Episode 45 - Hardin County Fair week, Ky Venues Shake-Up

Thanks to this week's episode sponsor Masterson Farms!

And thanks to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations.  Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Dirt to Dollars, where we cover everything from the dirt on your land to the dollars in your hand.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

We're talking all things agriculture and central continuously, from the field to the farm office.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Join your hosts, Daniel Carpenter, Matt Adams, and Mark Thomas as we dig into current ag news, practices, and more. And now, coming to you from the biotech innovation studios, here's Dirt to Dollars. Now let's get innovative. Welcome back to another week of Dirt to Dollars. I'm your host, Matt Adams, and wait, whoa, whoa, what? Huh? That is that is that ocean waves that I that I hear somewhere? What what's that all about? Where are you guys at?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Sounded to be like a jet. And I can tell you what, we did not have a jet to get in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

We did not.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

We jetted down I-65.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

We might have drove a little fast to get here, but we didn't take a jet, that's for sure. There's been some small single prop planes flying over, I guess, uh with some advertisements, but that's about all the jets we've seen.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

We're high enough up in this condo that we probably waved at them when they drove by.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yeah. We're on the 23rd floor, Matt. How do you feel about heights?

SPEAKER_03 1:28

I just hope you don't have to take the stairs.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Oh, don't say that. I don't want to have to take the stairs.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

The elevators have have been a problem, but they it's just when we got here trying to get in, and the amount of people trying to move up and down off 32 floors with six elevators was pretty hectic. And then certain times of day, people going down to the pool or the beach or coming back up, it gets pretty hectic. But there's been several times that I've jumped on it, rode it all the way to the bottom, or from the bottom all the way up to our floor, and we're good.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah, and we're only day two into this vacation, and I've come to the conclusion that you ain't no farmer unless you get a sunburn by day two of a beach vacation. You're probably good to even make it through the first day, but at least I made it to day two and I'm burnt.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

I guess I ain't no farmer because I ain't burnt yet, or I'm better at it. That's true. That's true. But I'm also more farmer outside than you are. You got your cushy office job. That takes up most of your day.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Yeah, well, you have fancy tractors that have air conditioned and tops on them, and I don't.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

But that's true. That's I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Actually, nothing that I farm has a top on it.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

So your skid steer has a top on it.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah, but I don't haven't used that thing but once or twice in the last year.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

So anybody need a good skid steer? Daniel's actually for sale.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Yeah, Dirty Dollars Tradio will be next week. I'll announce that. I'll announce that next week.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

Um we got a sponsor this week. I was just about to ask you all the same. Last week checked, it was Masterson's phone.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I believe I believe it's Masterson Farms again this week. So thanks to those guys over there.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Thanks for funding this vacation.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Yeah, they're poor Arlo's not going to get to go to the beach until he's 16 now. They keep sponsoring the show every week. But uh they're gonna have to they're gonna have to up it if Chuck gets his two-hour show a day request.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Um while we're still on the beach talk, we do have to do have to bring up that uh Mark has already been noticed for TikTok. Oh. Yeah. And then he was in the lazy river and somebody's like, Ain't you that Thomas Farms guy?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

That's not exactly how it happened. I I started the conversation. The guy had on a a hat, uh Viconic, the new soybeans that are coming out in a few years. Or I guess that maybe they're commercially available next year. Uh but anyway, I said, have y'all grown any of those yet? And he said, No, he said, I just got the hat. And uh said, Oh, okay. So where are y'all from? And they were actually from down uh between Mayfield and Paducah. Uh he didn't get real specific, but I said, Oh, so we're from you know Elizabethtown, Harden County area. Said, oh, okay. And then just a couple seconds later, he's like, Have I seen you on TikTok? Matter of fact, you have.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

So maybe Ted make it back in the elevator, Daniel, to get back to the room. Well, I'm still just that's why it went straight up to the top.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

You know, he said that one straight up to the top, he was the only one to fit in there.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

But here's the thing nobody else was around. It was just me and the girls in the lazy river. Wesley was up here with Jack sleeping, and you guys I think were at the beach. Like nobody saw it. So nobody's gonna be able to do that. Y'all could just claim that y'all could just claim that it was fake, but but it really happened.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

