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Hearing from Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association
00:24:21
This week on Cattle Chat, our guest, Dave Maples, the Executive Director of the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, joins us to discuss how the beef industry is integrated. Maples also shares how Kentucky is working with dietitians and how they are benef...
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- [00:04]
A
Hi, welcome to BCI Cattle Chat. I'm Brad White. Happy to have you with us and happy to have our crew here in the studio. Morning, Phillip.
- [00:09]
B
Good morning, guys.
- [00:10]
A
Scott.
- [00:10]
C
Good morning, guys.
- [00:11]
A
Dustin. Good morning, Bob.
- [00:14]
D
Hello everybody.
- [00:15]
A
And we've got a guest today. Dave Maples from the is an executive director of the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association. Welcome, Dave.
- [00:23]
E
Good morning, sir.
- [00:24]
A
So tell us a little bit about you.
- [00:27]
E
All right, like you said, I'm the exec at the Kentucky Cattlemen Association. Really pleased to be on your podcast. You're doing a really, really nice job. I've been been in Kentucky now for 26 years with the association. We have a really neat organization. We handle a lot of different things in the. We're not, we're not a normal cattleman's association. We go all the way from the beef checkoffs to we have a farm, we have a thousand acre farm in our portfolio. We do a lot of stuff with food and it's just been a really nice ride. We had a little thing called the back of settlement fund back in the day. Still going now for 25 years where we've been able to call share on bulls and waters and help get our producers to another level. So that's been a cool thing about it, but I grew up in the cattle business in North Alabama and it's just been fun to watch and to have a career to be in Lexington, Kentucky and watch all of the cattle move out of our state. You know, we're calcal state and most of them go west and go your way.
- [01:29]
A
Excellent. And we're, that's why we're glad to have you on because we're going to talk a little bit about how the industry, both people and cattle, continues to be more and more integrated. We'll also talk about some of the projects that you've got going, including what's the role of a dietitian and through as we talk through this process, of course, if you have any questions or comments for us, you can send us an email at bcisu edu or you can reach out to us on social media. We enjoy getting your listener questions and feedback so that we can address those on future episodes. Before we get into our topics for today, guys, we're really into fall now. It's cooling off. I mowed the yard maybe for the last time. It was the second last time. I've already mowed the yard so I mowed it again for the last time and some people consider that a chore. I don't mind mowing the yard, it's kind of, it's kind of enjoyable, relaxing. You're out there. And I wanted to know what is one thing that some people consider a chore that you're like, yeah, I don't mind. I actually kind of enjoy that, Dustin.
- [02:33]
F
So I got two things I enjoy that nobody likes to do. Number one is mo, because nobody wants to do it, so nobody's going to bother me. So I can go out there for, I got an hour and 20 minutes to do nothing but just have time to myself.
- [02:46]
A
And sometimes you can stretch that hour, 20 job into two hours, two and a half hours if you really work at it.
- [02:51]
F
Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing is cooking. I just, nobody likes, I mean, they don't want to do it. So I just go do my thing and cook and smoke, whatever. So, yeah.
- [03:04]
D
You know, the mowing one is a common one. Basically, the to fix it. My wife will go, oh, this isn't working. I'm going to call a plumber. Don't call a plumber. Let me, let me give it a shot. And it's either going to turn out well or the plumber bill is going to be twice as big.
- [03:19]
B
One of the two, that's where I was kind of going with Bob's was. Yeah, I mean, the fixing broken stuff or whatever, I guess that's, I don't consider that a chore. I like kind of, I like tinkering and figuring stuff out and give it a shot, right? Yeah. And figure out how to do it and fix it.
- [03:36]
C
It's amazing what you can find on YouTube, like the exact specific thing that you need to fix. Somebody has a video on how to do it.
- [03:41]
B
Yeah.
- [03:42]
C
And so you look pretty good in the, in the moment, you know, Dustin took both of mine. I'm like, you guys, I, I like mowing. Nobody calls me on my phone. I can't hear it ring anyway. And it's kind of like demolition, right. You start and you have a job to do, and then when you're done, it looks way better.
