The Kentucky Beef Efficiency conference continues to draw producers from across the Commonwealth.   The conference was held in conjunction with the KCA convention again this year.  The program lasted 3 ½ hours delivering information on heifer development and integrating cattle and cropping systems.   Speakers this year were from Nebraska, Kansas and Texas representing some of the country’s most knowledgeable experts in their areas.

The conference room was setup to accommodate approximately 430 participants.  At one point it was estimated there were nearly 350 participants in the room.  This was the largest group of attendees we have had at this conference showing that it is still relevant and producers find value by attending the program.   Based on evaluation data, attendees in the audience collectively managed more than 20,000 cattle with an average herd size of 149 head.

A post-program survey was used to gain program impact information.  Based on these evaluations, all three speakers led to an increase knowledge and awareness of heifer development and integrating cattle with crop systems with the average knowledge increasing by 1.31-1.47 units on a 1-5 likert scale.  On a scale of 1-5 where 5 = Extremely useful, participants found the presentations very useful (value = 4.23) in making management decisions on their operations and the overall rating of the program averaged 4.61 where a 5= Excellent.   Thus, the program again provided information that will continue to improve knowledge of beef cattle managers and enhance farm efficiency.

Though it is always difficult to assess the true value of educational programs, we attempted again to determine the impact by asking producers the economic value the program had for their operation.  To assess the potential economic impact, the 85 responses were averaged and the mean value assessed to the 350 attendees.  The mean reported economic impact was $1,044 per operation.  The total estimated potential was $365,400 based on the extrapolating the survey responses to all in attendance.