So his story only changed just a little bit because he didn't mention that he started the conversation before. I was gonna test how how accurate this was if he didn't just make that up.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I told you I started the conversation the first time I told you. Okay, you just weren't listening.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Yeah, probably not. So but it is also also though, when you're on the beach, um and especially in the south, like if you're going to the Gulf area, Destin, somewhere in there, how often it is that you know somebody.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Oh yeah. We I can't tell you how many um I can't tell you how many cars we passed with Kentucky farm plates or met or saw when we were stopped off heading this way, whether they were going to the beach or coming home. Like Kentucky farm plates were everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, and already had random encounters with several people that we knew some mutual people just through conversation, but it is a it's a pretty small world sometimes, especially in the agriculture world.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

I actually ran into in the elevator a couple whose uh son I think worked for Bex in West Tennessee and had previously worked for Pioneer and knew Grant Mackey. So I don't know if Grant listens to the show or or catches it on Saturday morning, but uh we uh we met some family members of one of your former Pioneer counterparts. So just kind of a crazy connection. I guess we'll find out.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

I'm glad y'all are enjoying your beach time.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

But the weather's been hot and dry. I don't think it's been that way at home, has it, Matt?

SPEAKER_03 6:54

It's not been horrible. It's uh felt nice compared to what the last week or so has been.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Not been bad at all, but y'all left out of town during Harden County Fair week. Oh, did we? Yeah. Was that intentional or no?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Because we knew we knew with the history of the Harden County Fair that it was gonna rain this week. Well, you would be correct. We might as well be out. Can't be at home farming, so guess there's things that'd be things to do, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

It's it's really just that you all are scared to bring your kids out to the 4-H livestock show and get beat by the Adams and Preston kids. Yeah, so we can't say that you beat it.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yep, that's exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

We had to run all the way to the beach. Busted.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

That's right. So, so what how did the show go yesterday?

SPEAKER_03 7:53

It was good.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Did we bring home some some bandits?

SPEAKER_02 7:57

I couldn't I couldn't tell because I saw a picture of it, maybe the order they were in, and there was like a the rail of the gate was right over the numbers, so you couldn't see what one, two, or three was. Not sure if that was yeah, it was like there was numbers behind it, but anyway. That's yes, there was. I'll show you the picture.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Okay, I don't know what you're talking about. Uh yeah, they kids had fun. That's all that matters.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So you got beat by Patrick's kids. Is that what you're telling me?

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah. In showmanship. They wouldn't place them in the regular.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

I don't think they were supposed to place them in showmanship, but it's they're just in showing clover buds, yeah. Yeah. So I think you gotta move up to novice before there's really any.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

No, novice is below Clover Buds Mark.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Oh, it is. Okay. Well, that's changed then. I don't remember. I thought it was like Clover Bud, Novice, Junior, Senior.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

No. Thought that's what it used to be. Clover bud, junior, senior. I'm pretty sure that's always been.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

But okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Yeah. But it was uh our oldest one's first time, first year showing, so she did good five in her showmanship class, and she got second. That's pretty good. Behind Ricky Preston, so uh I think she was she was okay with that. One of her friends beat her, so she's kind of who helped us get into the show goat thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Well, that's a good uh good way to learn.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah, she's already up for next year. That's that's the thing that counts. At the end of the day yesterday, she told me next year she's gonna show a goat, a hog, and a sheep. Wow. And I said, let's let's pump the brakes a little bit, let's stick with a goat next year and work on that a little more. And uh we'll go from go from there when she's a full-fledged junior 4-Her, then she can show whatever she wants.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

And through all of this, Adam's Family Farms gets to add goats to the resume.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Yeah, I'm not sure we're ready to draw one into the logo yet, but understandable.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

They've got me goats and cheese and pigs, just do it all. Diversification is key. Yeah. In these uncertain agricultural times.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Actually, so we went back to the beef or went back to the fair on the and watched part of the beef show, and uh a friend of mine from Grayson County came up to me that was there showing cattle, and she said, I came by your house a couple weeks ago, and I could have sworn I looked over in the yard and saw a goat on a fitting stand. I said, Yep, got caught. She's like, I am sure I I was sure I was just seeing things, but nope. So yeah, that was fun. And it's always fun to go back, and there's still some families involved that were involved when we were kids, Mark. Uh most of them have kids showing now, so hint hint, get geared up for next year.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yep, that's uh we've already talked about it with our kids, and as soon as uh they get old enough where we can do something, we'll we'll probably be back in the in the hog showing.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

