The 28th year of the Nebraska Cattlemen Beef Pit was once again a success. This was the second year the State Fair was held in Grand Island and the Beef Pit served 26,100 sandwiches, which is 1,100 more than 2010. This equates to 12,500 lbs. of beef prepared and served in just 11 days. The busiest day was Sunday, September 4th with

nearly 3,600 sandwiches served. Given the high demand, the longest reported wait was about 40 minutes with most customers receiving their meal in about 10 to 15 minutes.

The Beef Pit would not be as successful without the help of the 350+ volunteers serving beef meals. A thank you goes out to all of those hard working Nebraska Cattlemen Affiliates, industry partners, university students and other community individuals for your time and effort. Nebraska Cattlemen would also like to thank Darrell and Maggie Griepenstroh of Nebraska City for their 25 years of cooking at the Beef Pit.

Miss America, Teresa Scanlan attended the Beef Pit to eat a great tasting prime rib sandwich. She was awarded a cowboy hat which was a token of Nebraska Cattlemen's appreciation for Miss Scanlan's support of Nebraska agriculture. Governor Dave Heineman also joined in on the festivities by coming to the Beef Pit to socialize with Nebraska beef lovers and to enjoy a meal.

Nebraska Cattlemen members enjoyed talking to veterans who attended the State Fair's Veterans Day and as a token of Nebraska Cattlemen's appreciation for their service awarded 189 veterans with beef certificates that they could use to buy beef.

Promoting Nebraska beef and those who play a part in raising Nebraska beef is the main goal of the Nebraska Cattlemen Beef Pit. The main menu items were the prime rib, roast beef, BBQ beef sandwiches and beef hotdogs.

Proceeds from the Beef Pit have been used to endow youth scholarships through the Nebraska Cattlemen Research and Education Foundation. The first scholarship endowed was the Donovan Yoachim Memorial scholarship in honor of Mr. Yoachim's work on establishing the Beef Pit and for his beef promotion efforts. The second scholarship endowed was the Beef Pit scholarship for students majoring in Meat or Food Sciences at the University of Nebraska.