- [03:54]
A
I, I, that's what I like about mowing is when you get done, you can tell you've done it. Dave, what about you?
- [04:00]
E
Well, mine and I did it yesterday. I got to go get the chainsaw out and cut some tre. Or just use that chainsaw a bit and work.
- [04:11]
D
I'll go to the neighbors and cut down trees just to get a chance to do that.
- [04:14]
A
You should talk to them first, though. You'll avoid some issues.
- [04:18]
F
Bob.
- [04:20]
A
So, yeah, excellent. Well, let's talk a Little bit. We mentioned Kentucky cattle will sometimes come west, or cattle from various regions of the country will move to where the feed yards are at some point in their life. But it's not only cattle. We've got a very integrated industry. You work closely in your role with the Kentucky cattlemen. You work closely with the Kansas Livestock Association. I know, on various fronts and policies. Tell us, from your perspective and through your career, what has led to the industry becoming a little bit more integrated?
- [04:53]
E
Well, I think one of the things is there's just fewer of us and fewer people and, you know, growing or being in the association world the last little bit, you know, the cost has just been. Been harder to run these organizations. They're fewer dollars. So we've had to integrate and we've had to partner. So one of the coolest things that we've. We've done here in the last little bit is we partnered with the KLA or the beef Council there in Kansas as well as Nebraska on some of our checkoff programs. And that's really helped us. It's helped some of these smaller states in the east that don't have quite the resources maybe that you guys have. And one of the things we did, if you want to get into it right now, Dr. White, is I was approached by Scott and Ann Marie there, and we hired a registered, licensed dietitian, human dietist. And so that young lady joined our office. We have a staff of about 17 people in our office. Most all of it is round production, agriculture and cattle. And so we went out and we hired a registered dietitian to come in our office. And, you know, it's been a kind of interest in dynamics to bring that young lady into our world. And it's been pretty cool. But I really want to thank you guys out there in Kansas for having the vision to let's work together and let's, you know, take those checkoff dollars and spread them. Spread them far.
- [06:26]
B
Yeah.
- [06:26]
D
You know, one of the things when you think about the beef industry we've got on the production side, first of all, you know, different segments based on, you know, rainfall, grain availability and things. You know, there's parts of the state that are predominantly cow, calf or stocker, feedlot, and we don't all do it all. So it is important to know each other. And then when you add the additional component of our consumers, you know, they pay for everything. And sometimes we forget what a critical communication challenge that can be, but an opportunity as well. So I really like that you guys kind of took the initiative Because I imagine, you know, one of the things about some of the cattle feeding states, some of the reasons that feedlots are out here, is we don't have a lot of people. And so as much as people in Kansas might like to eat beef, we're not the predominant demographic in the country. And so partnering with other parts of the state where the population's more dense, where the message of the, you know, the value of beef as a food really probably expends, it's better use of dollars to make that message where the population is, than to focus on telling people from Kansas how good beef is. Because, first of all, we kind of already know that, and there's not that many of us.
- [07:43]
A
Well, but there's geographic concentration of feed yards and a lot of that, not just population, but rainfall and packing plants are close to the feed yards. But the cattle move, and then the beef itself moves after it leaves there. So we have to have an integrated industry and kind of an approach for that process, being able to move things around the country. And with the advent of communication, we also see integrated information or information sharing back and forth, which I know plays a role because you've talked, Dave, before, about those cattle that get grouped together, get prepared, or get ready to come to Kansas or wherever they're going to go from Kentucky, because they don't stay in Kentucky for their entire life. How do you. How do you communicate some of that information to the producers?
