Author: Benjamin Conner
Planning Unit: College of Agriculture
Major Program: Beef
Plan of Work: Youth and Adults Agriculture and Natural Resources Education, Adaptation, & Sustainability
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Central Kentucky is known for producing good, quality, beef cattle. The Bourbon County Livestock Improvement Association Elite Heifer Sale was started in 1991 to help smaller producers come together to market their cattle. These cattle would be bred heifers that are due to calve in the spring. They set standards for all cattle to meet to qualify for the sale and ensure the cattle are pregnant up to 60 days following the sale. I was assigned to help this group of producers from central Kentucky put together the 30th Annual sale in light of the recent departure of the Bourbon County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent. I worked with the producers to get all the appropriate records in place for the sale. Those records included breeding dates, color, vaccination history, and body conditioning scores. I also helped producers take videos of the cattle to use for marketing purposes. These videos were edited by support staff and then uploaded to the website and Facebook. During these times I was able to help producers and educate them on different marketing tools that could be utilized for increased awareness of their cattle. We also talked about breeding analysis of different bulls used by the operations and their effects on the next generation. Those conversations will hopefully allow the producers to implement techniques in the future to increase the value of their heifers.
Due to the efforts from the producers and extension staff from Bourbon, Scott, Nicholas, and Fayette, the sale had a very successful year. The sale took place on November 2, 2020 and the producers sold a total of 259 heifers grossing $439,125.00 for an average of $1,695.00 per head.
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