Regional Cow-calf Profitability Conferences

During March of 2024, four Regional Cow-calf Profitability Conferences were held in areas that had a significant number of cow-calf operations and that had not recently hosted a program of this type. These educational programs were very intensive, running from roughly 9am until 4pm, and included multiple presentations by Greg Halich, Jonathan Shepherd, and Kenny Burdine. Topics were specifically selected that were deemed to have the most potential to impact profitability and were targeted towards profit-driven cow-calf operators. A total of 122 producers attended one of the four conferences that were offered.

Monticello – 28 attendees

Bowling Green – 22 attendees

Elizabethtown – 28 attendees

Richmond – 44 attendees

An evaluation of each presentation and individual session was conducted at the conclusion of each program in order to evaluate the program quality and impact. Despite the fact that attendance represented a 7-hour time commitment, over 95% of respondents indicated they would attend the conference again in the future. Evaluation results for individual sessions / topics are reported in Table 1. A 5-point scale was used for evaluation purposes and attendees were asked to rate both the quality of the presentation and the likeliness of use.

Table 1. Evaluation Ratings by Presentation Topic

(5=excellent, 4=good, 3= fair, 2=poor, 1= very poor)