According to the 2017 Ag Census, over 38,000 farms in Kentucky have beef cattle and over 64,000 head in the western counties of Caldwell, Calloway, Crittenden, Carlisle, Livingston, Lyon, and Marshall Counties. Cattle producers have experienced market volatility the past few years. The KY Department of Ag Livestock and Grain Market Report shows 2019 prices below the five year average in many cattle categories. To address this volatility and showcase ways to improve profitability, specialists from UK Ag Extension Economics developed a program titled Cow/ Calf Profitability Conference. Agents from Caldwell, Calloway, Crittenden, Carlisle, Livingston, Lyon, and Marshall Counties joined together to host a session of this conference on January 8, 2020 at the Grand Rivers Community Center.

The session had over 50 attendees, who managed a combined total of 3,200 head of cows. The conference highlighted a variety of management options for cattle production including managing overhead costs for hay production, breeding stock depreciation, tax strategies and profitable stocking rates. Comments from participants included many thanks for the valuable knowledge and that it was held at a convenient location for them. One participant wrote on the evaluation, “This was a very timely conference for me. I am working to reduce expenses at this time. Thanks for your information.” The overall conference quality was rated an average of 4.73 out of five and all sessions rated at or above four out of five on the evaluations.