Welcome

Oldham, Trimble, Henry, and Shelby counties have offered Regional Beef Field Day annually since 2005.  We utilize local farms, vets, NRCS employees, and UK Extension Specialists for speakers on tour stops.  Over the years, this field day has an average attendance of around 200.

Regional Beef Field Day (cont)

Feeder Calf Grading School: Teach producers how to understand today's feeder calf grades:  What are graders and order buyers looking for in my calves? What do I look for in judging the grades of my own calves?  What can I do to maximize my return in the sale barn?  I also have a monthly brunch and learn series on timely beef topics at our stockyard.

McLean County Poultry Expo:  This expo is an educational meeting as well as an industry trade show.  The educational meeting brings poultry specialists from other land grant universities to discuss litter management, ventilation, bird care/comfort.  Producers learn how to become more profitable by implementing best practices and the trade show offers the latest and greatest innovations in poultry production.

Livestock Composting:  We do not have a dead animal pick-up service in the county nor any other way to dispose of dead animals off the farm.  So we started a dead livestock composting service.  We get all of the wood chips we need from Asplundh for free. and the livestock owner brings the carcass, we bury it in the wood chips and it composts naturally over the course of a few months.  There is no charge to the owner fo the service.

We have a small ruminant producers group.  The group meets, plans, and conducts monthly educational meetings.

Master Haymaker was developed after clientele in South Central KY communicated to agents the need for this program.  The program can be tailored to cash hay production, livestock producers who grow hay or both.

Tri-County Hay and Straw Auction:  Each year on the last Saturday in January, Barren, Metcalfe, and Monroe counties host a hay and straw auction at the Metcalfe County Fairgrounds. The hay is tested and weighed and representative samples of each lot are on site.

Small Farms Series-This is an area that I have worked to expand our extension offerings in many ways in our local area.  In 2017, I held a county level series on the topics listed in the flyer.  We had good attendance but I found that it was hard to get in detail on topics due to the vast range of knowledge by those that attended.  this year along with several other counties we are offering a similar class on a regional level and it is very well attended, we are also doing some on-farm field das

Farming 101:  The Mammoth Cave Extension Agents in Allen, Butler, Logan, Simpson and Warren County developed (4) sessions to discuss: Agricultural Resources in Your Community and Smart Goals, Things to Consider When Getting Started, Enterprises to Consider and Basic Equipment and Capital Needs for Your Farm.  Each session included videos and interactive discussions and homework for their operation.  At the conclusion of the zoom sessions, the participants were paired with an Extension Agent ment

Early Career Farming Program:  12 month series for young or early career farmers wanting to help transition to making better farm decisions.  Row Crop Webinar-5 week series with specialists on row crop issues to help with production.  Winter Ag Conference 5 counties hold winter ag conference with ag topics we feel are worthy of discussion that year.

Rooted in Shelby is a volunteer-conceived and implemented marketing program designed to promote the sale of horticultural, agricultural, and other products produced by Kentucky Proud enterprises located in Shelby County.  Main goals of the program are to effectively increase awareness of locally available foods and in turn increase market share of local products, returning a hifgher profit margin to local farmers.

Wilderness Trail Farm Share:  A multi-farmer CSA featuring produce, meats, eggs, bread and flower products that functions through the Boyle Co. Extension Office.

Seed to Sell: A joint program between ANR, FCS, and 4H where kids learn to grow a plant from seed, maintain throughout the growing season, market their items, create a business plan and sell their produce at the local farmer's market.

Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program:  A program designed for landowners to increase thier knowledge on wildlife management, food plots, habitat creation, predator control, animal biology, tree ID and much more.

Hunter's Harvest:  This is a voluntary program for hunters to harvest Does during the second weekend of gun season.  The donated deer are brought to the extension office where an outside area is set up in the hoop barn to skin and remove the major cuts of venison by volunteers.  The are inspected and bagged and then put on a refrigerated truck.  The venison is delivered to the UK meats lab where it is inspected, processed and bagged and frozen into a ground product.  It is then returned to the c

Mammoth Cave Area Virtual Field Day:  Because most of our traditional field days were canceled due to COVID, agents collaborated on the Mammoth Cave Area Virtual Field Day.  The ANR/Hort agents in our ten-county area worked as a team to develop educational videos of three farming operations.  the virtual field day was held using the Zoom platform.

English Lessons for Migrant Farm Workers:  Class series offered on Thursday evenings during October and November.  Developed lessons that included: all of required GAP trainings, Common Farm terms, Common shopping terms, printed home health guides for employer and employee.

Funding Resources for Farmers:  Brought together several agencies to discuss cost-share opportunities and local assistance prorams.