Kentucky Department of Agriculture

Partnering for Success: Kentucky's Ag Industry Trade Show

special to kentucky agricultural news

Providing members with a great educational and information experience is what led the leaders of the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association, Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association and the Kentucky Horse Council to decide to join forces for the first Ag Industry Trade Show.

The Ag Industry Trade show will take place on January 13 and 14 at the Lexington Convention Center to coincide with each organization's annual meeting. Bringing agricultural groups together for a joint trade show in conjunction with their annual meetings just made sense to all the leaders at the three organizations.

"There was an initial suggestion to combine our meeting with KCA for efficiency, since many of our tobacco growers also have cattle," said Roger Quarles President of the BTGCA. "That is when we began talking to KCA about ways to work together on the event."

KCA had begun working with KHC on educational efforts two years ago when they offered a Curt Pate Horsemanship Clinic at the January 2009 KCA Convention.

"Since the event in 2009, we've enjoyed a working relationship in the collaborative offering of Livestock Investigation Training to Kentucky Animal Control and Peace Officers," explained Essie Rogers, Director of Education & Welfare at the KHC.

Corinne Kephart, KCA President pointed out that so many people are involved in more than one facet of agriculture, that an event like this will hopefully allow each organization to reach out to meet the needs of more producers.

The collaborative effort also is a great opportunity for vendors and presenters offering products, services and educational information that is applicable across the many faces of Kentucky's farming community to come together in a single location.

"An event of this nature allows [vendors] greater exposure over a shorter period of time than if they attended three separate conferences and trade shows," said Rogers. "Likewise through collaboration, we are able to offer more diverse programming and speakers."

While the Ag Industry Trade show is at the heart of the collaborative effort of the three organizations, they are also partnering to offer joint educational opportunities to their members.

The Ag Industry Breakfast on Friday morning will give members from all three organizations a chance to network, visit the Ag Industry Trade Show and enjoy breakfast with the trade show vendors and Kentucky Ag Development Board Members.

"On Friday afternoon KHC members will convene with KCA attendees for a joint session on Forages," said Rogers. "In addition on Thursday KHC and KCA will offer a joint session for animal control and peace officers."

The animal control and peace officers session will be one of the many by Curt Pate. Pate will also do live cattle handling demonstrations in the trade show on Thursday and Friday, including: stockmanship for young cattlemen; corralling, loading, & managing loose stock; and stockmanship and stewardship for cattlemen.

"Of course we will have our annual growers meeting and educational sessions on Friday," said Quarles, "but we are excited about the size and scope of the information that will be available at the tradeshow and at the other sessions for our members."

Rogers pointed out that all aspects of agriculture face many of the same challenges, so it is vitally important for the agricultural industry, including the horse community, to have a strong commitment to finding common ground and networking.

"I am really glad we are moving in this direction," said Kephart. "I think that anytime we can come together and share ideas, working, and collaborating with different agriculture groups the similarities will start surfacing more and outweigh our differences."

The KCA convention begins on January 13 and ends on January 15, and both the KHC and BTGCA meetings will take place on January 14 at the Lexington Convention Center. For Hyatt Hotel reservations please call 1-800-233-1234. For complete registration and schedule information contact each organization at the listing below.

KCA visit www.kycattle.org or call (859) 278-0899.

KHC visit www.kentuckyhorse.org or call (859) 367-0509.

BTGCA visit www.burleytobacco.com or call (800) 880-3561.