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. The recent vacancy of the Bourbon County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent called for a team of surrounding county agents to jump in and get the job done for this year. Records included breeding dates, color, vaccination history, and body conditioning scores were collected along with hands on help tagging each heifer. For marketing purposes, videos of each lot of heifers was needed and taken when working them. These videos were edited by support staff and then uploaded to the Elite Heifer website and Facebook. Producers were educated on different marketing tools that could be utilized for increased awareness of the cattle they had available for sale. Conversations with myself and the producers during this time 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. Two of the consigners from the sale were from Nicholas County and numerous residents were in attendance at the sale to purchase the heifers.