Educating local beef producers is a high priority in Shelby County. According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, Shelby County ranks 18^th in Kentucky for sales of cattle/calves with more than $15 million in annual sales, emphasizing the need for beef producers to take herd management and breeding decisions seriously. Field days serve to educate cattlemen regarding important production principles while demonstrating practices in a practical, on-farm setting.  

With these facts in mind, Agriculture Extension agents in Oldham, Trimble, Henry and Shelby Counties have organized and held an annual Regional Beef Field Day for farmers since 2005. These field days offer producers an opportunity to see how production practices are implemented on local farms. Field days also promote adoption of new practices that improve production efficiency while protecting natural resources, which are goals outlined in the county plan of work.

 This year’s Regional Beef Field Day was held at a Henry County farm in September. During the field day, nearly 250 area producers attended and learned about:

  - Working Facilities and Producer Safety

 - Utilizing EPDs and Genomics to Improve Herds

 - Pregnancy Diagnosis Methods and Demonstration

 - On-Farm Watering Systems and Utilizing Ponds to Feed Automatic Waterers

Presenters included University of Kentucky Extension Beef and Biosystems Engineering Specialists and host farm family members.  Agriculture Extension agents identified topics of interest and benefit to producers, contacted speakers, and led tours during the field day. The host agent secured 22 sponsors/vendors to support the event. $2790 in sponsor funds helped cover field day costs and allowed producers the opportunity to visit exhibitor tables for information to help their farm enterprises.  

The 2023 Regional Beef Field Day was arguably one of the most successful multi-county programs since the pandemic.  One of the speakers commented, “…your design created a more personal environment, and I had incredible interaction with each group. I think the key was topic and, perhaps, time. The topics you chose seemed to really resonate with the attendees.”  Another speaker said, “I was most amazed by the level of engagement of the producers. Even though my talk was long and a bit technical at times, they stayed with me and seemed to get a lot out of it. Lots of good questions and discussions afterward.”

In addition to providing information to help producers become more efficient, improve the financial viability of their operations and be more sustainable, this field day enabled many area cattle producers to complete education requirements for Kentucky Ag Development Fund’s cost-share program.  This cost-share program has helped farmers across Kentucky make significant improvements to their farming operations for more than 20 years.