Cary King: President’s Thoughts

Cary King President, Kentucky Cattlemen's Association

I think spring is about here! I’m sure if you are like me, you are ready to see some dryer ground, and green grass. We had a good March Board meeting at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville where the Kentucky Farm Bureau Beef Expo was being held. We had a superstar lineup of speakers! First, we heard from David Beck, the President and CEO of Kentucky Venues, about all that is going on at the Fairgrounds and Convention center in Louisville. We then got an update from Mr. Mark Haney, President of Kentucky Farm Bureau. They are always looking out for Kentucky’s farm families, and our good friend Dr. Ryan Quarles, Kentucky’s Commissioner of Agriculture shared the many things he has going on to benefit all of Kentucky. It is so good to see people face to face again. If you have not attended the Expo I highly recommend that you do so next year. On Friday and Saturday you will see some of the best cattle from every breed being shown, then they have a great sale where you can bring home some outstanding genetics to your operation. The Junior Cattlemen are just amazing and there is also a trade show where you can find the latest and greatest in the cattle world. I thought it might be a good time to give an update on some of the things we are working on to benefit our industry. Our goal is to ensure that Kentucky cattle producers can make a sustainable living raising cattle in our state. One thing we have been focusing on is increasing packing numbers for several years by working to help increase the capacity of the many small to medium sized plants and start up news ones. Several of these facilities have been able to get funds from the Ag Development Fund which was formed with moneys from the tobacco master settlement agreement to advance agriculture in Kentucky. I read recently that the packers in Kentucky are processing more cattle per day than a year ago and I see that as a great thing! I would think that some of this growth might be attributed to the COVID pandemic when we saw the big four slow their output due to worker shortages. We then saw a lot of empty shelves at our grocery stores leaving us vulnerable to issues beyond our control, and leading us to look for other sources for our beef. Do you think we could finish a greater number of our cattle here by utilizing barns to get them out of the mud, then process and package more of our improved genetics through some of these packers? In addition to the smaller plants, we have worked to attract a largescale plant that could supply large quantities of our products to national customer’s. We were very close with American Foods Group who are planning a plant to process more the 2000 head a day. Sounds like they may be going to St Louis. In our long-range plan, we set a goal to develop a “Livestock Center of Excellence” that could be a one stop shop for everything beef, for not only Kentucky’s producers, but for the entire region. I call it the “Denver” of the east and that idea has been evolving for several years now. We looked at several locations and have narrowed it down to the University of Kentucky research farm in Woodford County. We have developed a memorandum of understanding for a long-term lease of 15 acres of prime high visibility land to build on. This facility is still evolving but would include office space for KCA, and other commodity groups, a board room for meetings, a commercial kitchen for cooking demonstrations, and a classroom where KCA or the University could have educational events. We are also working together to possibly help UK build a new meats lab at the farm, this facility could help with educating our workers employed by our many packers. This could allow us to involve cutting edge industry partners to introduce robotics and other new technologies to bring our state to the front as not just a cattle producer, but a total animal protein leader. Let’s stop just taking what they give us, and build a complete protein supply chain. I have been enjoying visiting some of our county meetings. I had great meetings in Mercer County, Owen County, Rockcastle County, and Christian County where we heard from Chris Milam from Hampton Premium Meats in Hopkinsville. They are working on expanding their operations in just about every way. It was so exciting to hear of all the plans moving forward. In Casey County, Phillip Reese and Jacob Settles had a great speaker, Daniel Reynolds, talking about animal nutrition. I would love to visit your county and see what you have going on, maybe give an update on what’s happening at KCA, and answer any questions you might have, Contact me directly at 859-613-3734, or call the office at 859-2780899 if I can help you in any way.

Cary King

Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association President

Stone Gate Epic 3868

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