KY cattlemen's Ground Beef is a branded beef launched by Beef Solutions a partner with the Ky Cattlemen's association.  Most cattle producers have heard of Ky Cattlemen's Ground beef or read about it in the Cow Country News. Beef Solutions buys cull cows from Ky farm families who are all BQCA trained producers, committed to excellent animal husbandry practices and in turn retails the meat through grocers.  This allows an opportunity for consumers to connect more with livestock producers in the state, promotes the good practices our producers are already doing to the public, and provides a healthy wholesome high quality product to consumers easily available at their local grocery store. 

Producers get the benefit of a few extra dollars per head on their cull cows because they are being sold directly into the food chain. Trigg, Lyon, Christian and Caldwell counties all sold cattle to Beef solutions in 2022.   Tractor trailer loads organized by Trigg County Extension were marketed so far in our 21-22 fiscal year through Beef solutions.  For a total of 164 head of cows owned by 23 producers.  These cows came from Trigg and 3 surrounding counties.  

The ANR agent and extension office Staff assistant headed up organizing loads with the help of our local KBN representative.  Producers were provided live weights and dressing percentages on their cattle this will assist them in the future in deciding what might be the best ways to market their cattle- even the culls.  It gave them an opportunity to better understand pricing of cull cattle both in this program and at the stockyards as well.  Most producers reported that they thought their cattle brought around $150 per head more than they would have at the stockyards the same week.  Price analysis with Farmers who shared their payment information with Extension showed about a %14 premium over local cull market prices.  At the average Cow wt. 1320#, price (1.70) /# dressed wt. and dressing 51% putting together these loads for producers netted them an additional $25,276 or $160 per head.  All of our producers who participated in 2020-21 reported being satisfied with the prices received and sent or plan to cattle again in 21-22 – the interest in sending cull cows through the Beef Solutions program has grown tremendously in our area.