Nebraska Experiences Shape Alyvia Shultz-Ramer’s Path in Agriculture
Nebraska Today | October 15, 2026
By Natalie Waldo | IANR Communications
Alyvia Shultz-Ramer smiles with her goats, whether (castrated male goat) Mad Dog and doe (female goat) Miss Thang. The two are her Boer goats.
Alyvia Shultz-Ramer didn’t grow up on a farm or ranch. But agriculture has been shaping her life since she first found a place in it through Nebraska 4-H.
Today, the Kearney native is a junior in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she is studying agricultural leadership, education, and communications and preparing for a career in agriculture.
Her path began with 4-H and goats, grew through FFA at Kearney High School, and eventually brought Shultz-Ramer to Nebraska’s East Campus. This summer, that path extended beyond campus through an internship with the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Each experience has built on the one before it, helping Shultz-Ramer find her place in agriculture and develop the skills to contribute to its future.
Finding agriculture through 4-H
Shultz-Ramer grew up in Kearney without a family background in agriculture. Her parents didn’t farm or ranch, and the family lived in town. But through 4-H she began showing goats, and by eighth grade, she wanted to raise them herself.
Shultz-Ramer and her dad traveled to Oklahoma to purchase a doe, and a few months later, she and her mom traveled to Missouri for a buck. Because the family lived in town, Shultz-Ramer found a local woman willing to let her keep the animals on her property.
What started with a couple of goats eventually grew into a herd of about a dozen and became Shultz-Ramer’s supervised agricultural experience project through FFA. As her herd grew, so too did her affinity for livestock production.
Since neither of her parents came from an agricultural background, raising livestock often meant learning by doing.
“I learned a ton,” Shultz-Ramer said. “Literally everything about taking care of livestock and how not to freak out when things don’t go perfectly.”
There were difficult births, bottle babies, bitter Nebraska winters, and living with the constant responsibility of livestock care. But Shultz-Ramer persevered, gaining valuable experience and a deep love for agriculture.