So I'm pretty sure you've got one old enough now.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Uh she will be, she should be next year. She'll be starting kindergarten. So uh she'll be turning six here pretty soon. So that'll put her in clover bud, right? Yes. So yeah, so we'll probably maybe have a hog next year.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Well, any um how how was the turnout for the for the show at the Harden County Fair? Seemed good. Pretty deep, kind of average, maybe a little up.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

A lot of goats. Yeah. A lot of sheep. I think one hog, one market beef. I think it was a heifer, not a steer.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

So does that show still is it still a a true market show that that you don't take them back home from there?

SPEAKER_03 12:13

No, is all that's not takes them back home anymore. They were we everybody took them back home when we finit were finishing up.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Nope. When we brought our hogs, the hogs we showed left there that day. And the goats did too.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Maybe sheep did too. You could, but you But we always, yeah, we always kept ours because we could do better, because basically all there was is somebody from the stockyard would come pick them up and they were going to give you whatever they bring in the stockyard, which wasn't very much.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Right. At the time we were doing it, they were still using the NFO barn to reload hogs to send a Swift to Novel. So all the hogs went went out the door and go, you got market price or whatever for them that that day. Uh of course that's long gone, has been for several years, but so it makes sense that now everybody gets to take them home because yes, you can somewhat do better.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Yeah, well, a private market. Yeah, it was a hassle to find somebody to come load them and take them, I know.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Uh seemed like a big crowd. Uh, I think Beef Show had 50 some head on Wednesday night. So that was pretty good, pretty good turnout, I think.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

So I always get just a little bit worried that if there's a down year, that it might I don't know, jeopardize things or I think I think we're good. I think we have good agriculture representation there, but just uh just as long as it stays pretty steady your year, I think that's good. But it sounds like maybe up a little bit from what I was last year.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Uh stopped by the farm bureau booth for a little bit and uh Katie French was there. I think she was there to sign an autograph, is what I heard. Yeah, from being on Dirk or Dollars.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, I heard she can't even walk down the street now. It keeps getting stopped.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah, they they said the line for propane and autographs was wrapped around the building. And they were all trying to pay with food. Yeah, they were. Don't know where they heard that from.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

So uh also heard that uh I was telling them Wednesday night that said y'all have got the prime seat, you're right like front row direct to watch the wrestling. And uh Wednesday night, Jonathan French was sitting there with them as well, and he said he was really disappointed because everybody had told him Monday night it was the uh the Southern States what do you like grand championships or something was Monday night, and he didn't even get invited to participate. Oh man. I think he could have taken them.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

He probably could have. That's unfortunate. But to put it on his calendar for next year, and that's the bottom line.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

I bet you bet you we know a fair board member too that could make that happen.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Guarantee it. Maybe if they do that next year, maybe we if we're not on vacation, we could have live dirt dollars coverage.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

There you go. He's already planning on you all running away next or two, so we don't you never know.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Hey, if scared, if it becomes we got rain at home. If we need rain at home and we need to leave to get rain, we'll have to it's it's a hard life, but somebody's got to do it.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

You can just say you're scared, Mark. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I'm not, I'm not scared. My wife might be.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

I ain't scared, I just don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, see my kids come from got uh hog showing skills on both sides of the lineage.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah, we ain't showing nothing around here.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Wes Wesley came in and her first couple years of showing and beat all of us, but you use the term skills very loose loosely. Are you saying there's no skill to showing a hog?

SPEAKER_03 16:21

No, I'm just saying that uh your skill level may not be quite what you're implying here.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Probably not. It has been twenty twenty twenty-nine years. Twenty plus years, twenty-ish years since I've showed an animal.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

So anyway, so all this fair talk, yeah. We've had a little bit more uh fair news that actually broke as we were recording last week and we mentioned it just briefly at the end of the show. But uh had a week to digest it here. What do you all think about all that? I think somebody give a recap of what happened here for those of us that have been living in a bubble somewhere and maybe don't know what happened with the Kentucky State Fairboard.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

