a hint of how heated — Storer has filed an amendment to Hansen’s proposal that would change the bill’s name to the “Livestock Dead Capitol Act” from the “Livestock Protection Act.”

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/01/26/branding-problem-escalation-in-nebraska-divide-over-state-brand-committee/