Episode 20 KCA Convention Conversations
Ag Credit recently attended the Kentucky Cattleman's Association Annual Meeting in Lexington, KY. We hosted a booth at the trade show and had great conversations with individuals involved in many different aspects of agriculture and the rural community.
In this episode:
Charlie Edgington, Red Barn and Associates
https://www.redbarnandassociates.com/
Dr. Kenny Burdine, University of Kentucky Agricultural Economics
http://agecon.ca.uky.edu/
Babette Overman, Raising Hope
https://www.raisinghopeky.com/
- Transcript
[00:00:01.290] - Charlie Edgington
Welcome to Beyond Agriculture, the podcast that takes you beyond the scope of Ag and into the real life stories, conversations and events taking place in our community. Who we are and what we do is beyond Agriculture.[00:00:24.530] - Ben Robin
Hey, welcome back to the Beyond Agriculture podcast. This has been Robin. I work in the administrative office with Central Kentucky Ag Credit. In 2023, we produced several episodes of the Beyond Agriculture podcast with our Paris branch hosting those episodes. We took a break off mid-year. We had other priorities, other things that our loan officers were involved in, and our focus kind of shifted towards those. So we're glad to be starting back up for 2024. We have a lot of great content already planned out, a lot of good conversations I think we're going to have with people in the Agriculture industry. Hopefully bring you some value in the content that we publish through the podcast. So if you have any suggestions, please reach out to us. You can contact us through our website or shoot us a message on social media. We would love to hear your all suggestions. So, to begin 2024, we attended the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association Annual Meeting beginning of January in Lexington, Kentucky. We had a booth set up there at the trade show. We got to talk to a lot of our customers, a lot of potential customers, a lot of people that are highly involved in Agriculture, and we definitely enjoyed that.[00:01:40.180] - Ben Robin
So we hosted podcasts at the trade show at our booth and had some good conversations with some individuals that are familiar with us and some that are not. And so we're going to bring you a few of those conversations here, I think that are pretty valuable for the Ag landscape, Agriculture in general today. So we'll drop you into those conversations now.[00:02:05.820] - Ben Robin
All righ t, so we're here at KCA convention and got Charlie Edgington here with Red Barn Associates. Charlie, it's good to see you.[00:02:13.720] - Charlie Edgington
Ben, it's great seeing you, buddy.[00:02:15.690] - Ben Robin
So just wanted to have you on to kind of give our listeners a little bit of idea of what you do, where you're at, and we'll talk about some farm equipment.[00:02:24.630] - Charlie Edgington
Super.[00:02:25.310] - Charlie Edgington
Yeah.[00:02:26.020] - Charlie Edgington
You mentioned Red Barn and Associates. This is your number ten for being in business. And we appreciate everything with our good friends at Central Kentucky Ag Credit and EXPRESS program a little bit about what we do. We sell new equipment, but we also sell a lot of used equipment. We've been blessed to have nine new lines, and we keep a lot of inventory in stock. And we're here to serve the farmers here in central Kentucky. And I think come see us. Give me a call. We've got plenty of good things going on with some great manufacturers.[00:02:57.530] - Ben Robin
What did you bring to the trade show today?[00:03:01.850] - Charlie Edgington
If you look down the road here, we've got an RTech SB 200 vertical beater manure spreader.[00:03:07.600] - Ben Robin
Yeah, looks like a pretty sweet setup.[00:03:09.600] - Charlie Edgington
It really is. When you look at material handling, I think you've really got to give a strong look at Artec and that size for our area. Central Kentucky has been wonderful.[00:03:20.730] - Ben Robin
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's definitely a big machine. Nice machine. So, yeah, if anybody's interested in that, definitely get in touch with you.[00:03:27.620] - Charlie Edgington
Absolutely.[00:03:28.020] - Ben Robin
We'll put your info there in the show notes, so we'll get them sent to you about that ish drill, too. Yeah, there you go.[00:03:37.270] - Charlie Edgington
That's probably one of the pieces I'm most exciting about. Excited about with the five and a half inch spacing. And in central Kentucky, where we've got to watch folks on the road, sure, we get an opportunity to transport at eight and a half foot, but when we get to the field, we can rotate and have twelve foot of working.[00:03:56.270] - Ben Robin
