For more than twenty years the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund has been a staple of Nelson County agriculture advancement.  To date over $3,500,000 has been distributed to farmers and farm businesses in our county.   Entities like Boones Butcher Shop and McIntyres Winery were early beneficiaries of the funds and that helped rebuild and develop these Nelson County staples.   The fund has helped make farms safer by revamping countless cattle handling facilities, increased safety equipment availability to our first responders and kept dead livestock from contaminating our water supplies. Many farms have improved genetics for their herds and improved the quality of forages through better management and storage.  

In 2021 Nelson County Agriculture Development Board disbursed $25,000 for the Next Generation CAIP program, $125,881 for the General CAIP program, $2,500 for a grain bin extraction tool, $7,500 for Dead animal removal and $10,000 for the soybean crush facility being built in Somerset KY.  Nelson County Soil Conservation administers the CAIP programs and was able to fund 95 farm families with a matching $1,500 grant.  The entire livestock producing community benefits from the Dead Animal Removal Program and we now can say that we have grain bin safety equipment in the hands of first responders through the whole of Nelson County.