The Trigg County Cooperative Extension Service in Cooperation with the Trigg County Cattlemen's Association partnered to help livestock producers better manage their herds and meet their individual goals.  One way we help producers is through our IRM mineral program.  Three times each year the ANR agent in cooperation with a committee of Cattlemen’s members collects bids from local feed suppliers on free choice minerals formulated per the UK IRM specs.  The best prices are then offered to producers.  UK regulatory services also assists us in this process by testing the mineral delivered to out producers. The producers are assured that they are buying a good quality mineral and generally it is at a better price point than what they’d been buying previously.  This year marked my fifth year of working with the program and also the fifth year of growth.  We had 78 total producers that took part in the mineral order, they were from 7 different counties and both Tennessee and Kentucky.  We also ordered more mineral this year than we ever have in the past. Orders this year were over 138 tons for the three orders combined, compared to last year which was right at 120 tons. our largest order was in December and included producers from 6 KY counties, and 3 TN counties.  Over 60 tons went out on that single order. 

Working with our mineral suppliers and using the IRM specs from our UK specialists allowed producers to select minerals that would meet their animal’s requirements at a competitive price.  The mineral order has continued to grow each order we add a few more to our mailing list it is a good opportunity for agents as well as other cattlemen's groups to work together and help each other improve Ky cattle.  Currently about half the mineral we order is for Trigg County producers, to me  this is an excellent demonstration of just how much cooperation we have among our fellow agents and cattlemen's associations.  With an average savings of around 4.00 per bag as reported from our participants this program has allowed our producers to save $22,000 over the course of a year and also allowed us to educate them on what is important in their mineral supplementation program.