It's a big deal.[00:03:57.180] - Charlie Edgington
It's a big deal.[00:03:58.000] - Ben Robin
Yeah, that's awesome. Definitely safer on the roads, that's for sure. Yes, for a lot of different people, but no, that's awesome. Like you said, you've got a lot of different lines of equipment, a lot of lines that not necessarily other dealers carry. And so I think you definitely have a good variety of stuff down there in Lancaster.[00:04:14.630] - Charlie Edgington
Absolutely.[00:04:15.120] - Ben Robin
That's awesome. Yeah, we'll talk a little bit about farm equipment. We haven't had anybody on yet to talk about kind of the values after the first year. So what are you seeing as far as overall Ag Economy and how it's affecting farm equipment?[00:04:28.190] - Charlie Edgington
Well, I think we start looking at pricing, and that's what everyone wants to talk about. If steels come down, start looking at labor and the components, and that has just definitely driven machinery cost up. So if you've got good used equipment, you've probably used it for several years. It's probably worth what you gave for it.[00:04:47.550] - Ben Robin
Yeah.[00:04:48.180] - Charlie Edgington
Once Again, good used, clean farm equipment is always in high demand, and the newer machinery or new equipment, it's still expensive for what it is. Yes.[00:05:01.780] - Ben Robin
Well, that's good.[00:05:02.500] - Ben Robin
Yeah, definitely a lot of things going on the Ag industry, so it's good to kind of keep up with that. But you talked a little bit about the EXPRESS program, Farm Credit EXPRESS program, which is our dealer financing product, and you've got a lot of experience with it and seem to like it.[00:05:17.750] - Charlie Edgington
It's a wonderful product.[00:05:20.390] - Ben Robin
Yeah, definitely. For that point of sale, financing seems like a pretty streamlined, simple process.[00:05:27.210] - Charlie Edgington
Always folks asked how are machinery sales? I always emphasize how's machinery trading?[00:05:32.850] - Charlie Edgington
Sure.[00:05:33.580] - Charlie Edgington
That's what we're doing.[00:05:34.780] - Ben Robin
Yeah, that's right.[00:05:36.270] - Charlie Edgington
And a level being able to finance machinery in house is the way you're going to sell.[00:05:43.570] - Charlie Edgington
Sure. Sure.[00:05:44.320] - Charlie Edgington
We appreciate the partnership on that.[00:05:47.010] - Ben Robin
You get buyer pull from all across the United States. So we're not just talking, know, Kentucky and central Kentucky. I mean, you've got equipment that people want from all over the United States. So that's, we'll, we'll definitely put your information in the show notes and it was good talking to you and we'll try to have you on Again to kind of give us an update what's going on.[00:06:08.520] - Charlie Edgington
Absolutely. We appreciate what you all do.[00:06:10.070] - Charlie Edgington
Yeah.[00:06:10.250] - Ben Robin
Thank you, Charlie.[00:06:11.020] - Charlie Edgington
Thank you.[00:06:12.070] - Ben Robin
All right.[00:06:12.570] - Ben Robin
So we're here at KCA convention and Dr. Kenny Burdine stopped by the booth. And how are you today?[00:06:19.030] - Kenny Burdine
Doing well, Ben, how about you?[00:06:20.560] - Ben Robin
Doing pretty good.[00:06:21.400] - Kenny Burdine
Pretty good day out there. I think it may change here soon.[00:06:23.520] - Ben Robin
Yeah, I think so.[00:06:24.250] - Charlie Edgington
Yeah.[00:06:24.490] - Ben Robin
Waiting on this weather. It's crazy. So it's one of those, just the time of year, I guess, but a lot of good crowd here and a lot of good cattlemen and women. So, yeah, good time. So what's going on in your world? What do you all got going on in University of Kentucky?[00:06:39.850] - Kenny Burdine
Well, usual earlier stuff. We more or less wrap up a year with kind of our Farm Bureau outlook presentation and that kind of rolls into outlook publication. So I guess really the week before Christmas we sent around our outlook publication where we go through general overview of last year and expectations for the new year for all our commodities, all our livestock species, all our crops, and even do some forestry stuff. So that kind of how we roll out 2023. And I came back pretty quick and we hit the road. We're recording this on, what is this, the 11th? I guess I left the house Monday morning, the eigth and got back about 07:00 on the 10th and out here today being in Frankfort tomorrow. So I'm back on the road running my mouth.[00:07:22.740] - Ben Robin
