Kentucky Beef Network 2019-2020 (Master Grazer)

Master Cattleman (PI – Les Anderson; Co-PI Jeff Lehmkuhler, Darrh Bullock) The Master Cattleman Program is the flagship educational program for Kentucky cattle producers. It incorporates all phases of beef production into an intensive educational effort challenging Kentucky beef producers to be competitive and successful.The program is an integral part of the comprehensive effort to improve Kentucky’s expanding beef-forage operations in a sustainable, responsible manner. It is a collaborative effort of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, and the Kentucky Beef Network. The goal is to reach 10% of Kentucky beef cattle producers. The Master Cattleman Program requires the cooperation of more than 20 Extension specialists and associates to administer and deliver. Sessions begin in January and run through mid-December. Master Cattleman participants receive 40 hours of classroom instruction divided equally among 10 topic areas. • Management Skills for the beef business • Forage production and utilization • Nutrition for optimum production • Environmental stewardship and industry issues • Genetics for the beef herd • Managing reproduction • Herd Health • Understanding the end product • Marketing and profitability In addition, field days are conducted at the UK Research and Education Center in Princeton, and the UK Animal Research Center in Versailles. These hands-on field days allow producers to get hands-on training over two days on activities related to estrous synchronization, artificial insemination, pregnancy diagnosis, bull selection, visual appraisal, using EPD’s, handling vaccines, proper injection sites and techniques, cattle handling, facility design, body condition scoring, etc. The Master Cattleman Program was designated as a featured program by the Extension Service in 2008. As such, it is reported on by individual, participating counties. Participants were asked to specify which activities they added or modified as a result of the Master Cattleman program. There were only 12 practices specified in this survey, yet the results of the survey indicated a return of 27 million dollars over that two year period! Over 3,500 Kentucky producers have benefited from the program in many ways since its inception. This program has reached nearly 8% of the estimated 38,000 beef producers in Kentucky. With continued funding it is hoped that we would reach 10% of Kentucky’s beef producers. Participants in this program have adopted many recommended management practices as a result of this training. These practices have resulted in an approximate impact to Kentucky of $13.6 million per year (one-half of $27,379,000 from Table 1) or about $4500 per year per producer. Master Grazer (PI — Chris Teutsch) Educational objective: The educational objective of the Master Grazer program is to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of grazing operations in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The initial expected outcome is to increase producer awareness of their current management practices, ways to improve their grazing systems, and strategies that can extend the grazing season. By adopting improved forage/pasture management practices, the expectation is that the grazing season will be extended resulting in improved profit margins and at the same time a healthy and vigorous sod will be maintained protecting soil and water resources. Applied Master Cattleman (PI – Jeff Lehmkuhler; Co-PI Les Anderson, Darrh Bullock) The Applied or Advanced Master Cattleman (AMC) program is designed for producers that desire to go beyond Master Cattleman curriculum. The goal of the program is to demonstrate principles of managing a beef cattle enterprise. The intent of AMC is to actually change producer behavior leading to management change rather than just provide information that increases their subject knowledge. In general, AMC sessions are more in-depth, greater hands-on and in appropriate subject areas to advance the participants understanding of management practices. In many cases these sessions involve on-farm demonstrations combined with in-field discussions. Farmers that are reluctant to take the risk of changing management are guided through these changes with on-farm demonstrations. Programs such as temporary fencing to build weaning pens, reading feed tags and forage test results or successful steps to establishing novel endophyte fescue are examples of programs that have an on-farm educational approach. In cases where demonstration projects are appropriate to showcase a proven best management practice, the producer, ANR Agent, KBN Facilitator, and UK Specialist work together to implement the projects and document the impact on production and returns. These demonstrations provide opportunity for hands-on training in a real-world environment while collecting valuable data to document the impact of our programs.