Get ready for a stampede—not of cattle, but of cattlemen.
    Even though it’s a year out, planning has begun for the 2019 Cattlemen’s Ball of Nebraska, which will be held near Wauneta June 7 and 8 of next year.
    Allison Sandman, who along with her husband, Derek, will host the event and is one of its chief organizers, estimates that as many as 3,500 people could show up for the annual two-day event. That would make it possibly the largest event ever held here, she said.
    Sandman said the idea to hold the event here came from the Sandmans’ cattle broker, Dick Miles, who also is on the ball’s advisory board.
    “He said the ball needs to be back in southwest Nebraska,” she said.
    Sandman said her husband was initially reluctant to take on organizing such a big event, but she pointed out to him that “they’re not going to ask us if they didn’t think we could do it.”
    But the Sandmans didn’t figure they had quite enough land to host the entire event, which covers about 40 acres, so they talked to Wayne and Chris Krausnick, who agreed to hold it on their property five miles west of Wauneta.

To read the full story, subscribe to the e-edition online or call the Breeze at 308-394-5389 to subscribe to the print edition