A lot of moving. A lot of moving.[00:07:23.860] - Ben Robin
Yeah.[00:07:24.110] - Ben Robin
Well, you talk about the outlook. We are here at the cattlemen's convention. So what's the outlook? What's outlook look like for cattle this year?[00:07:32.660] - Kenny Burdine
I'm pretty optimistic about 2024. One point I tried to make today in the afternoon session. It's easy to get wrapped up kind of in the current and sometimes lose the big picture. And if you go back and look at what the nearby feeder cattle futures price was in January of 2023, and then where it ended, December of 2023, it was about $0.35- $0.40 higher. So in other words, cattle got a lot stronger throughout the year. Now, unfortunately, between mid September and mid December, they came down a fair amount. In other words, they were even higher than that about September. But it's hard to say that 23 wasn't a good year. So you kind of think about that holistic and then you think about where we are. There's no sign we're growing this cowherd yet, right. We're still heifers on feed. At least the last estimate we got in October was still high. There's no indication that cow slaughter is pulled back. Calf crop is going to be smaller next year.[00:08:31.590] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:08:32.150] - Kenny Burdine
So you think about last year and then take an even tighter calf mark, and then it's hard not to be optimistic about what we'll see. I think we'll see better prices in 2024 than we saw in 2020.[00:08:41.080] - Ben Robin
Sure. Yeah.[00:08:41.590] - Ben Robin
I mean, all the signs are there. Fundamentals look like that's what's going to happen. So, yeah, definitely interesting time. So as long as I guess we can find some hay. I know that's kind of been an issue. So if we got, we got to get them through the winter.[00:08:56.490] - Kenny Burdine
I don't know that 2023 drought was as bad as 2022, but the second year always seems like it hits a little harder. We drew down Haystock so much because of the 2022 drought.[00:09:09.450] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:09:10.100] - Kenny Burdine
And then we didn't exactly have a stellar hay production year in 2023 either. It's maybe a little more varied last year, but we were certainly dry where I'm at.[00:09:17.780] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:09:18.440] - Kenny Burdine
So, yeah, hay supply is an issue and what hay is moving, and not much is moving, by the way, but what hay is moving is moving pretty high price. And I think that's part of why we really are seeing a lot of cows leave. It's hay supply as much as anything else.[00:09:32.360] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:09:32.820] - Ben Robin
Well, also a lot of it depends on beef demand. What's that looking like? I know it's not really a time of year to look at it, but anytime is better than now.[00:09:44.010] - Kenny Burdine
Demand, I think, has been fairly encouraging. In fact, retail beef price, if it's not at a record, it's awfully close. Now, granted, some of that's because production levels are lower and that that's fair, but I really don't think that current, that present demand has been an issue. That probably is the wild card going forward, I'm amazed at how well the economy has seemed to have held up in the face of inflation and major interest rate changes over the last year, which you're well aware. It's a whole new world. And the other thing, if you want to see a scary number, look at U.S. Consumer Savings Rate.[00:10:26.410] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:10:27.160] - Kenny Burdine
And I don't track microeconomy much, but I have seen some things that consumer debt is very high. So whenever I see that, I think about vulnerability.[00:10:34.180] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:10:35.850] - Kenny Burdine
Like it or not, I think we benefit from this most of the time. But as beef producers, we produce the meat that is the most expensive pound per pound at the retail level. And Again, I think that's a good thing most of the time, but it does make us more vulnerable.[00:10:49.060] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:10:51.230] - Kenny Burdine
I'm not predicting that I look for a good year, but if there's a wild card, to me, it's on the demand side. I think the supply side looks really.[00:10:57.570] - Ben Robin
Well, you know, it's pretty optimistic, I guess. Well, appreciate you talking with us and, yeah, we'll have to catch you Again next time.[00:11:05.000] - Kenny Burdine
