Mike Meyer

Hi, I'm Mike Meyer of Lincoln.

I graduated from UNL in 1975 with a degree in natural resources and an option in wildlife management. I grew up on a farm near Pender in northeastern Nebraska.

My current occupation as a urethane foam contractor may sound like it’s a ways from a career in natural resources, but it really isn’t. An important part of working with this insulation is my becoming aware of, and helping others see, its energy-conservation benefits. And we’re working with some new products that are soybean-based, renewable resources.

In addition, for the last few years, I’ve also been working 33 acres near Wagon Train Lake south of Lincoln. We’re developing about 1½ acres for a vineyard, which may grow to five acres if we’re successful. In the process, I’m also creating a larger wildlife habitat to keep the deer and rabbits away from my grape vines when they begin producing. We’ve got a natural resources district pond there, and we took a lot of the farming ground out of production.

It’s taken me a while to appreciate everything I learned, especially its application from the agricultural point of view. Because the soil was depleted from many years of farming, we’ve planted vegetation to control erosion and alfalfa to replenish the nutrients in the soil. We’re looking at using some warm-season grasses and clover, too. We want to farm it in such a way that it’s conducive to everything—wildlife and grape production.

Our eventual plan is to establish a market for wine grapes and table grapes, sold directly to the consumer and to some of the wineries in the region. We’re members of the Wine and Grape Growers Association.

So, I haven’t directly used my degree, but there are a lot of things that I learned from it that are coming to fruition. I only wish I had also taken a horticulture class.

I especially enjoyed taking soil science and zoology at UNL. That study has helped. After graduation, I moved out to California to continue my education, but only went to graduate school for a year. Working for a produce company, I prepared strawberries, lettuce and other farm commodities for shipment. The degree helped me greatly in landing a job out there, and I got to work in the produce industry, including working with bing cherries in Washington state.

Having that degree opened a lot of doors that would never have been open for me. The company I was with realized that I had a basic agricultural understanding, and they passed over a lot of other people because they didn’t have that.

I returned to Nebraska in the mid-1980s, and all three of my children are now attending UNL.