Sales of poultry and livestock account for more than 50 percent of cash receipts for Kentucky farmers. Add in the value of local forages and grains fed to Kentucky livestock, and it is easy to tell that these industries need to be grown and protected for continued economic prosperity.
The goal of the Kentucky Livestock Coalition is not only to educate law makers and the public about the impact of the Kentucky livestock industry, but to share the stories of how Kentucky’s livestock farmers care about their animals’ well being, environmental sustainability, and food safety.
In 2012, the Kentucky Livestock Care Standards Commission was created as a response to efforts in other states to adopt standards based more on perception than sound science. Those standards threatened to impact the economic competitiveness of the farmers in those states without materially improving the care of their animals.