Anytime. Good to, good to bump into you here at convention.[00:11:07.120] - Ben Robin
That's right. All right.[00:11:07.850] - Kenny Burdine
Thank you.[00:11:08.950] - Ben Robin
All right, we're here with Babette Overman with Raising Hope. Babette, how are you?[00:11:13.590] - Babette Overman
I'm fine. How are you today?[00:11:14.920] - Ben Robin
Doing good.[00:11:15.350] - Ben Robin
Doing good. Well, tell us a little bit about Raising Hope and what all you all do.[00:11:19.070] - Babette Overman
What all we all do. Raising Hope is an initiative, a program under the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. It is a baby program. It is just a little over two years old, and its purpose, its mission, and these are tough things to talk about in the Agriculture community. It is the fact that we need to make sure that the mental and physical health of our farmers is top notch, because we understand when you talk to a farmer, from the morning they get up till the moment they go to bed, their health is the last thing they think about. And I often say it's interesting. They take better care of their animals than they take care of themselves. But in this program, we have several initiatives through grant programs that we have teams of nurses throughout the state that go to events, large events, and we provide health screenings, we do blood pressure, which is, as you know, the silent killer.[00:12:18.820] - Ben Robin
That's exactly.[00:12:19.420] - Babette Overman
Glucose, cholesterol. At some events, we actually are able to do vaccines, flu, Covid, tetanus. It all depends on what the needs or what the wishes are of that.[00:12:29.940] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:12:30.930] - Babette Overman
We also provide. This is interesting, one of the projects we do, if you find a day where you are mentally in need of someone to talk to. It is that Famous 988t. So when you place that call to 988, they are allowed to ask you a couple of questions. Where do you live?[00:12:52.920] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:12:53.380] - Babette Overman
What state do you live in? And are you a farmer? If you respond, yes, I'm a farmer. I live in Kentucky. You are immediately transferred to the Pennyroyal 988 center located here in Kentucky. Part of our fundings, which comes from the tobacco settlement. So I can assure everyone we spend our money wisely. Good use, and it is to a very good use. But your call is transferred to a staff member that we have had trained to speak the Language of a Farmer. Because we're different, we speak differently. We are very proud people to be able for us to admit that we need help, that the strength that we Farmers, we're strong people. We can tackle anything, right? But when a Farmer, farm, farmer, family member, someone in the Agriculture industry finds that moment when they need to talk to someone, we can assure them that the person they are speaking with understands what they're talking about.[00:13:57.040] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:13:57.290] - Ben Robin
That is the biggest thing. If farmers are going to be open, they want to be open with someone.[00:14:00.590] - Babette Overman
Who understands very much so what they do. Also, some of the projects that we have funded, I got to remember everything we do. University of Kentucky has developed a curriculum, a soft curriculum approach to suicide awareness. I cannot give you the statistics because they change daily. But everybody needs to know that within the farm community, the statistics for suicide, it's high, it's above the way. I hate to say it, all of us, in all phases of life, we are seeing suicide being right at the very top of Concerns. But this soft approach is through the extension office, 4-H Agents who will be gathering together the older 4-Her. And it is this very specific program to talk about mental health. So they can look among their peers, their family members, and there are certain signs. We don't see all of them. But when you are aware of certain signs that a family member, a fellow student is struggling, they have learned how to ask the right questions.[00:15:12.450] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:15:13.110] - Babette Overman
And when they have made that approach, then they can say, let me help you. I know where we can go. I know who we can call. That's important. Again, when we're looking at suicide rates among our college age and our high school age students, it's there.[00:15:31.740] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:15:32.140] - Babette Overman