So to sum it up, basically what's happened is uh sometime back in 2021, something like that, the uh state legislature filed a bill so that the ag commissioner could appoint part of the fair board members. Um even in that time. Some have said through this that the Ag Commissioner got to appoint all of the fair board members, and that's not true. The fair uh they got to appoint half of them, or maybe even a little less than half of them, and the governor still got to appoint the the rest of them. So here about a month ago, uh the Supreme Court decided that that was not a it was not legal for the legislature to do that, and they turned all that power back over to the governor. The governor then uh replaced all appointees that Commissioner Shell had done with his appointees. And uh And that took five years to that took five years, right? Basically, something like that, yeah. And then um David Beck, who was the director of the Kentucky venues, uh also got caught in a crossfire, so to say, and lost his job. His contract was not renewed, and and he was as we found out the last couple days, he was he was told to step down or be fired. The claim was that he was unwilling to work with the governor. Um he says that's not true because um his heart was in this job and was truly out for what was best for Kentucky venues and and Kentucky venues to back up. It's not just state fair. This this board, they run the Fair and Exposition Center, they run the um convention center, they run the International Convention Center. Yeah, International Convention downstairs downtown. And I think the Yum Center maybe is under that now. Is that right? Or was there just talk about that being? I don't think so. Maybe not. There there's there's a couple of different venues that that they run um through this board. So it's from what's happened in the last uh week, it's a it's a blow to agricultural representation on the board. There is some agri agrepresentation on there currently um through some appointees that have been put on. Just not what was there, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

I think there's one if you don't count the commissioner of agriculture and the uh teen is and if you count the the FFA and 4 H representative, you could count them as as ag, but but that position changes every year.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

So if I if I'm not mistaken, it's the president of the 4-H and the president of the FFA that's on there uh yearly, and when that office changes, then then that changes. So um it's I don't know. I got a lot of thoughts, but let's hear some of your guys' before we well, before you get into that.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

So you mentioned that David Beck had I he's done a couple interviews here in the last couple of days, and uh I'll just read, he put a post out on on Facebook kind of a statement on uh late Tuesday night, and we'll read that just to kind of share his side of the story here. So uh he writes, I appreciate the hundreds of phone calls, emails, messages, and social media posts from friends, colleagues, clients, industry partners, agriculture, business, and tourism leaders, current and former local, state, and federal officials offering encouragement and support. I am deeply grateful for the encouragement, prayers, and words of support so many Kentuckians have shared with me and my family. I have seen the public comment made about me and my service. I respectfully disagree with that assessment and with any suggestion that I have been unwilling to serve with accountability, professionalism, or cooperation. I believe you have to take care of your facilities and your staff, or you cannot take care of your clients. The goal for my service with Kentucky Venues is. To focus on those critical components and be an example of how an agency of government can be efficient and effective. Those we strive to serve and the taxpayers should expect no less from a state agency. I'm proud of the work accomplished by dedicated board board members, staff, partners, exhibitors, vendors, sponsors, volunteers, and local, state, and federal elected officials that have consistently reached out offering suggestions and assistance. Earning the trust of the Kentucky General Assembly, they added our budget request to the 2022, 2024, and 2026 state budgets, making significant investments for the upgrades necessary to enhance competitiveness through improvements and expansion of the Kentucky Exposition Center. Kentucky Venues has consistently broken growth and financial records, obtained record facility investments, all of which could not be achieved without accountability, collaboration, professionalism, and cooperation while staying true to our agricultural heritage. The agency has been recognized and won numerous industry awards, and that is accomplished through vision, leadership, and cooperation. Agriculture, as well as tourism, should be recognized and treated as economic development, not partisan politics. As a lifelong Kentuckian, my love and dedication for the state has not changed. My respect for the people who make this Commonwealth special has only grown stronger. I am truly thankful for the many who have reached out and I remain optimistic about Kentucky's future. David S. Beck.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

So I'll say uh Mr. Beck took that job in 2018, and I've been going to the Exposition Center. It was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

When did we lose the when did we lose the national FFA? Um that around that time or a few years before that?

