001204 New Facility May Aid Kentucky Beef Industry

Versailles, KY - University of Kentucky officials hope a new beef research facility will help enhance the state's growing cattle industry - and perhaps strengthen the agricultural base that has been weakened by the decline of tobacco.

The 700-acre Animal Research Center Beef Unit in Woodford County includes an intensive research center complete with surgical suite and laboratory space, a nutrition center and feed-mixing facility that can provide nearly 2,200 tons of silage capacity, and 32 pastures with high endophyte grasses, mixed grasses and clover for grazing studies.

“This facility will have a tremendously positive impact on Kentucky agriculture,” said M. Scott Smith, associate dean for research in the school's College of Agriculture.

Nationally, cattle-raising is the single largest source of farm cash receipts. In Kentucky, beef cattle production accounts for more than $600 million in farm income and adds about three times that amount to the state's economy each year.

Farmers whose tobacco incomes are declining may find help in beef or feed production, said David Sparrow, assistant to the agriculture school's dean. Many Kentucky tobacco farmers already are involved in beef production or forage, and likely would benefit by moving some time and resources away from tobacco, he said.

“Farmers will never be able to totally replace their income from tobacco,” Sparrow said. “But if those who are involved in both or who have extra land decided to dedicate a little more time or a little more land to forage, hay production or even pasture, it would be another avenue for increased revenue that may not otherwise be available to them.”

With tobacco quotas continuing to decline and uncertainty growing about the burley industry's future, many state leaders hope animal agriculture will be a way to keep farming finances aloft.

In 1960, Kentucky had an animal industry that had a gross farm income in the neighborhood of $200 million annually, said C. Oran Little, dean of the College of Agriculture. This year, the state should reach about $2.4 billion in farm income from animal agriculture, he said.

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