Time flies when you're having fun.

            When I started my internship May 9^th I started writing my intern schedule into my planner. I was thinking about all the different activities I would be doing and the whole summer I had to do it. Well… It is already half way over and it has flown by. I got the opportunity to spend my internship in my hometown at the Bourbon County Extension Office. I got the opportunity to work with every agent in the office other than the AG agent in numerous events. From attending 4H events to volunteering at the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship at the Paris Stockyards. This blog will highlight some of the activities I have found important or just fun and show how diverse my internship has been so far!

Farm Week:

At Bourbon Central Elementary School, the last week of school when grades 1-5 are doing standardized testing the Kindergarten classes do a Farm Week Unit. The school contacts the extension office along with other agricultural groups. My first week into my internship, I helped plan lessons and activities for Farm Week lessons. The first lesson was a corn lesson where we showed the kids different products that corn makes, and then they got to have some popcorn as a snack. Another day we came into the classroom to talk about the Bourbon County Farmers Market and read the Farmers Market by Paul Brett Johnson that’s about a day at the Lexington Farmers Market in a kid’s point of view. With the Bourbon County Farmers Market under new management I found this very important to help the market gain more interest. After discussion we gave kids a sample of local apple butter and told them that it was one of many different items at the farmers market and to go home and tell their parents if they liked it to encourage a trip to the farmers market. The last in class lesson I did was about “pigs”, which livestock production is always a tricky subject to talk about to young kids. However, we talked about a pigs life from a children’s book and went over the different types of food that comes from pigs and the different breeds of pigs. Afterwards they got to cut out their own pig to color their favorite breed of pig. The last thing we did for farm week was bring animals in the last day of school and put them in pins outside of the school. Groups by groups they went around to each animal and we gave them information and let them pet the animals. We had hogs, chickens, a pony, sheep, and a calf. I was pleased to see the outcome and how the students could still recall some of the information at the end of the week.

The Bourbon County Elite Heifer Sale Work:

The Bourbon County Elite Heifer Program was formed in 1991 to provide a consistent, reliable source of beef herd replacement females. Rigid standards have been implemented and adhered to assuring that consigned heifers are reproductively sound with more than adequate frame and muscle.​ Pelvic measurements and reproductive tract scores along with minimum weights for breed types form the basis of qualification. Estrus synchronization in conjunction with artificial insemination and natural service of sires with approved EPD's for birth weight give added value to heifers offered in the Elite Bred Heifer Sale. The results have been that buyer demand has grown each sale. Satisfied customers have returned to Paris year after year on the first Monday in November to purchase replacement females because they have confidence in the Elite Heifer Program and the people behind it.

As a FFA member in high school I began helping with this event and now I have had the opportunity to help with this event in a more productive way. I have designed a whole new website for the event that is more user friendly and contains more apps to make the page more efficient in getting information from those who are interested. Check it out at www.eliteheifer.com! As the pelvic measures go, I have gone to a few farms of the sale consignors to help take the measurements for sale records. I have also went and took pictures for the website for people interested to see photos of the heifers.

The Bourbon County Fair:

This week I have been super busy with the county fair. This is another event that I have always helped out with the past few years. However, I have enjoyed seeing the hard work that goes into it from an agent’s point of view. We started taking fair entries the Saturday before Father’s Day and the Monday of fair week. I was one of four people that got to put the fair entries into the database. This takes a large amount of time and we entered around 1,000 entries this year. After entries I got to see how fair entries are judged. Another aspect of fair that I worked with the AG and 4H agent was with the livestock shows. I got to see the structure that goes into putting each livestock show on every night so far. I then helped with the burger contest sponsored by the Paris Stockyards, which I will not complain about at all because it was hard for the judges to choose a winner. I have noticed that all the agents stay busy during the fair and that working together is the key. Friday I will help with AG education night where the agents will bring in a agriculture bus and talk about agriculture and have activities for kids to do. I also got eggs from the University of Kentucky's Cold Stream Farm for our incubator/ chick hatching exhibit at the fair.

Kentucky Proud Food to Fork Dinner:

For my project I have decided to take on planning a Kentucky Proud Food to Fork Dinner. The purpose of this dinner is to increase awareness of the local food movement by partnering with organizations to benefit a charity in Bourbon County. These organizations can host dinners that will highlight local farms, farmers, producers, and Kentucky Proud products. The program will also promote local agritourism businesses and provide an educational background on locally produced agricultural food and products. The event will be July 7^th at 6:00 pm. Our venue will be The Farm at Land Works in Paris. The Farm is a awesome Kentucky Proud agribusiness that has farm animals for people to pet/look at, gift shop, a garden center, orchards where people can pick fresh produce, and is also a landscaping business. I have worked with three local restaurants and catering services to prepare the food. However, it is my job to get with local Kentucky Proud producers and purchase produce from them to take to the restaurants to prepare the food for this event. This way the whole meal will be Kentucky Proud products from the meat all the way to the drinks! I have loved doing this project so far because I get to work within my community and make contacts that I have not had before. I am also planning live local music, door prizes from local businesses, and work with the local public to bring everyone in to support a good cause. All proceeds will go to Operation Food Basket in Paris. Kentucky Proud will pay for 50% of costs for this event. I have had to go through an application process to receive the okay to put this event on. I’m excited to see how this turns out! I have been selling tickets at the fair this week and we plan on 100 people attending.

Everything that I have listed above is not even a dent on what all I have been doing. I have been a little of everywhere in a short period of time. However, like I once heard: Time flies when you're having fun.