Thoughts From Dave Dave Maples Executive Vice President
It was suggested to me that I should write a reflection of my week during the National Farm Machinery Show. Farm Show week has always been a highlight event for me. I enjoy the equipment and getting to see so many people. But for KCA it also comes with the cooking booths, a trade show booth and all other KCA work continues, despite the show. KY Cattlemen’s Ground Beef The week started with Valentine’s Day. For years I have always stopped by Rebecca Ruth Chocolates in Versailles to get chocolates for everyone in the office. I went over on Sunday and got my chocolates and had them on everyone’s desk when they got to work on Monday morning. Monday was off to a good start! When I got to the office on Monday, Katelyn had the checks ready for the producers that had sold cows in to the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Ground Beef (KCGB) program. My family had delivered four cows the week prior so I was excited to see how they performed. I like this program because they are priced on hot carcass weight and I can get a live weight and a carcass weight. Katelyn also gave me an update on the purchase order from Kroger. We are constantly working to provide a consistent supply but it can be difficult because there are so many variabilities in the supply chain. It was also brought to my attention that many on Facebook were calling me out again about COOL, County of Origin Labeling. I really have a hard time understanding this because KCA has listened, developed and implemented a program just for this. Beef Solutions is starting on its fifth year with Kentucky Cattlemen’s Ground Beef. We sell to Kroger and several other venues. It has products in 160 Kroger stores in 4 states offering local ground beef! At the end of the month, we will expand into the Northern KY market. If you remember COOL was implemented back in the 2009 Farm Bill and it sounded good. However, when you read the fine print there were things that were not so good. The stockyards were liable for 8 • Cow Country • April
maintaining the data on cattle that came through the yards and food services were exempt. Most of the foreign product goes to food service, so the only product that was getting labeled was at retail and if any further processing was done you didn’t have to label it. So, a steak in the meat case had to be labeled and one from the same animal with peppercorns added didn’t. The biggest concern was that in reality, the majority of consumers really didn’t care. It is mostly about price, followed by the look and freeze by date. One last comment regarding COOL is that our trading partners in Canada and Mexico were about to include tariffs on many products because of COOL, including Bourbon, that could have been disastrous. Senate Ag Committee Meeting On Tuesday, I was off to Frankfort for the Senate Ag committee meeting. There wasn’t much on the agenda but there were several people getting confirmed for board seats. Marshall Coyle, David Wallace and Dr. Mark Lynn were up for appointment to the State Fair Board. Brenda Paul, Michael Peterson and Suzanne Cecil White were up for the Kentucky Ag Development Board and Dr. Kenny Burdine and Frank Penn were up for the KY Ag Finance Corporation. Plus, several more were confirmed. A very impressive list of names was presented and those people will be making decisions on investing Kentucky Agriculture money. After the meeting, I was off to Lexington and then to my farm in Nicholasville where I got to feed in the pouring rain.
attended with me to work at the food booth. The cooking booth in the West Wing was short staffed so Chelsea covered a register and I jumped in filling drinks. We couldn’t get enough fries and we would run out of steaks, burgers and hotdogs. Thursday they were short staffed behind the curtain so Nikki, Kylie and I jumped in and built sandwiches all day. But we were still short on meat and fries most of the time. By Friday, my body was tired and I was hoping that they had enough people show up to work the cooking booth. When I arrived, I saw a parked Kubota. Mr. Bracken had to make a supply run because they couldn’t get supplies. That was my opportunity to ride around the fairgrounds all day making deliveries for Maxine. My first run was only steaks and burgers, but the next call was for 10 cases of water and 5 cases of Gatorade in the South lobby. I ended up being a runner again on Saturday and as I rode around it gave me a lot of time to think. After working in the cooking booth for 4 days, I really have a much deeper appreciation for the people that work in these booths. I also have a better understating of the pressure that the food supply chain is under. It is hard to find help and finding supplies is harder than ever. I am in a job that really gets to see the industry from the farmers point of view all the way through to the consumer both at retail and food service.
KCA works with producers selling directly off the farm, we work with restaurants and retailers to promote beef, we have our own program to sell beef in a major grocery Farm Machinery Show store chain as well as restaurants and food Most years I have worked in the trade show service, and we have our cooking booth at booth, but this year was different. I talked the fairgrounds. I see what happens behind with Maxine Bracken, the manager of the the scenes and hear of the problems they cooking operation, and she let me know that are experiencing. The supply chain is under she was having a hard time getting workers. tremendous pressure and I know we see it I knew that I might need to make some every day. My week at the Farm Machinery adjustments in what I normally do during Show helped to teach me more about the this farm show. Dan Miller, Cary King and supply chain and was a great opportunity to Bradon Burks covered the trade show booth see so many familiar faces. Know that your so I could focus on helping Maxine. KCA office is out working on your behalf, no matter what role you may have in the beef The Show started on Wednesday and Chelsea Smither, one of our student interns, supply chain!
