Kentucky Agriculture
Commissioner Jonathan Shell
Contact Us
AgNet
  • About the KDA
      • Offices
      • Office of Commissioner
      • Office of Administrative Services
      • Office of Agricultural Marketing
      • Office of Agricultural Policy
      • Office of Communications
      • Office for Consumer & Environmental Protection
      • Offices
      • Office of Legal Services
      • Office of State Veterinarian
      • KDA Executive Staff
      • KDA Internship Program
      • Request an Official Appearance
      • News
      • Kentucky Agricultural News
      • Press Releases
      • News Archive
      • KY AGNEWS Sign Up
      • KDA Grants
      • All KDA Grants
      • All Current KDA Grants And Funding Opportunities
  • Ag Policy
      • Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy
      • Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy
      • Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund
      • Administrators
      • Applicants
      • Applicant Reporting
      • County Agricultural Development Councils
      • Kentucky Agricultural Development Board
      • Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corporation (KAFC)
      • Application Deadlines
      • Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corporation Board
      • Lender & Mentor
      • Loan Programs
      • Kentucky Agricultural Policy Publications
      • Annual Report 2019
      • Annual Report 2020
      • Annual Report 2021
      • Annual Report 2022
      • Annual Report 2023
      • Annual Report 2024
  • Animal
      • Animal Health
      • Animal Disposal and Rendering
      • Animal Welfare and Complaints
      • Beekeeping
      • Brands
      • Composting
      • Emergency Management
      • Animal Health
      • Equine
      • Farmed Cervids
      • Livestock
      • Movement and Identification
      • Online Permitting System
      • Animal Health
      • Pollinator Protection Registration System
      • Poultry
      • State Veterinarian
      • Stockyards and Dealers
      • Stray or Abandoned Horses
      • Animal Marketing Programs
      • Aquaculture
      • Livestock
      • Market News
      • Purebred Breeders Directory
      • Shows and Fairs
  • Online Services
      • Nuisance Weed Spraying
      • Nuisance Weed Spraying Program
      • Ag Businesses Directory
      • Ag Ringtones
      • ARD Inspector Search
      • Free Web Page Builder
      • Hay for Sale
      • Hemp Licensing Portal
        (login required)
      • KDA Calendar of Events
      • Landscape Plant Availability Guide
      • Licensing and Certification Log In Portal
      • Licensing and Certification Registration Portal
      • Nuisance Weed Spraying Program
      • Online Permitting System
      • Pest Control Company Directory
      • Pesticide Complaint Form
      • Pollinator Protection Registration System
      • Product Registration and Renewal System
      • Purebred Breeders Directory
      • Service Agency
      • Stray or Abandoned Horses
      • Weights, Measures & Motor Fuel Complaint Form
  • Pesticides
      • Environmental Services
      • Licensing and Certification Portal
        (login required)
      • Nuisance Weed Spraying Program
      • Pest Control Company Directory
      • Pest Control - Agriculture
      • Pest Control - Structural
      • Environmental Services
      • Pesticide Product Registration
      • Pesticide Complaint Form
      • Pesticide Training and Testing
      • Public Pest and Recycling Assistance
      • Pesticide License Renewal Portal Login
      • Pesticide Registration and Renewal
      • Training and Testing
      • Training and Testing
      • Product Registration
      • Product Registration
  • Plant
      • Plant Marketing
      • Plant Marketing
      • Plant Marketing Programs
      • Farmers Markets
      • Forage/Hay Testing
      • GAP-Good Agriculture Practices
      • Ginseng
      • Plant Marketing Programs
      • Grape and Wine
      • Hemp
      • Hemp Licensing Portal (login required)
      • Horticulture
      • Plant Marketing Programs
      • Landscape Plant Availability Guide
      • Organic
      • Produce Safety Program
      • Specialty Crop Block Grant Program
  • Promotional
      • Marketing Programs
      • Ag Businesses
      • Ag Education
      • Agritourism
      • Appalachia Proud
      • Buy Local
      • CSA - Community Supported Agriculture
      • Marketing Programs
      • Emergency Management
      • Farm License Plate
      • Farm Safety
      • Farm to Fork
      • Farm to School
      • Farmers Markets Directory
      • Farmland Preservation/PACE
      • Forage/Hay Testing
      • Marketing Programs
      • Free Web Page Builder
      • Good Agricultural Practices - GAP
      • Marketing Grants
      • Homegrown By Heroes
      • International Trade
      • Junior Chef
      • KDA Grants
      • Kentucky Proud
      • Kentucky Wine
      • Marketing Programs
      • Livestock Tag
      • Local Food Purchase Assistance Grant
      • Market News
      • Mobile Science Activity Center
      • Promotion and Development
      • Raising Hope
      • Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure
      • Shows and Fairs
      • Woodlands
  • Regulatory
      • Food Programs
      • Farm to School
      • Chefs in Schools
      • Local Food Purchase Assistance Grant
      • National School Lunch Programs
      • Senior Farmers' Market
      • Supplemental Programs
      • Regulation & Inspection
      • Aerial Recreational Devices
      • Amusement Ride Inspections
      • Egg Licensing
      • Grain Licensing and Regulation
      • Grain Licensing Search
      • Licensing and Certification Portal
        (login required)
      • Teen & Tobacco
      • Weights and Measures
      • Weights, Measures & Motor Fuel Complaint Form
      • Environmental Services
      • Pest Control - Agriculture
      • Pest Control - Structural
      • Pesticide Complaint Form
      • Pesticide Product Registration
      • Pesticide Training and Testing
      • Public Pest and Recycling Assistance
      • Other
      • Brands
      • Composting
      • Market News
      • Organic Program
      • Rendering
      • Stockyards and Dealers
  • AGNET
  • Contact Us
17
MAY

Laurel County judge-executive among Kentucky’s 38,000 beef producers

  • By Chris Aldridge

  • Kentucky Agricultural News

David Westerfield is serving his 11th year as Laurel County judge-executive after a 32-year career as a UPS delivery driver. But for all of his life, Westerfield has been a farmer.

