Cindy Gonzalez
LINCOLN — The 2024 competition for “Coolest Thing Made in Nebraska” is now down to four products that are about as far-ranging as it gets.
Thousands of votes in round two of the bracket-style contest led to these semifinalists and their Nebraska manufacturers:
- Autonomous Feed Truck, ALA Engineering, Scottsbluff. The creator says the prototype is a standard feed truck with some tweaks, and sensor systems on board, engineering the integration of human oversight alongside autonomous technology.
- Barrel Aged Lord of Ord, Scratchtown Brewing Company, Ord. The company calls this beer a seasonal offering brewed each winter, with this particular barrel aged version using bourbon barrels sourced from Midwest Barrel Company.
- Toilet Paper, Outlook Nebraska, Omaha. The company says it is the largest employer of the blind and visually impaired in Nebraska and seven-state region, and has machinery that allows employees to produce 25 miles of paper product per minute.
- Valley Center Pivot, Valley Irrigation – A Valmont Company, Valley. Creators say their irrigation machines, used in more than 90 countries, help growers increase food production while conserving natural resources.
Public voting for the next round of the competition is now open and will go through Sunday, Oct. 6.
All Nebraskans are invited to vote. Each voter is permitted one vote per matchup, per round.
In its third year, the contest has become a fun and increasingly popular way to draw attention to the state’s manufacturing industry and to provide companies a platform to show off their wares, Mike Johnson, chief operating officer for the chamber, has said.
Hosted by the Nebraska Manufacturing Alliance and the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the winner is to be announced Oct. 29 at the chamber’s Manufacturing Summit in La Vista. The top 16 that kicked off the tourney have been invited to display their products at the summit.