The ag agents in Boyd, Carter, Greenup and Lawrence Counties offered the Master Cattleman’s Program this spring for the first time in several years. And the response was overwhelming. We had over 60 individual’s sign-up and pay the registration fee, with almost 40 of them being from Boyd County. This is well over 25 more total than I have ever had in a MCP that I have been associated with in the past, and I have been a part of 8 previous offerings.

                The six in person sessions averaged about 55 per night, with the forage session, which was offered as a standalone but counted towards the MCP, having 93 attend.

                The individuals who attended ranged from cattle farmers for over 50 years to some that are just now owning their first cattle ever. The feed back that we received was overwhelmingly positive.

                Some numbers from the evaluation include:

1. Use of EPD’s, before and after the program, on 1-5 scale - Averaged a 2 point increase
2. Value of crossbreeding – Average 1.5 point increase
3. Importance of breeding soundness exams – Average 2 point increase
4. Value of implementing calving seasons – 1.75 point increase
5. Importance of maintaining an adequate body condition – 1.5 point increase

These are just some examples of the knowledge that the attendees gained, with much more

documented showing similar knowledge increases.

                Following are a few of the response asking what management practices they intended to make on their farms included:

1. Cross breeding & changing breeds of bulls. Feeding cows additive to bring them to heat sync. 
2. Re-evaluating handling facility & nutrition. Learning more about health & genetics. Plan to use more body scoring to evaluate herd.
3. Better record keeping at the very least. More diversity w/ breeding bull and more attention to injectables and worming
4. Design handling facilities, re-seed hay fields and get hay tested, have DNA run on cows, use EPD and maybe AI 

Overall, it was a very successful program, and we expect to see some very encouraging on-farm improvements in the future.