Politics aside, Nebraska's farmers and others in the agriculture industry are hoping Gov. Dave Heineman's trip to Cuba provides them with more outlets for their products and paves the way for future trade.
A decades-old U.S. embargo against Cuba severely limits travel and trade, but an exception created in 2000 allows food and agricultural products to be sold to Cuba on a cash-only basis.
Many members of the Nebraska delegation, which includes representatives of several bean cooperatives and companies, the Nebraska Farm Bureau and the Nebraska Corn Board, have heard that some people are concerned about their trip to sell dry edible beans, including Florida's lawmakers.
Producers back in Nebraska, such as dry bean grower Ken Thomas of Mitchell, are looking forward to a new trade partner. Thomas said he would appreciate anything that would boost what he calls a terrible price for Great Northern beans of 16.5 cents per hundredweight. He's hopeful trade will develop.
"I think it's a good deal," Thomas said. "I don't think people should have to suffer because of politics."
Lynn Reuter, based in Scottsbluff with the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission, said she sees the trip as purely for business and not for political reasons.
"They're going there strictly because of very, very good hopes of some dry edible beans being sold," Reuter said. "And that's their full purpose for it."
Also on the trip are Greg Ibach, the state's agriculture director, and Stan Garbacz, who represents Nebraska's export interests abroad.
Ibach said developing a market for the western part of the state, where dry beans are very important, is a top goal. The trip, which ends Wednesday, could create future trade opportunities for grain and livestock, he said.
"This appears to be the opportunity we had hoped it might be. I am hopeful that Cuba can grow quickly into a market for Nebraska products," Ibach said from Cuba in a statement released by Heineman's office late Sunday.
Garbacz said it would not be easy to estimate how much money the trip could be worth to Nebraska. But in 2002, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven left a similar trade mission with a deal to sell $2 million worth of peas, lentils, malt barley and other products, said Eric Aasmundstad, president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau. Hoeven refused to appear in a photograph next to busts of Cuban revolutionaries and participate in other political ventures, but the deals went through, Aasmundstad said.
Since then, deals to sell about $8 million worth of products have been reached between North Dakota and Cuba, he said.
Heineman is the fifth U.S. governor to visit Cuba on a trade mission, said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser and former president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. The other states, besides North Dakota, are Illinois, Minnesota and Louisiana. Since 2001, U.S. companies from more than 20 states have sold about $1 billion in agriculture products to Cuba.
Hendrik Van den Berg, a Latin American specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who is not going on the trip, said people on the trip should not worry about the political concerns of people at home.
"I don't think they need to feel the least bit guilty about going down and establishing commercial relationships between essentially ordinary citizens and Cuba," Van den Berg said.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
By TERESA HOFFMAN
Telegram Staff Writer
COLUMBUS - This collection would hit a hole in one with any golf enthusiast.
Gordon Buchholz of Columbus said the idea to collect golf balls came from a friend about 15 years ago.
"We decided we would start collecting them," Buchholz said of himself and his friend, Dick Fry.
Both of them have extensive collections, but Buchholz said he thinks he has passed Fry in the number. The collection, which spans the walls of his basement, numbers more than 7,000, each of stamped with a logo.
There are logos from banks, fast food restaurants, insurance companies, sports teams, golf courses and one with a picture of Elvis Presley.
"I'm not sure who gave me that one," he said of the Elvis golf ball.
There are even some from local companies, including Vishay-Dale
"It's amazing how many people put their logo on a golf ball," Buchholz said. "When I first started there weren't too many of them."
Buchholz began his collection with 48, and he said he doesn't see an end in sight. Each ball is displayed in a wooden rack with individual holders. Because he's vowed not to build any more of the wooden displays, Buchholz said he's had to find a new way to show off his newest additions. He does so by attaching them with duck seal putty to the wooden frames.
He said he received many of the golf balls during the last 10 years. Some have come as gifts and others by trading. His friends have also picked them up on trips they have taken.
He attributes the size of his collection to his friend, Dick Holmes, who spends the winter in Arizona.
"He brings back a five-gallon bucket full of golf balls when he comes back to Columbus and gives me five a day," he said. "He is the one who has built this collection."
He also has many others who have made his collection what it is today.
"I want to thank all the people who gave me golf balls and made all of this possible," he said.
Buchholz has the collection organized by categories. There's insurance and financial institutions, colleges, beer and food companies and golf courses.
He even has a special display with golf balls signed by his children, their spouses and grandchildren.
"I organized them so I don't have to spend a lot of time looking for them," he said.
He also writes down the name of each golf ball in a log that he keeps in his basement closet.
A majority of the balls are white, but there are colored ones scattered here there. Although he has some golf balls that have logos from one company, he said the logos are different, therefore he has few duplicates.
Buchholz said he doesn't have a favorite golf ball, but there is a unique one that came from Australia which is shaped like a football.
He also likes the one he has of former Nebraska football coach Bob Devaney and one of Bill Clinton that has his picture and reads "Slick Willie Clinton."
Putting a logo on golf balls has become an inexpensive way for businesses to advertise and with the popularity of golf increasing, Buchholz said he's not worried about running out of opportunities to find new additions for his collection.
An avid golfer, Buchholz doesn't just like to collect golf balls. He also likes hitting them and he can be seen at an area golf course almost every day. He and a group of friends also travel out of town each Tuesday to golf.
Buchholz, 81, is retired from Loup Power District and has lived in Columbus for about 53 years.
At one point, Buchholz said he tried to collect other golf-related items, such as tees and scorecard pencils. While some of them are displayed on the wall Buchholz said he hasn't collected those items as regularly as the golf balls.
"It just got to be too much, so I stopped," he said.
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