And it's scary.[00:15:33.010] - Ben Robin
It is my wife, Savannah Robin, she's.[00:15:35.940] - Babette Overman
Involved with Savannah and I. We just had this topic in one of our meetings, and it must be addressed. And as we all know, and I talk about it. Personally, I'm very honest and open. Life brings us very interesting avenues of stress and trauma. And when that day comes and that moment comes, you can't wait till tomorrow, right? You can't wait for a week, you can't wait a month. You need someone now.[00:16:05.250] - Ben Robin
That's right. I'm thankful. We do have programs like Raising Hope that are there in the times when we need them.[00:16:12.120] - Babette Overman
I have been very fortunate through coming on board as their project coordinator, executive director. I keep the ship going. That through Commissioner Quarles, he realized that I needed an advisory council, I needed people within this industry that I could talk to. I needed their input, I needed their guidance so that we as a group can look at the future plans. Because this is a program that's only going to get bigger, better.[00:16:46.160] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:16:46.450] - Babette Overman
That's exactly right.[00:16:47.680] - Ben Robin
That's awesome.[00:16:48.480] - Babette Overman
Other additional funding. Last year, it ended in June. We had a grant through USDA that dealt directly with farmer health and situation. So until we see Congress pass the new farm bill, that particular money is not available to us. But as soon as that is passed, we know that we will have additional money. And I know people say, do you have enough money? No.[00:17:13.960] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:17:14.380] - Babette Overman
Health screenings alone, we could be someplace every day.[00:17:17.790] - Ben Robin
Yeah, that's right.[00:17:18.500] - Babette Overman
That's exactly right. And we do a lot of public speaking. Any entity can call, whether it be your local cattlemen's, homec, extension clubs, FFA chapters. It goes on and on.[00:17:35.140] - Ben Robin
Broad scope.[00:17:36.140] - Babette Overman
Yes. We come in, we tell our story, and we say, here are the tools, here are your resources. Let's talk about it.[00:17:45.220] - Ben Robin
That's great.[00:17:45.740] - Babette Overman
And it's kind of funny you don't title your introduction. Let's talk suicide.[00:17:51.950] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:17:53.190] - Babette Overman
We have found the right words to be able to go and tell the story. Another very great program that we funded was farmer appreciation. We know of the stigma.[00:18:04.980] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:18:05.420] - Babette Overman
We know what people think. And it was decided to do a farmer appreciation program because we know the farmer feels very unappreciated.[00:18:13.430] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:18:13.780] - Babette Overman
They just think we make lots of money.[00:18:17.360] - Ben Robin
Right? Exactly. Yeah.[00:18:18.350] - Babette Overman
You got this. Great.[00:18:18.910] - Ben Robin
See the price check?[00:18:22.110] - Babette Overman
Yeah, we wish, right?[00:18:23.650] - Ben Robin
Exactly.[00:18:24.280] - Babette Overman
So it was decided to take some of this monies and develop a farmer appreciation project program so anyone could fill out this application. If you had a great idea of an event, a program, a way to thank the farmers in your community, send it in. 16 projects were selected out of over 40 that were submitted. The grant monies awarded range from anywhere from $200 to $5,000. $5,000 was the cap and one of the most amazing projects that came forth. Two Kentucky artisans, ladies that live in the Burksville area, nothing to do with Agriculture, connected to the Kentucky Humanities art program, decided, let's submit something. And they submitted this mural art project. That is amazing.[00:19:19.840] - Ben Robin
That's awesome.[00:19:20.820] - Babette Overman
And that project was finally completed. And I have the honor. I was so humbled and so honored to be at the event where this, what is it? 18 x 20 foot huge banner was placed on a very historic building on the road that goes from Berksville to Glasgow.[00:19:43.570] - Ben Robin
That's awesome.[00:19:44.330] - Babette Overman