SPEAKER_00 25:42

I think it was a couple years before that.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

So one thing that we've got now is under his leadership, there's infrastructure around to we could probably host that again.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Um and the previous way of handling, you know, and and I'll be honest, it was it was not ideal because it was changing a lot. And I think that's what we're gonna see is that when when we're changing hands all the time, there's not that consistent leadership there, and stuff's gonna slip, or stuff stuff's gonna get blamed on the last guy, or gonna get blamed on the transition, or get blamed on uh the whoever controls um government at that time, whether it's Republican or Democrat, they're gonna complain because it's the opposite, and that's why they can't get anything done. We've been getting stuff done there, it's been done fiscally responsible. Things are great there. Like I used to got get grossed out every time you had to go to the bathroom in that place, and now it's it's nice. I mean, it's like a bucky's in there, right? Pretty close. I mean, really is. Even in some of the worst ones that you can think of, it's it's nice now. And it's all and it's not just in the parts, it's not just in the big fancy new wings, it's even in some of the agricultural parts that would probably have to be quite often were getting left out a lot, and those were improved as well. And that's that's the thing that worries me the most is that that whole transition and and just blaming things on people is not getting things done. They have been getting things done and doing a really good job at it, keeping agriculture towards the front. And that's um, I think I'm I'm afraid we're gonna miss that. Hope I'm wrong. Um, but I'm afraid that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

One of the biggest things that uh has grown since his tenure there and since uh kind of the fare board shifted there around that uh around that 20, what would that have been, 2021-ish time frame?

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Uh yeah, because there was no fair and there was no fair in 2020. Right. But or farm machinery show in 21.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

If you've been to the state fair, it's been what they called ag land. Uh that's really taken off and grown and taken over a big hunk of the fair and exposed a lot of of uh everyday people and and a lot of urban people to agriculture uh been able to showcase that it pulled a lot of these FFA and ag type exhibits from being stuck back in basically a closet, so to speak, and drove them out onto the main floor and uh really focused the whole affair around them. And hopefully that's not what we're up against here, but uh we'll see what happens. So uh a little bit of controversy as well, not only with the David Beck thing and the uh and the fareboard seats, but uh there was a little bit of back and forth on what happened to the mission statement during that time.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

There was a little bit of talk of that.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah, but my thoughts on that. I think so it's it's odd because they they they had this mission statement and then uh changed it, and then of course, by the time they changed it and people were complaining about it, people were going to look it up. They didn't change no, no, they were like, Oh, I didn't change nothing, it still says agriculture, it still says agriculture. Well, that's not what we're talking about. Like there was this whole other state brand site that had a state web address, it did, it had a mission statement on it, and and they changed it. And and the governor somebody changed it, somebody changed it. So they changed it one day, they changed it back the next, and then they just scrubbed the website so it all goes to Kentucky venues.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

It does.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

And then people were saying they're going to these websites and they're like, oh, well, this says everything. It's like, well, they you don't understand. They completely wiped it. So personally, I think it's a big deal. Like, we don't need agriculture taken out of that mission statement because a mission statement is what guides any organization, any farm, any business. They have this core principles of things that they do. Um, and and and if you, you know, even if anybody's listening in their own farm, you should have some type of mission statement, something that drives you, that that is your guiding principles to operating your business. And if they took that out, shame on them. That's ridiculous. And to have a community note on Facebook that says it's technically included, no, that that doesn't count. Yeah, how did that community note didn't say anything about how it got scrubbed from the internet um or how it was included before and it's not now, that's not the same as saying it's technically included. That's technically BS. And I almost said a bad word on the radio, but it's technically BS, if you ask me. But also think my conspiracy theory mind, they did all this on purpose because they knew we'd get worked up about it, and then they'd scrub it and try to make people that were upset about it not look like you know, look like they're crazy or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

But uh and I believe the words that were used was gaslight you into thinking that it didn't happen. Yes, and those I saw that typed out somewhere on Facebook this week.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Whatever Andy did on the uh with his press conference, and he had those made-up questions. Like, I guess there's these people that are just call in and ask them questions scripted questions because that's what it sounded like because he had a scripted answer for all of them. But uh, but yeah, he said that what are they talking about? You are there's nothing like that going on. You are not just goofy. Why are you gonna believe stuff that people are putting on the internet? It's just you know, you shouldn't believe that stuff. And you know, we could say the same thing for back when you're talking about we had to cancel all these fairs and and and tractor pulls, but uh because all that crap. But anyway.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Boy, I hope Jonathan French is listening because he just got his five-minute Daniel rant session that he wanted. Hey and we're not done. We still got time left, so it might happen again.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

