The Man Behind Eden Shale

On any given day if someone stands on a ridgetop at Eden Shale Farm, they are likely to see Greg Cole on horseback checking on or moving cattle along the sloping terrain or repairing fences, checking mineral supplies, working animals and many other tasks that keep the Owen County farm running smoothly.

Cole is the Eden Shale Farm’s manager and ambassador. He is responsible for the 951-acre farm’s daily operations and managing the Kentucky Beef Network’s herd that averages around 100 cow-calf pairs. He is also responsible for sharing Eden Shale’s story with producers, tour attendees or anyone who happens to stop by.

“He’s an exceptional cattleman,” said Dan Miller, Kentucky Beef Network industry coordinator. “He’s as good at working with cattle as anybody that I know.”

The son of a Fayette County order buyer, Cole has been around the cattle industry his entire life. He decided early on he enjoyed working with animals on the farm way more than being at the stockyards. Prior to his current position, Cole worked for KBN and performed onsite audits for the process verified program that arose after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was detected in a cow in Washington state.

When KBN took over management of Eden Shale and purchased their initial herd in May 2013 from area stockyards, Cole began bringing his sons and horses to the farm to help work and rotate the cattle as volunteers. When the ambassador position came open, Cole expressed interest.

Cole moved his family to the farm in August 2013 and brought his horses with them. Over the years, his horses have proven to be a valuable asset to Eden Shale. Cole uses them to navigate the farm’s steep terrain and, in some cases, he and his horses can get into areas of the farm that other methods of transportation cannot.

Unlike the other KBN facilitators who travel to their producers’ farms to assist in production needs, farmers come to Eden Shale to learn about the farm and gain information about ways they can improve their operation from Cole. Often, these producers come because they have heard about the farm and its best management practices that improve animal production and welfare while saving producers time and money.

The farm hosts numerous group tours but also walk-in visitors.

“Greg will do a lot of walk-up and one-on-one tours anytime they are needed,” Miller said. “Most of his clients will only come to the farm once or twice to get the information they need to take back to their operation.”

Often, these walk-up tours occur without any prior notice. Since Cole resides full-time at the farm, he conducts one-on-one tours during evenings, weekends and even holidays if someone visits.

When KBN purchased their initial set of cows from local stockyards in 2013, quality was lacking in the herd. The first year, they had a 47% cull rate. Over the years, Cole and Miller have worked to develop the herd into one that can withstand the area’s steep terrain and also serve as good mothers. As a result, the average weight of a cow on the farm has dropped from 1,500 pounds to 1,275 pounds. He and Miller have used genetics and artificial insemination to increase calf weaning weights by 100 pounds. They have also used artificial insemination and cleanup bulls to tightened their calving window. They have achieved over 90% of calves being born in the first 45 days since 2021. This spring, they had their tightest calving window yet when 96% of the calf crop was born in the first 49 days of the calving season. Half of them arrived in the first 22 days.

Cole keeps meticulous records on the cattle at Eden Shale. He uses his Redbook to record everything about the cattle including the amount of grain, hay and minerals each animal receives as well as the animal’s medical history and reproductive health. As a result, he often has a big part in deciding which animals to cull.

“I start looking at quality but I also look at productivity and disposition when making culling decisions,” Cole said. “Over the years, our quality has improved and now our cattle’s disposition is really good.”

Since Cole is located at the farm and responsible for the animals’ daily care, he has a unique insight into each of the animals.

“He can spot a sick animal two days before I can,” Miller said. “He also does really well during calving season and keeping animals alive.”

Eden Shale’s cattle also participate in research trials with scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forage-Animal Production Research Unit. Cole works with the researchers to manage the animals in projects to their specifications, such as ensuring the cattle get the nutrition and water as prescribed by the experiment and stay in the correct research group.

“Greg has been instrumental in conducting our collaborative research projects with KBN at Eden Shale Farm,” said Brittay Davis, USDA animal scientist who studies ways to mitigate the negative effects of endophyte infected tall fescue at the farm. “He always does a great job selecting the correct cattle from the farm herd for each experiment, overseeing their daily care and assisting with sample/data collection days. Most importantly, Greg helps provide a cattleman's perspective to each project weighing in on everything from experimental design, grazing strategies and animal management.”

Being responsible for the farm’s daily upkeep, Cole approaches the farm with a practical mindset. As a result, he has been able to point out areas of the farm that need improvements, such as when they were feeding hay out of the bull barn when KBN first started managing the farm. Miller and Cole worked with Steve Higgins from the University of Kentucky to improve their winter-feeding situation.

“Feeding hay in the barn was tight and slow,” Miller said. “By creating a fence line feeder in the barn, we were able to make the task simple enough for one person to do. We measured how long it took Greg to feed the old way and with the fence line feeder, and it reduced his time spent feeding the animals by 500%.”

While he has helped make much progress at Eden Shale, Cole is always looking for areas of the farm and aspects of the herd to improve.

“There’s a saying that says, ‘If you enjoy what you do, you will never work a day in your life,’” he said. “I really enjoy the work I do up here. It’s what I was born to do.”