Ryan Quarles: Commissioner’s Corner

RYAN QUARLES Commissioner of Agriculture

If you’ve been reading my columns these past few months, you know the General Assembly had a busy session and passed a lot of bills reforming state government. At the KDA, we’ve moved onto implementing the legislature’s will. As you likely know, two bills granted my office more authority over the appointments to two boards: The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board (KADB) and the Kentucky State Fair Board. Last month, I appointed Owensboro’s Suzanne Cecil Paris’ Brenda Paul to KADB and Louisville’s Mark Lynn and Verona’s David Wallace to the Fair Board. We also named Brian Lacefield as director of the new Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy. All are strong agricultural leaders and I am excited to have them working in their new capacities. I’m glad to have spent the last month getting back out on the road and visiting farms and businesses across our state. I recently spent some time traveling the state to hold a series of town halls with farmers, restaurant owners, and other stakeholders to hear about the challenges of the pandemic and the need to fully reopen our economy. It’s no secret the hospitality sector and agriculture are intertwined and restaurants have been hit really hard hit by the pandemic. Despite those challenges, our many restaurants continued to support local farmers. These roundtables are one way I can personally thank them for being part of the farm economy and hear directly from these small businesses owners about how they survived during the pandemic. One problem we’ve heard about as part of these roundtables is that our restaurants are facing an incredible labor shortage in the restaurant space. We in agriculture know a lot about labor shortages. One of the things I am advocating for in Frankfort is for the Governor to set a date so that businesses can plan to be fully reopen. Far be it from me to say a positive word about California’s governor, but even he gave a solid date for reopening and Kentucky hasn’t. A solid date allows businesses to hire staff, train them, and purchase products so that they can be prepared to serve Kentuckians with the quality of service they are accustomed to. It’s pretty common sense and I hope we will get a date soon. As we begin to enter the spring planting season, please know I’m praying for you, your families, and your farm operations. We could all use a good year. I hope to make it out to visit your farms this summer and catch up in person instead of through a computer screen.

West Kentucky Select Bred Heifer Sale

Selling 250 Fall Calving Bred Heifers

New Date

Saturday, May 22, 2021

12:00 Noon Central Time

Kentucky-Tennessee Livestock Market Guthrie, Kentucky All heifers qualify for both Kentucky and Tennessee Cost Share Programs See these heifers at: www.kyheifersale.com

For more information contact:

Kevin Laurent, University of Kentucky (270) 625-0994

Mark Barnett, KY-TN Livestock Market (270) 483-2504

All heifers are guaranteed bred to bulls with known EPDs and have met stringent requirements for health, quality and pelvic measurements.

Sponsored by the Univ. of Kentucky and Univ. of Tennessee Cooperative Extension Service