- [08:36]
E
Yep. Well, the producers and the consumers, too. And that. That's one thing we've done with this young lady is, is we've got her going into a subset of people that don't know about our life, don't know what you do. So what we're doing with the dietitian community is we're taking them to the farm. You know, we've even had Alex when we. When we hired her, she. She didn't come from our world. And we've had her already in Kansas in a feed yard. We've had her in a packing plant. I got her here in Kentucky and I took her to the farm. And her first visit to our farm, I had her pulling cedars. And then when she goes to talk to our producers, the other day, she gave a report to our board, and she said, you know, I've been to the farm now twice. This last time, I was on the castration day. And she connected. It was the first time I really saw where the dietetic community connected with my. My beef producers. So I'm really proud of that. And. And you Know, to get that young lady to go in and do and be a part of our world is kind of neat. But, you know, she spends most of her time in the cities. She's into the hospitals, and it's kind of a cool thing to do. And I'm. I just, again, take my hat off to you guys for having that idea and reaching out to us to allow us to do that. And I hope you're proud and you have somebody back east that's, you know, really on your team.
- [10:06]
A
Yeah. And it's just a coincidence that she came out when you had to pull cedars and do castrations, so you had something for her to do every day.
- [10:14]
E
We have a farm. The Kentucky Cattle association has a farm. So that's one part of our. Our staff retreat. Kind of everybody goes, works cattle in our office. So it's kind of cool that, you know, our whole staff goes and works cattle. And, you know, if you're a dietitian or you're the videographer, everybody goes.
- [10:33]
A
I like. I like that. What's the biggest surprise that maybe they've uncovered if they haven't been on a farm and they're out there at days where you process cattle or you're doing different procedures, what's the most surprising thing to them?
- [10:46]
E
All of it is it's just like a open world to them that they've not been involved in at all. We had a young lady that just got her. She was in her last rotation to become a registered dietitian, and she was up there. She was from Cleveland, Ohio. And I mean, they're just in awe. And they leave that young lady. I know she's gonna start her career, and she's going back up there into the Northeast, and she'll never forget being able to go to that farm and work cattle.
- [11:14]
A
Well, absolutely. I think that's a great experience. And, Philip, you have done teaching an undergrad here and at other institutions, and you've had some students that don't have a background. What do you see when you talk to some of those students? How do you get them either enthusiastic about it, even if they don't want to pursue it as a career?
- [11:32]
B
I think there's interest. I mean, they don't necessarily have a background in it or they don't have a lot of experience in it, but there's an interest. So one of the classes that I teach in the vet school is a elective for veterinary students on sustainable beef production systems. And I have students in there that have maybe a tangential relationship with Beef cattle production or maybe some. Not really any at all. And so, you know, they're learning concepts and thinking about some things, I mean, that they don't, hadn't seen or had to think about before. And so I think it's eye opening for them. And I was going to kind of piggyback on Dave's comment about the dietitian. So I think it's interesting that I have a dietitian come in and speak to that class and just talk about the role of beef in the human diet and things like that. And they get really interested in that type of stuff of like, okay, so why is this important? How is it important for the person, the consumer, the people and them personally? I think they think a lot about it.
- [12:38]
A
Well, and I think that's absolutely critical to be able to train people to have some of that knowledge. One of the things that whether they go out to a farm or not, if they've got no experience, Scott, there's, there's sometimes a barrier there because you don't have that information and you feel uncomfortable because you don't know what you're going to do. How do you, if you're a cow calf operation or a rancher, how do you break down that barrier to bring somebody new into ag? Dave mentioned there's very few of us involved in the cattle industry. Bringing somebody new in, how do we go about that?
- [13:11]
C
There's a ton of different ways. I mean, the younger generation consumes a lot of social media type stuff, so there's always opportunities there to be transparent about things and show how you do things on your specific operation. And, you know, here's some challenges we face, here's some of the solutions we've done to make those. And I'm even like coming into the vet school, you know, I teach a core course with 120 students, 10%, 15%, maybe have a substantial food animal interest in trying to engage the other 75 or 80% of that class, you know, and talk about food, animal toxicology even, and you draw the line or, you know, try to draw the connection from toxic exposures could potentially lead to human food safety concerns, pet food safety concerns. And you kind of put everything in one basket and just show how there, you know, truly is integration all the way up.
