A farm field day was hosted by the Elliott County Agriculture Council and County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources (Keith Center) at the Elliott County Cooperative Extension Office on October 28^th, 2017. Topics for the field day included: eastern Kentucky forages, eastern Kentucky Soil Fertility, eastern Kentucky weeds and grasses identification workshop, breeding soundness exams in bulls, and forage and fertility correlation.

Concluding the field day was the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Certification training video and exam where seven producers attended and completed the training. Seventy-two participants learned from Drs. Jimmy Henning and Phil Prater about eastern Kentucky forages, soils, weeds and grasses, how fertility is directly correlated to forage’s and forage quality and the importance of doing breeding soundness exams in bulls. Also concluding the field day was ANR agent (Keith Center) revealing the 2017 Hay Contest results to participants that took part in the 2017 East Kentucky Hay Contest. A meal was also provided by the Elliott County Agriculture Council and door prizes were drawn for that were donated by Southern States and Farm Credit Services of Mid-America.

Before the discussion producers were asked how many conducted soil test and had them analyzed through the Extension office, tested there forages and had breeding soundness exams completed on their bulls. To my surprise over 75 percent of the producers completed soil test however only 15 producers in attendance had there forages tested and only 8 producers completed breeding soundness exams on their bulls. After the discussion eighteen producers have either called me or had me come to their farm to conduct soil samples, discuss conducting forage testing and pulling hay samples for the 2018 East Kentucky Hay Contest and helping them find a veterinarian to conduct breeding soundness exams on their bulls. The future looks bright for utilizing soil testing, forage testing and conducting breeding soundness exams on bulls in Elliott County.