ST. CATHARINE FARM FIELD DAY A HIT WITH LOCAL FARMERS, EXPERTS

article by Jeff Moreland
Editor/General Manager of
Springfield Sun

Eddie Young has been farming almost all his life, and he is even a past president of the Kentucky Cattleman's Association.  still, he wants to learn more about how to get the most from his farming operation and improve the results he sees with crops and livestock.  That's what drove him to attend the Saint Catharine Farm Field Day Thursday night.

"You don't get too old to learn,"  Young said.  "Being in the cattleman's association for as many years as I have, I want to see their Eastern Gamma Grass, then I can see and network with all of the folks who are here, too."

The folks who were at the Field Day totaled around 125, according to Rick Greenwell, Washington County Extension agent.  Greenwell said the event was aimed at helping local farmers learn to transition away from the county's reliance upon tobacco.

"In this transition period, where we are still finding our niche away from tobacco, folks need education about ways to accomplish their goals.  In this county, two of those goals are forages and beef cattle."  Greenwell said, "In all these years of tobacco being king, we've not just neglected our fields, but often abused them.  We didn't take the best care of them.  Now we're learning to treat forages as a crop, and to combine them with beef cattle production to hopefully increase the net value to where the farm family can have the cash flow it needs.  The Field Day was built around that theme."

During the Field Day, expert speakers were on hand to address topics like: natural resource conservation, fish and wildlife, pasture and weed control and farm business management.  Hay wagons took visitors from each station to sites around the farm where the speakers gave detailed presentations as well as answering questions.

Beef cattle and forages are among the production of St. Catharine Farm.  The farm is approximately 700 acres, and features corn, soy beans and around 120 head of cattle, according to Farm Manager, Danny Ray Spalding, who said the goal of the Field Day is to work to help local farmers learn and advance their production. 

"I work with Rick Greenwell a lot, and what we try to do is sit down and put a plan together and talk about different issues," Spalding said.  "Today, we're talking about natural resource conservation, farm management and more.  Everything we show here tonight, we do on the farm.  It's all a hands on practice."

St. Catharine Farm is owned by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catharine.  Spalding has been manager of the farm for 23 years, and knows the goals for the farm, as well as farmers around the county.  He said the sisters are very environmentally concerned, and they want local farmers to be aware of their options and keep their farms in agriculture.

"All of these other farms get divided up and subdivided, but the Dominican Sisters don't want to see this farmland built up into houses and everything," Spalding said.  "They want to show people they can do other things with their farms besides divide them up, like put them into a land trust for example.  That way down the road the farm can still be here 100 years from now."

Rick Costin works for the University of Kentucky as an area farm management specialist, and he deals with the St. Catharine Farm in a farm management and record keeping scenario.  Costin said the goal of the Field Day is to take home knowledge they can use on their own farms, and see what is and is not working.

"St. Catharine Farm tries to be a leader in the community and do things other farmers can come see and hopefully benefit from them back on their own farms," he said.  "They've always been a leader in setting up these field days and this is a good opportunity for them to get out information to the community."

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