- [13:57]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And I really like Dave's approach of being able to get them out to the ranch because everybody we've taken out and that has not been around cattle and whether they see a feed yard or a cow calf operation, usually they're pretty amazed At A, the amount of passion that people have for raising these cattle and how strong they feel about making sure that things are done correctly, and B, the cattle are living a pretty good life in whatever area of the industry you look at them. They get things pretty well in front of them. Dustin, what are your thoughts relative to how do we continue to engage? And Scott gave some ideas, but how do people maybe outside the industry.
- [14:40]
F
So gauging people outside the industry in. In ag, I'm assuming.
- [14:45]
A
Yeah.
- [14:47]
F
I guess it comes back to maybe the demographics as Scott talked about. Right. That younger group. At least I'm speaking with somebody who has kids. You know, they're either on their phone 24 7, looking at TikTok, Instagram, something like that. Now, if it's maybe an older group, he's looking at me maybe who isn't on Instagram and all that other stuff. You know, maybe you got to figure out what their interest, what different stage in life. So maybe they're more interested in the food side and understanding where the food comes from. How does that help more as like a.
- [15:23]
D
Kind of really starts with listening first.
- [15:25]
F
Yeah.
- [15:26]
A
Well, and we've talked about the crossover and maybe we should just do it because Bob wears a Hawaiian shirt on Fridays and. And dances a lot. And if we just record that there's our TikTok channel. That'll bring people in.
- [15:38]
D
It'll bring somebody in.
- [15:40]
A
It'll bring somebody in. So, Dave, I want to follow back up on. So you talked about the dietitian, and it's more than just exposure or telling people about the industry and her role. One of the things you mentioned is the role of food as medicine. Tell us more about that. What's her discussion? Talking points on that front?
- [15:59]
E
You know, she's just really kind of opened the door for us. And one of the things that we. We've been able to do and we're working on here in Kentucky is our association started a ground beef program a couple of six years ago or so. So we were in the Kroger stores. We're in about 250 Kroger stores with a Kentucky cattleman's ground beef. But now what we've gotten that into is this food is medicine or food is health. And our commissioner of agriculture is there and really supporting us. So we're getting into these food boxes with a protein. I was with our dietitian in one of the meetings. And you know, most of the time we go to those food as Health meetings. It's all about fruits and vegetables and what you eat in that. And I just took it as long as I could and I stood up and I said, what about protein? And it was just like a light went off. And so what we've been doing is working with the Appalachian Regional health folks, the hospital, and getting these food boxes and getting protein in them. So we've got our little 1 pound brick in working with Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and getting those boxes into the protein hamburger into those boxes so those patients can take them home with them. And so that's been pretty cool. And we're learning. It's very hard to do. Getting the logistics done is there, but man, they've been opened up. You know, people want protein now. You can look and see what's, what's going on with beef. We got a product that tastes good. And I think the diet, the health community is, is recognizing that.
- [17:41]
A
Well, I think you're right. I've heard more about protein and what's the protein content of different food products in the last five years than I have in a long time.
- [17:50]
B
Well, you know, so interesting conversation and I'm glad to hear that that's moving that way because so the dietitian came to my class this year, was told the class a few things that were new to me is that, you know, we typically think about, you know, one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight is the what a person needs. But what she was saying is that they're changing some of those guidelines where active people, so people that exercise a lot, people that are reactive, they need to bump up that to almost one and a half or two grams of protein per day for every kilogram of body weight. And then elderly people actually need to maintain that muscle mass and keep from losing muscle mass of 60 plus years old. They need to bump up the protein more than what we thought too. So they need to be up there at one and a half grams or so. So we're learning some things from a human nutrition standpoint that we were probably actually underestimating the protein needs of several groups of people in our country.
- [19:02]
C
There's been kind of a push too for the fat side of it. Right. A reduction in vegetable based fats and more towards an animal based fat. Which was perfect for me to hear because like I'll just cook with butter, lard and tallow and bacon fat in my house and I'll be happy to hear that.