But so my biggest thing with the whole mission statement deal is we've been a week since that's happened, and there's not been a single person that has come up with an explanation for what happened. It's just like they've tried to sweep it under the rug, and we're not talking about it anymore. There's somebody, somebody there, no, and it may not be, I mean, you can give them the benefit of the doubt, it may have not been somebody straight out of the governor's office. It may have been somebody with Kentucky venues or whatever. Somebody changed that though, and probably under some kind of direction. And if it was somebody in your office's mess up, then own up to it and say, hey, we messed up, but we fixed it. Here's what we did to fix it. We changed it back. Correct. Or if it wasn't somebody in your office, then by all means you're the one getting blamed for it. Especially the blame to who it was. You know, you know by now, a week later, and they've scrubbed that website, they know exactly what happened and who did it.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Especially now when you say you have to fire somebody because they won't follow your lead, right? Like, and and now you have people under you that aren't following your lead.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

That's exactly right. So, yeah, get out of here. That's exactly right. You know, and the state fair, you know, did get and I'll probably get some plaque for this, but you know, they did get caught in partisan politics, but it's not the first time this happens. Both sides are guilty of doing things the way they want to do it, and they're guilty of um not give my words here, but I think, you know, saying, Well, my my side's right, you know, we want to we want to control it all, but then when the other side does something, uh oh well that's bad, that's bad. Well that happens, good or bad, right or wrong. But in this situation, in my opinion, this started a long time ago. And it became partisan many years ago, or I guess it would have been back in in 2019 when Governor Bashir got elected. And Warren Beeler got to stay on for a while. Seemed like everything was gonna be good. Warren was gonna get to stay. It seemed like he was gonna get to stay on as the the director of the you know, governor's office of ag policy, and then all of a sudden he was gone because he wasn't a Democrat.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

How long did that last for three years?

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Right there till he was there I don't think he was there that long.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Eight months probably put somebody in there, and that was about a year until was it was it even a year until they figured all the stuff out and got hatched out.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

And that was when they passed the legislation to develop the Kentucky Office of Ag Policy.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Because I'll tell you what, if you want to talk about transitions and how things under the then that that was awful because I was an extension agent and I had to deal with all that stuff, and that transition was awful. When it was led by, well, I'm not gonna sit here and cast blame to parties, but that was a bad transition. And then whenever it went back the other way, it everything was fixed. It's like, oh wow, people actually answer um and do things they say they're gonna do now.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

So here's the ironic part in all of this. So when all that happened when Warren Beeler was replaced, I believe the governor appointed is it Dorsey Ridley?

SPEAKER_00 35:11

He did, that's correct.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

And Gaston showed up on the fair board. He is you're exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Uh yeah. You're exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Seems like we've got our people picked out.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

I will follow that up and I will say that in Kentucky, we need to thank our legislature from many, many years ago that they passed legislation to make the Commissioner of Agriculture's office an electable position because there are several states in the U.S. that it is appointed by the governor. Yellowstone. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Because everything's real on that show. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Everything. Couldn't tell you I hadn't watched very much Yellowstone.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

I hadn't watched any of the new stuff. Is that what it's called now? Sounds like something you get with your chicken tenders.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

You're thinking of mutton ranch.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

Oh, maybe. So on that note, seeing some people talking about, do you have anything else you wanted to talk about that to hit on? We may end up touching on a few other things here, but um some people talking about protesting the fair. And um I don't know, I'm kind of torn on it. Part of me wants to say, well, I just ain't gonna go to that thing. I am not gonna support it, but I think it's important that we still support it. I would love to come up with some good ideas on how we can protest and support it at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

So I think one thing we could do, and it it'd be you'd have to be listened to this on Thursday morning to do it, but uh, because I think July 9th is the last day to enter things in the fair, you know, whether it be hay or uh being the open categories, be hay and corn and soybeans and wheat, get hundreds. I mean that those categories are basically non-existent, but show up in in groves of support that way.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