Like many Kentucky farmers, Westerfield transitioned from tobacco to beef cattle a decade ago. His Black Angus herd currently numbers about 120 head.

“I’m one of the few county judges around that farms,” Westerfield said. “So I can relate when they (Laurel County farmers) talk about their problems.”

Westerfield is among 38,000 beef producers that make Kentucky the largest cattle state east of the Mississippi River. Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Dr. Ryan Quarles honored them May 10 by signing a document proclaiming May as Beef Month in Kentucky.

“I enjoy farming,” Westerfield said. “It’s something that just gets in you. It’s hard to walk away from.

“It’s my down time. Some days, it’s stressful, but there’s never a dull moment with farming. It’s unpredictable, but the outcome is awesome when I raise a quality product that’s going on somebody’s dinner table.”

Westerfield feeds his cows from a 30-acre crop of feed corn and 225 acres of hay that he grows and harvests.

“I feed my cattle grain 365 days a year,” he said. “I’m probably the only one in the county that does that, but it just makes a quality product. Beef cattle need grain to make their meat better.

“I cut all my own hay. I spray it for weeds because I want my cows to have a quality hay.”

“I’m also one of the few that still grinds their feed,” Westerfield added, noting the result is a feed mix that “my cattle love.”

“My cattle are so appreciative when I come to see them with my feed bucket that it makes me feel good,” he said. “My calves are always born healthy due to the nutrition that I feed their mothers.”

Westerfield owns Shady Oaks Farm, a 200-acre Kentucky Proud operation in southwestern Laurel County near the tiny town of Keavy.

“My 120 head ain’t a lot – I’ve had more, I’ve had less,” he said. “They’re calving right now, so I ought to have about 140 in the next six weeks.”

Westerfield said he hopes to finish and market about 65 head this fall at Lake Cumberland Livestock Market in Somerset. He’s hoping to turn a profit this year after a tumultuous 2020.

“I didn’t make a dime last year farming,” Westerfield said. “But I enjoy farming, so I’ll do it ‘til I go completely broke.”

Westerfield lost two cattle recently to.black vultures, predatory birds that have expanded into Kentucky over the past 50 years. Vulture attacks on livestock seem to have increased in recent years.

“These buzzards pecked one of my cow’s eyes out while she was having a calf,” he said. “It ended up killing the cow and the calf.”

Because black vultures migrate, they are protected by federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and cannot be killed without a $100 permit. Livestock producers can get their first one free from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“They need to make ‘em to where they’re not protected,” Westerfield said.

Westerfield also would like to see more options for marketing his beef, such as an increase in the number of slaughterhouses in Kentucky. “A lot of our beef leaves the state,” he said, referring to a lack of processing facilities with the required inspection by the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA).

During last year’s coronavirus pandemic, Commissioner of Agriculture Dr. Ryan Quarles and the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board invested more than $3.5 million into expanding meat processing capacity across the Commonwealth so the state would not be as reliant upon out-of-state meat processors.

“We could sell a lot more freezer beef if we could increase the processing plants,” Laurel County cattle farmer Glenn Calebs told the London Sentinel-Echo.

“If people here could buy our meat, they’d never buy any other kind,” Westerfield reportedly added. “If the USDA would approve more slaughterhouses in Kentucky, we could supply the meat.”

Press Release Sign-up

    In the News

  • 4/11/25 – Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corp. approves more than $2.1 million in loans
  • 3/18/25 – Ag Education Week brings the agriculture experience to the classroom
  • 3/17/25 – Russell County Hospital, Dry Branch Stock Farm partner up on Food is Medicine initiative
  • 3/07/25 – Agriculture Commissioner kicks off Ag Tag season visiting with FFA, 4-H members
  • 3/06/25 – 2025 Beef Expo sales reach more than $700,000
  • View All Press Releases...

    Agriculture Links

  • Kentucky Farm Bureau Newsroom
  • Cromwell Ag Network
  • Morning Ag Report - WKDZ 106.5 FM

KDA Video

Agriculture in Kentucky

Agriculture is more than a part of life, it’s a passion and commitment to provide the fiber, feed, and shelter the world needs.

Equine Industry in Kentucky

Agriculture is more than a part of life, it’s a passion and commitment to provide the fiber, feed, and shelter the world needs.

Kentucky Farmers' Markets

Kentucky Farmers' Markets bring fresh, local produce, meats, eggs, and handmade goods directly to communities. These markets support local farmers and offer a vibrant shopping experience with seasonal products, live entertainment, and family-friendly activities.

Sunshine Class

The Sunshine Class is a unique opportunity for special needs individuals to engage in Kentucky agriculture by showing livestock. To learn more about how to get involved visit kyagr.com/sunshine/

ABOUT KDA AGNET CONTACT US REQUEST AN APPEARANCE
KY Department of Agriculture |Phone: (502) 573-0282 |Fax: (502) 564-2133 |1-800-327-6568 |Disclaimer |Ag links
© Kentucky Agriculture Department. All rights reserved.
Kentucky Proud