Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council
2012 Annual Report
We believe one of most significant accomplishments of the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council this past year was their support of the 2012 AFGC annual meeting. AFGC’s new annual meeting format does not partner with a state council and allows AFGC to retain all profits from the meeting. In the past the state council received half of the meeting profits, and in return handled a large share of the planning and provided the majority of the volunteers. The AFGC board was concerned that the new meeting format might make it hard to secure sufficient volunteers. KFGC alleviated this concern by providing the majority of the volunteers for the meeting and helped to make the 2012 annual meeting highly successful. Although KFGC did not receive any financial support for their support, we were glad to support AFGC in this way. For 2013, KFGC has again agreed to support their national council with over 40 volunteers and with strong participation on the planning committee.
The current membership of the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Conferenceis over 150 members with active participation of members in a number of regional and statewide events.
The 2012KFGC Field Day was held on September 6on the Geralds Farm in Hart County highlighted hay production. Clayton and Christopher Geralds and many others put on one of the most successful field days in recent years. There were over 20 exhibits and close to 300 people attended the event from all over the state.
Every year KFGC co-sponsors with the University of Kentucky two major forage conferences. We hold a board meeting before each event and rotate the conferences around the state. They are always excellent conferences and serve not only to train new producers, but are also important gathering times for our membership. The 13thKentucky Grazing Conference was held in Princeton, KY October 30, 2012. Over 100 people attended this event.The 32stKentucky Alfalfa Conference was held in Cave City, KYFebruary with over 150 producers from Kentucky and surrounding states attending the event.
KFGC has been a co-sponsor of the KY Grazing Schools for 20 years. We continue to host 2 of these each year, one in the eastern half of the state, and one in the western half. In April 2012 the KFGC/UK grazing school was held in Princeton, KY at the UK Research Farm and in August the Grazing School was held in Woodford County at the UK Animal Research Center. In 2012 over 80 people attended these 2 day hands-on Grazing Schools. We also started an Advanced Grazing School this year and had over 100 people in attendance.
The KFGC website, which is managed by Adam Probst, a KFGC Board member, continues to be updated and is a vital resource for KY’s forage producers receiving over 300 hits a day.
2012 was the last year of $475,000 grant from the Kentucky Agricultural Board and East Kentucky Power Cooperative to continue research and extension activities on using switchgrass for a biomass crop and exploring alternative options for switchgrass in farming systems. The goal of the project supported the planting, management, harvesting, and processing of over 500 acres of switchgrass for delivery to East Kentucky Power Cooperative to generate electricity in the state. A final report is available on request from Dr. Ray Smith – .
Awards and Contests:
Each year, KFGC recognizes four outstanding leaders for their hard work and dedication to KFGC and KY’s forage industry. These year’s outstanding leaders included: Shane Bogle, Public Service-County; Dr. Elmer Gray, Public Service-State; Barry Drury, Grassroots Award; and Bill Bracy, Industry Award.
Three awards were presented at the 32nd KY Alfalfa Conference in 2012. Don Moore received the Alfalfa Producer Award, Dr. Mark McCaslin received the Alfalfa Industry Award, and Gene Olson received the Alfalfa Public Sector Award. Fourteen producers also received the Alfalfa Hay Awards.
KFGC members continued the tradition of excellence at the January AFGC meeting. Brent White placed first in the Forage Spoksperson contest, continuing the tradtion of KFGC members winning this competition more than any other state. Kelly Vaughan and Taylor Reiter, students at the University of Kentucky, won the undergraduate student Forage Bowl competition. Christopher Geralds won 1st Place in both the Education and the Harvested Forages categories of the photo contest. Kenton Sena, a student at Asbury University and a UK intern the last two summers won the Wildlife and Conservation category.
The following individuals will participated in the Forage Spokesperson contest on October 30 as a part of the 13thKY Grazing Conference: Greg Reynolds of Murray, KY; Jim Landis of Glasgow, KY 42141; and Craig Cohron of Bowling Green, KY. Greg Reynolds won the contest.
We want to extend a special thanks to the following individuals for their dedication and support to KFGC during their term as a Director of the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council: Terry Ginn, Charlie Powell, Adam Probst and Gary Tilghman who will be going off the Board and Kenny Burdine, Roy Reichenback, Buddy Smith and Don Sorrell who were elected to another term as a director of Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council.
The following individuals were elected by the KFGC membership to serve a 3 year term as a KFGC Board of Director beginning January 1, 2013 and ending December 31, 2015.
Producers: Tony Chapman, Roy Reichenbach and Buddy Smith
Industry: Tim Hampton, Chad Stonefield and Brett Reese
Public: Jeff Lehmkuhler, Kenny Burdine and Don Sorrell