Author: Donald Ely
Planning Unit: Animal and Food Sciences
Major Program: Small Ruminants
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Sheep numbers in Kentucky on January 1, 2013 was only 43,000 head. Numbers increased to 70,000 head on January 1, 2019. Much of this increase can be attributed to the development of the Small Ruminant Profit School (SRPS) in 2014 by the University of Kentucky, Kentucky State University, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and the Kentucky Sheep and Goat Development Office. This school, in concert with the ongoing University of Kentucky Eweprofit Schools, was designed to train new and prospective sheep producers how to efficiently manage a flock on an annual basis. Both of these intense educational programs were conducted “live” for 3 years. Today, the SRPS is an online program for anyone in the U.S. The Eweprofit Schools are still “live” where clientele are provided “hands-on” instruction. The SRPS had 28 enrollees in 2018-19. The Eweprofit Schools trained 103 new and prospective producers from five states in 2018-19. Along with the increase in Kentucky’s sheep numbers is an increase in the number of knowledgeable producers who operate economically efficient enterprises. Compared with 2012, annual income generated by sheep enterprises was more than $5,000,000 more in 2018.
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