Anderson County, like much of Kentucky is rich with small parcels of active and historically productive farmland. There is a tradition and a culture in this community that is centered around agriculture being something that nearly everyone participates in. In the past this was a largely communal effort, in the way that neighbors and family helped neighbors and family in the busy seasons to ensure that the work was done. In those times of shared toil there was space and expectation for the sharing of ideas, knowledge, wisdom and humor. Much of what was shared lent itself towards the steady and consistent improvement of farm practices. By getting together and working and talking, there was collective knowledge built and shared about how to be better farmers and stewards. While the explosion of the popularity of social media has connected people in a new and exciting way, and information access is at a previously unseen high, there does seem to be a loss in the type of information that used to be curated between people working in similar places. It is that loss that was the genesis of the Beef Excellence Program in Anderson County. Through my time talking with beef producers I continued to hear clamoring for things like connections between farmers, helping one another and resource sharing, and above all a thirst for the type of wisdom and information that comes from communal work. 

I put out an application to all beef producers in the county who might be interested. The only stipulations were that they had to have less than 50 cows, a fall calving season, and already meeting a certain quality standard that would be at the heart of the program. The goal for the beginning is to keep the initial group small. My first idea was between 4-6 farms, and we ended up with 5. Starting this summer these producers have formed a group that is going to be built to capture some of what has been lost in the changing of the times. These five farmers have begun the process of creating standards and guidelines for their group and are going to begin implementing plans to all be on the same production system. So they will  breed, calve, wean, vaccinate, cull, and market their animals at the same times. The will use the same feed, mineral, vaccinations, and other inputs and will buy them as a group to save on costs. Maybe most importantly, they will work together. We will go as a group from farm to farm to help one another work cattle with the idea being that we can learn new skills like pregnancy checking, and share ideas and wisdom for the future.

For now, just having these producers get together and work towards a better system for themselves, their farms and their community is success enough for me. The mere fact that there was interest for something like this and that we were able to develop a program that farmers wanted to be a part of, is a win. While there stands to be quite a bit gained in marketing power, buying power, and shared labor, there is also a lot being given up by each farmer in terms of autonomy and individual decision making. Seeing each individual sacrifice something for the good of the group is exactly the kind of success I am working towards.