It’s said that a little competition never hurts anyone. Actually, it can be fun — and even educational — says Mike Johnson, chief operating officer of the Nebraska Manufacturing Alliance (NMA), especially when talking about a tournament-style competition pitting some of the state’s most iconic innovations against the newcomers in technology.

Johnson was describing the “Coolest Thing Made in Nebraska” competition conducted by NMA, a part of the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This annual event began in 2022.

Agriculture, as you’d expect, is a big part of this Nebraska innovation promotion. The 2024 winner, announced this fall, was the groundbreaking Valley center pivot, which spawned a revolution in irrigation not only in Nebraska but also worldwide.

STILL RUNNING: Don Fling, an Ainsworth, Neb., farmer, was still running his 1976 model water-drive Valley pivot, complete with steel wheels, in the field alongside modern Valley pivots when Nebraska Farmer visited with him for an article in 2013.

The other finalist was Outlook Nebraska, the sole toilet paper manufacturer in Nebraska. It is the largest employer of the blind and visually impaired in the state.

Johnson says “tens of thousands of Nebraskans” voted on 16 entries, which were whittled down from more than 100. Alumni of the chamber’s Leadership Nebraska program picked the 16 entries that were then placed in a bracket-style, head-to-head tournament.

Head to head

“The annual event is a lot of fun for our members and for the public,” Johnson says. “There is considerable pride in the products we make in Nebraska.”

Related:Inventor of center pivot honored

Ag companies were well represented in the competition, with young companies such as ALA Engineering, funder of the autonomous feed truck the ALA Navigator, and Marble Technologies, builder of artificial intelligence and food-grade hardware to reduce labor and improve product quality in the meat-processing industry, among the competitors.

Johnson says there is a symbiotic relationship between manufacturing and agriculture. “Food processing is a major industry in the state, but we also make many of the tools that produce the crop and livestock inputs in the state.”

The overall manufacturing industry provides more than $21 billion to the state’s gross domestic product.

The R211 open gangway subway car manufactured by Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. in Lincoln and built for the New York City Transit Authority won the first “coolest” contest in 2022. The following year, the Rocket Mobility All Terrain Wheelchair, made by Rocket Mobility in Columbus, took the honors.

Manufacturers, students and all Nebraskans can vote in the competition. Nominations for the 2025 “Coolest Thing Made in Nebraska” competition will be accepted sometime beginning in June. Nominations can be made at the NMA’s website at nechamber.com.

Related:Quest for autonomous tractor began decades ago

Valley and Frank Zybach

The story has been told numerous times through the years — why and how Nebraskan Frank Zybach developed the center pivot sprinkler system.

It’s worth telling again, considering how the Valley center pivot earned the title last fall as the “Coolest Thing Made in Nebraska.”

Zybach’s invention in the late 1940s forever changed the landscape of agriculture in Nebraska and made its way to many parts of the world — 90 countries, in fact. As a tenant wheat farmer near Strasburg, Colo., Zybach figured there had to be an easier way to irrigate.

The 1993 book “Flat Water: A History of Nebraska and Its Water” tells the story of Zybach attending a demonstration of a hand-moved sprinkler irrigation system. He saw right away how labor intensive it was, as workers connected the pipe sections with water running through them, then walked through the mud to move and reconnect them to irrigate again.

In 1952, he was granted a patent for the “Zybach Self-Propelled Sprinkler Apparatus.” He went into business with A.E. Trowbridge of Columbus, and together they produced 19 center pivots.

Then, in 1953, Robert Daugherty, head of Valley Manufacturing, bought the licensing rights to manufacture the Zybach-patented pivot. A year later, Daugherty founded Valmont Irrigation to manufacture the Valley brand of irrigation equipment. He and Zybach designed and made center pivots based on their belief in increasing yields while saving water and labor.

And the rest is history.

Learn more at valmont.com/agriculture.