- [19:16]
B
Yeah, well, and she mentioned too that from the, the USDA food guidelines is that there's change in some of that along that lines that this fight against saturated fat is kind of dying down, that this is not. It's not the evil health concern that we used to think it was. And so they're, they're not as big as cutting out as much saturated fat as much.
- [19:40]
E
The big.
- [19:41]
B
The fight right now is sugars. Cut out processed sugars and added sugars.
- [19:47]
A
Whoa, whoa, Phillip.
- [19:49]
D
Yeah, I know.
- [19:51]
A
Now you're getting real. I'm on board with the protein, but I like it with a side of processed sugar. So, Dave, tell us, you mentioned the Kentucky Cattleman's has a branded ground beef product. What are the requirements to get in that? How. How does that work?
- [20:08]
E
Well, because what, what we're doing because, you know, we. We don't have big packer in our state, so we, we have small packer. It's a cull cow program really. So we take the whole animal and make it all into ground beef. And we were very fortunate to get hooked with KRoger and about six years ago. So we got a one pound brick and then one pound with two patties. And you talking about learning a lesson about how food works from a little fellow that's just gambling where I did to having a team of people. I mean, it took our whole office to get that thing done. But we've been going now for six years and we're in 240 or 50 Kroger stores in four or five states. And it's just been a really nice thing for our association. And you know, it's a first come, first serve basis. You just get on the list. But what I have to remind you, a cow makes a lot of hamburgers. Yeah. So, you know, we don't kill a whole lot of them. But, but you know, it's opened a lot of other doors for us. Like I was just telling you with this, this food is health thing with. We've gotten to have conversations with those hospital people and then we're in the concession stands at the big venues and you know, our producers like it. It's been a cool thing for our staff to do. It, you know, it's. It's doesn't ever stop. You know, you got to kill cows. We kill once, once a week. And it's, it's a neat thing.
- [21:36]
A
But that's the thing about being in a grocery market is you've got to be there consistently over time, all the time. So I think it would be very valuable though, to have that brand on there and be able to say, hey, these are, these are cattle that are from Kentucky. Here's what we've got. And the ground beef is an easier way to do that than the some of the primals or cuts like that.
- [22:00]
E
Yeah, I couldn't do the stakes.
- [22:01]
A
It'd be tougher, tougher to do that especially consistently. But you can manage. I bet you have learned a lot about managing the supply chain working with some of those stores. How seasonal is your production?
- [22:15]
E
Well, we're go all time. I mean every week. We kill every week. And you know, it's just like everything else. I tell you this, it hadn't been a whole lot of fun to be in that business the last two or three months or four or five months. It's been hard. Thank goodness. We had some good years a couple of years ago and built up some cash, but it's been a pretty tough time. That has been good from our farmers. I really like selling those cows into that program. We had to learn a lot because our cows, a lot of them are too fat. So we, of all things, we had to build a grid on a. For a cold cow to buy their cows with my farmers because they were bringing those big old fat cows. You know, fat is not. It wouldn't work. We were drowning in fat with a lot of it.
- [23:03]
A
You only need so much of it. Yeah. Well, I just heard And I know Dr. Fritz has some fat in his freezer right now, so he may be in the market for more fat. If you're looking to move fat.
- [23:14]
C
Always keeps bags of fat on hand.
- [23:16]
A
Always keeps bags of fat on hand. Not everybody can say that, Scott.
- [23:19]
C
I know that's claim to fame, so.
- [23:22]
A
Excellent. Well, we have sure appreciated visiting with you, Dave, and you spending some time with us this morning. Very enlightening. Talking about the role of a dietitian, getting those people out on the farm. And I think this should be an opportunity for everyone. There may be people in your community that you can have out and have a good experience on your farm and have that discussion of here's what we do in production. Because I think the challenge is misconceptions breed in the lack of information. And so when you get information out there and transparency, it's easy for people to see what we do care about and what we're working on every day. So I appreciate you sharing with us and spending some time with us this morning. If you have questions, comments or anything you'd like us to talk about, you can send us an email at bcisu Edu.