(Lincoln Journal Star) -- During a discussion of the bill that would have banned most non-family corporate farming (LB1174), Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte described two big landowners that wouldn’t fall under any corporate ban: Ted Turner and the Mormon church, who each own around 400,000 acres in Nebraska. Hansen said Turner uses his land to raise buffalo. Some people may view buffalo as livestock, Hansen said. “To me they are a wild animal.” Sen. John Wightman of Lexington, who often uses numbers to provide perspective, determined 800,000 acres is about 1,250 square miles — or about 1.6% of the total land in Nebraska (77,000 square miles). Later he added the Board of Educational Lands and Funds, owns 1.3 million acres or 2.5% of land in the state, to his calculations. Together, the three own more than 4% of Nebraska, he noted. The corporate farming bill did not make it through first-round debate and is dead for the year.
