Author: Tad Campbell
Planning Unit: Entomology
Major Program: Beef
Plan of Work: Livestock Production
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
The Cooperative Extension Service is structured to utilize research based information and concepts by state specialists and incorporating the research for practical local on-farm efficiency. Adding efficiencies to farming operations during times of low economical gains provides operations the opportunity to continue to strive towards financial independence. Working with state agriculture engineering specialist, three different producers developed facilities to make farm operations more efficient. Each producer with beef operations were planning to add facilities to be more efficient during year. One producer was looking to convert an existing tobacco barn into a handling facility for a 50 cow herd, one producer was looking to build a structure to both work cattle and to house feeders for backgrounding, and the other producer was looking to maximize forage storage and lower waste. After working with state specialist and attending educational meetings, each of the producers were able to achieve the desired results. Specialists visited sites to determine size and scale of the producer’s needs, while offering multiple design layouts to achieve producer goals. Producers then gathered the information and designs, worked with local contractors, and built facilities that met goals for each operation. After completion of the facilities, each producer has contacted the Extension Office discussing how positive the improvements have benefited the operation. One producer described that working cows for herd health was practically non-existent prior to incorporating the facilities designed by UK Specialists. Another producer has added hay storage facilities with plans to add more in the future. He indicated he was going to incorporate a large automatic roll bale feeding system he learn about at a meeting to the farm as part of his stored feeding plan. The third producer contacted the local agriculture agent discussing how the plan design allowed him to develop a layout to work cattle but also hold feeder calves for an isolation without sacrificing space in the facility. The rewards of seeing state research information incorporated locally to help producers from both a time efficiency and financial efficiency follow true to the Cooperative Extension mission. The time and effort related to research by state specialists does benefit local producers in many aspects.
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