Schuler Red Angus Honored for Commitment to Community and Education

Dr. John Westra, UNL Panhandle Research Extension and Education Center Director (left), presented the 2025 Outstanding Service to Agriculture Award to son and father, David and Butch Schuler, owners of Schuler Red Angus. Photo by Chabella Guzman

Input, leadership, and education were all words used to describe the collaborative

efforts of Schuler Red Angus when owners Butch and David Schuler received the 2025

Outstanding Service to Agriculture Award from the University of Nebraska Panhandle

Research, Extension and Education Center. Dr. John Westra, UNL Panhandle Research

Extension and Education Center Director (PREEC), presented the Schulers with the

award at the annual Beef Feedlot Roundtables on Feb. 17, in Bridgeport, Neb.

Each year, the center's faculty awards a business, organization, or individual who

has enhanced the UNL mission of research, teaching, and extension outreach. "In

addition to developing and producing high-quality cattle, Schuler Red Angus has

provided a long list of accomplishments in leadership, service, and dedication to

agriculture in the Panhandle, and they have made a meaningful and lasting impact on

the broader community," Westra said.

"Through the years, we've been asked to serve on various committees with the

university. Been blessed to be able to involve the university with field days that

we've hosted, and they've always been there for us, and we're just proud to be able

to give some of that back," Butch Schuler said.

Over the past few years, Schuler Red Angus has provided valuable outreach

opportunities to the agricultural community in the Panhandle, including hosting

wildfire recovery meetings following the Hackberry fire in 2021. Additionally, the

Schulers have hosted cheatgrass management education opportunities highlighting new

herbicides that provide longer-term control of annual invasive grasses, and have

hosted multiple UNL student groups, opening their ranch to help students better

understand the challenges and opportunities of ranching in western Nebraska.

"I find that the university is still part of our lives on the ranch," David Schuler

said. "Especially the research center and lately with the research and the

cheatgrass studies and being on the front end of sharing that good news of what we

can do, and sharing those education workshops with our neighbors and our other

community members."

The Schulers have provided valuable input and leadership on how to facilitate

relevant research and extension programming at PREEC. In 2025, the Schulers hosted a

cattle management tour group from Argentina, and Butch has provided valuable input

and leadership on the PREEC advisory committee.