Kara Keeton, Communications Director
Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy
(502) 564-4627
http://agpolicy.ky.gov/

The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, chaired by Governor Paul Patton, approved $481,942 in agricultural diversification projects across the Commonwealth at the monthly Board Meeting on October 17 at the Franklin County Cooperative Extension Office in Frankfort. At this meeting the Board took action only on model program requests and amendments. The Board participated in a special planning session for the remainder of the meeting.

County model programs are designed to provide farmers with cost-share funding to allow them to improve and diversify their current production practices. The Agricultural Diversification program is designed to assist in the transition into ten new areas of agriculture including dairy, aquaculture, and horticulture. The Fencing Improvement program improves net farm income through improved pasture quantity, quality and efficient use of fencing for livestock producers.

The Forage Improvement program improves pastures to allow for improved grazing by animals, reducing producer costs for feed, and improving feed quality. The Cattle Handling and Cattle Genetics programs allow for assistance to purchase equipment and animals to improve the health and profitability of cattle. The Goat Diversification program works to assist producers to venture into this relatively new area of agriculture in Kentucky. The Hay, Straw, & Commodity Storage program allows producers to increase the quality and marketability of products to improve the overall farm income The following is a list of county model programs that were approved for funding at this meeting.

County Agricultural Diversification Programs approved by the Board totaled $32,550 included:

$32,550 Magoffin County

County Fencing Improvement Programs approved by the Board totaled $81,000 and included:

$81,000 Clark County

County Forage Improvement Programs approved by the Board totaled $6,000 and included:

$6,000 Graves County

County Cattle Genetics Improvement Programs approved by the Board totaled $65,988 and included:

$17,398 Graves County

$10,600 Henderson County

$10,000 Jessamine County

$27,999 Rowan County

Goat Diversification Programs approved by the Board totaled $100,200 and included:

$49,900 Casey County

$25,000 Clark County

$300 Estill County

$10,000 Franklin County

$15,000 Jessamine County

County Cattle Handling Programs approved by the Board totaled $26,204 and included:

$6,000 Graves County

$15,000 Henderson County

$5,204 Webster County

County Hay, Straw and Commodity Storage Programs approved by the Board totaled $170,000 and included:

$75,000 Hancock County

$25,000 Jessamine County

$20,000 Rowan County

$50,000 Trigg County

Kentucky’s Legislature has made a historic effort to diversify away from tobacco production while revitalizing the farm economy by investing 50% of Kentucky’s Master Settlement Agreement into the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund. Of this 50% allocation, 65% of the Fund is set aside for regional and statewide agricultural projects, while 35% is earmarked for individual counties on the basis of their tobacco dependence. Since the inception of the program in January 2001, the Agricultural Development Board has approved over 1300 proposals committing over $152 million to an array of county, regional, and state projects designed to increase net farm income and create sustainable new farm-based business enterprises.

###