The Mid-South Beef Leadership Conference: A Collaborative Approach to Strengthening the Beef Industry

Abstract Tennessee and Kentucky market a combined 1.4 million feeder calves per year, dramatically contributing to the region’s agriculture cash receipts. The industry’s footprint blankets these states, with 95% and 72% of counties in Tennessee and Kentucky, respectfully, maintaining over 4,000 head of cattle. The strong beef cattle presence within the upper south region influenced the need for collaborative Extension programming to address continuously pressing issues in the industry. To meet the needs of Mid-South Extension agents and producers, University of Tennessee and University of Kentucky Extension specialists presented the Mid-South Beef Leadership Conference (BLC) hosted at Falls Creek Falls State Park in middle Tennessee, unifying producers, agents, and key stakeholders from across the states. The objectives of this conference were to identify and address key issues in the beef industry by collaborating within and among states to design county and regionally relevant Extension programing. Tennessee and Kentucky attendees included Extension specialists (n), Extension agents (x), and beef producers (r) reaching counties as far west as Gibson and Calloway and as far east as Greene and Carter (Tennessee, n = 4, x = 21, r = 31; Kentucky, n = 6, x = 23, r = 45), in addition to a handful of industry professionals, graduate students, sponsorship representatives, government officials, and university leaders, resulting in a total of over 170 attendees. Over the course of this 4-day conference, attendees followed an agenda focused on identifying primary issues in their county, state, and region coupled with concentrated team discussions to address barriers. Prevalent challenges to the beef industry were categorized into two groups: ‘highest ranked, but hard to change on the county level’ and ‘management practices that can address high-ranking issues’ (group 1, n = 5; group 2, n = 7). To meet the objective, attendees collaborated on group 2 issues attainable through county programming and resources with the recognition that progress in group 2 may influence broader group 1 challenges. County agents left with written plans of action for programs to implement in their county or adjacent counties within the next year, with collaboration from their own or related producer constituents. In addition, Extension specialists from the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky brainstormed future individual state programs and collaborative mid-south programming. As a result of BLC, implementation of specialized programming is currently underway in various counties across Tennessee and Kentucky as well as state and multi-state planning, directly leading producers to solutions to challenges plaguing their operations in the current industry atmosphere. With future Tennessee and Kentucky collaboration anticipated, Mid-South Beef Leadership Conference acts as a model for multi-state collaborative programing across the Southeastern states and the country.