A wealth of research has linked protein to favorable lifestyle markers such as healthy body weight and/or weight loss, maintaining and building muscle, and overall diet satisfaction. Plus Nebraska-raised beef is simply delicious.

Local feedlot owner Preston Franzen stands near the feeding bunk of a pen of feeder calves at his Franzen Feeders yards near Stockham. As a former Western Nebraska ranch kid and now the president of the York-Hamilton County Cattlemen, he loves to talk about the challenges, opportunities and future of the beef industry.

Ethan Freese uses a tool called a drip torch to drop burning fuel into the dry grass at Gjerloff Prairie on April 30 as part of a controlled burn.