Today’s state of economy has really made producers put their pencil to paper and delve into thinking about where their money is going and what operating costs can or need to be tweaked. Since the two main commodities in Campbell County are beef cattle and forages, the ANR Agent utilized several different programs and approaches to appeal to producers and hammer home the key points to become more efficient and competitive in the market. The Beef Efficiency Strategies program was host to 31 producers that learned how to incorporate the x10D app into their operation to improve record-keeping and calculate profit based on expenses and sales from Les Anderson, and marketing strategies and ways to make more money per lb of animal by timing and grouping of calves with John Chism. “After John’s talk I realized I was leaving money on the table by not selling my calves in a bigger group so I used the sync protocol from Les to tighten up my calving window and sell in a group at the stockyards.” This program was complemented with the Cow- Calf School that was offered in the Northern Kentucky region. Campbell County ANR Agent taught the session focusing on Cow Management to 42 participants- nutrition was the main focus to ensure the cattle are being fed to match their nutritional requirement and give them the tools to do their job, raising a calf and breeding back! Participants learned in this session the foundation of cattle management to understand what steps need to be taken before working up to the next level of reproductive strategies. If the base of the foundation (nutrition) isn’t met, then nothing else can be built in the operation. As a result of this program, the number of hay and feed samples for testing doubled. The Farmer Fundamentals class at Owenton Stockyards, taught by Campbell County ANR Agent, built the next block with facility design for feeding and working areas. The emphasis was on footing to relieve stress on the cattle and make maintenance and cleaning more efficient for farmers. Examples of different sizes of gravel were shown and discussion was held on what to use in different situations. Several farmers installed limited access ramps into their ponds as a result of the meeting using the examples of filter fabric, recycled materials and gravel that were shown. Once producers had the basics fine-tuned Campbell County ANR Agent hosted an Artificial Insemination School at Bluegrass Stockyards to improve on the most difficult part of management- reproductive efficiency of their cattle herds. Select Sires taught the process and technique of AI but also taught the details that make farmers successful at breeding like semen handling, tank maintenance and estrous synchronization. Of the 32 participants, 30 had cattle herds under 30 head. According to Les Anderson, UK Beef Specialist, it costs producers at least $100 per pregnancy with a bull, but much more for herds under 30 head. A pregnancy by AI is $70 which makes AI more cost efficient for cattle herds under 30 head. These participants have artificially inseminated their cows as a result and improved their genetics by using better bulls at a lower cost. “I came back to the farm after my grandpa had passed away and nothing had been done- we didn’t have feeding areas or handling facilities; the hay was bad and he didn’t feed mineral and all the cows always had pink eye and most of the cows didn’t have a calf every year. I came to these classes and talked with other producers there and started baling my hay earlier and bushhogging pastures and poured concrete for a feeding area. None of my cows got pinkeye and I didn’t have to feed half as much hay because of the concrete and the feeding area. I sold the cows that didn’t have a calf and kept records of all of them. If it wasn’t for these classes I wouldn’t have known where to start- I wanted to let you know that I put it all to use and it worked!”