And the notoriety, the people that stop, in fact, I have friends who live in the Berksville area, it's their summer home, was driving that road and saw it and called and said, Babette, is that you Raising Hope? Well, it's not really me, but I'm connected to it. And yes, this is the project. So I hear from a lot of people that have seen it and appreciate it. But when we saw this banner and saw the impact it could make, that's when we wanted to make it available to anyone.[00:20:18.810] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:20:19.500] - Babette Overman
So we have made it into fence post. Right. Fence post size. Fence size. And guess who came forward.[00:20:30.560] - Ben Robin
Yeah, that's right.[00:20:31.850] - Babette Overman
And as you know, to have your entity come on aboard and support this and doing what you're doing, and I'm sure you're going to help tell the story what you're doing, it's amazing.[00:20:46.370] - Ben Robin
It is. I don't want to go away from what you were just saying about the projects because I'm involved with Bourbon County Farm Bureau and I think Bourbon County Farm Bureau may have gotten one.[00:20:55.040] - Babette Overman
They're getting one[00:20:57.460] - Ben Robin
But no, that's great. No, the signs. We had some posts out there on social media that we're glad to partner with you all.[00:21:06.220] - Babette Overman
And I heard the number of people who saw that post skyrocket.[00:21:10.540] - Ben Robin
Yeah, well, I mean, just bringing awareness to it. We deal with the financial side of things and we understand that stress that farmers go through and just bringing that awareness.[00:21:20.560] - Babette Overman
I think the other thing that has been very fortunate for me as Raising Hope and also as a past President of Kentucky Women in Ag, is the fact that I also was able to join in on the Annie's Project that you sponsor. And that, Again, to be able to have Raising Hope, be part of that project and let those women of Agriculture know, we're available, like in so many things. And not that this is good or bad, it's just a way of life that mental health, men handle it differently than women. And so, again, in approaching mental health and having the opportunity to speak at Annie's Projects events allows us to talk the language that we need to talk to a woman.[00:22:09.350] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:22:10.000] - Babette Overman
And I tell everybody Again, I'm a prime example. When I turned 65, and Kirby and I, my husband, we're selling vegetables and delivering to 65 schools and farmers markets, and on and on it goes.[00:22:24.860] - Ben Robin
Right.[00:22:25.470] - Babette Overman
I thought, boy, Babette, I'm in good health, probably better than I've ever been. And at 65, of course, you're told you need to go have a big time physical.[00:22:34.120] - Ben Robin
Sure.[00:22:34.560] - Babette Overman
And that's when I was told, babet, did you know you have an irregular heartbeat? No. Babette, did you know that your blood pressure was at this level? No. Did you know your cholesterol? No. I took the news to heart.[00:22:52.700] - Ben Robin
Yeah, sure.[00:22:53.510] - Babette Overman
And immediately changed my lifestyle, my eating habits, and so now I can proudly say, yeah, my cholesterol is under control, blood pressure, most of the time, under control. Right. And the fact that now I know that I have to be aware of my heart and take care of it.[00:23:13.390] - Ben Robin
Exactly.[00:23:13.890] - Babette Overman
So Again, I thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to be part of that wonderful Annie's project. It's wonderful.[00:23:22.810] - Ben Robin
We appreciate everything that you do. And thanks for spending some time with us today at the cattleman's convention to talk about reverse Raising Hope.[00:23:31.000] - Babette Overman
I thank you for your support. And we are just doing what I tell this everybody. It's what our heart tells us to do.[00:23:38.440] - Ben Robin
Exactly.[00:23:38.710] - Babette Overman
Because we're concerned and we care. And in life, you must pay it forward.[00:23:43.320] - Ben Robin
You're exactly right.[00:23:44.070] - Ben Robin
We need more of that. Thank you very much.[00:23:46.640] - Charlie Edgington
Yeah.[00:23:46.890] - Ben Robin
Appreciate it.[00:23:50.170] - Speaker 7
This episode of Beyond Agriculture is brought to you by Central Kentucky Ag Credit thanks for listening to the podcast. Be sure to visit Agcreditonline.com/beyondagriculture, access the show notes, and discover our fantastic bonus content. Also, don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can join us next time for beyond Agriculture.
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