If you're an FFA or 4-H kid, send in stuff to the can your artwork can your artwork be political? Can it be making a statement like maybe we just flood it with artwork saying that would be all right? Uh certain political slander, or I don't know. That would be okay. That could be funny. Um but yeah, so I was I was going kind of a crappier way with it, I guess, was just saying show up with a truck bed full of manure and unload it somewhere. That's probably vandalism. Yeah, I guess our tax dollars go to jail. Our tax dollars would probably have to be spent to clean that up. I don't know. Don't wear if we can all leave dirt, nobody looks like if we can all wear, maybe we need some dirt to dollars swag that just says uh some kind of statement.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Um at the fair, it was not sponsored by dirt to dollars.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Yeah, but I mean like if we can have a a shirt that says something like um, I don't know, David Beck's my homeboy, or something like that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

Uh if you got any ideas, send it in.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah, send it in.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

We'll maybe get some dollars at gmail.com or just on Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

A good uh possible way to boycott it. We could have a live taping of dirt to dollars on in Agland during the state fair.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Yeah, but we'd only bring in like five people for that. I don't think that would be making much of a statement.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

That'd be five extra. If we did it on Farm Bureau Day at the fair, we could probably get we could probably get ten, maybe. Yeah. Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

Uh, but yeah, really, I'd I saw Warren Beelard put something out today about uh, you know, he'd heard a lot of people talking about boycotting the state fair, agriculture boycotting the state fair, but uh he was encouraging people to do what we just talked about and do just the opposite and try and show up in droves because if we do just pull out, then that proves their point that they can take agriculture out and not be embedded.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Absolutely, absolutely, and and when they mismanage stuff and don't do their jobs, they're just gonna blame it on the ag community that didn't show up.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Yep. That's exactly right. So so show up, be supportive, visit ag land, all the things, and show that agriculture is the root, true root of the state fair.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Well, and here we talk about the state fair a lot with this deal too, but you know, we've got some listeners that are outside of the state, and even some that are uh that are local and in-state that may not realize that uh you know your national farm machinery show is owned by the state fair board. Uh so that fair board controls whether that happens or not, or to what capacity that happens or not. Uh and also North American International Livestock Expo in November is owned by the State Fair Board. And uh those decisions are made there. So uh not just losing agriculture out of the state fair is not the only thing that we have to lose here. We could end up having some other major ag shows that are really known worldwide uh that draw in a lot of people and bring a lot of focus on Kentucky agriculture and something that we here in Kentucky probably take for granted to having right in our back door, such a big show.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

But a lot of un a lot of benefits there that we just don't really maybe you don't incentivize exactly, but there's tremendous value that it gives our producers to not have to travel a long way to do some of these things. They can do it straight in our back door.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

Yeah, I mean, how many uh people local do you know? For one, you can go up there if you're looking for certain piece of equipment, you can usually get a little better deal on it if it's something that's at the show. Uh, and if we're somebody here close, we can uh, you know, it's nothing for us to run up on Sunday when they load that thing out and pick a piece of equipment up, where if that was a show that was halfway across the country, you're not going to have the opportunity to do that.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Or some of the competitions and things that are held there that uh you get national winning livestock that can get premiums for their breeding stock just because it's in their backyard and they can get there a lot easier and probably wouldn't be able to get there if it was two or three, four hours away.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

So a lot of more, yeah. I mean, how many people go to there's there's hidden dollars there that you don't catch. Or I guess I should say, you know, Denver has a big stock show, and a lot of people in our area won't go to Denver because it takes so long to get there, and it's such hard so hard on cattle and and knee livestock to get there. So, you know, just having that local is is great for farms.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

But uh getting kind of running out of time here. We got a little got off on a got on a tangent.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Y'all ran in too much.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

Y'all.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Y'all, y'all.

SPEAKER_03 42:24

Uh Nangle must have had a had a beach mouse climb up in his pocket. Yeah. Hermit crab or something.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Crab, yeah, it's crab. So we also had some news about Mitch McConnell this week and um concerns about what may end up happening with that. Still don't know if we know what exactly is going on there. Um hearing preing reports.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Um maybe we'll know more by next week, but it's it's very odd. I'll say that.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Could have some implications. Um you know, there's been a lot of legislation, I'll say both good and bad here lately. Um, because of Mitch McConnell, it's mostly been good.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

But uh someone's I'll say on the ag side though, he's been a tremendous help.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

I mean I would say the only slight thing, just the hemp stuff recently, there's been some issues with that that's caught some people in a bad way. But um, but I mean you win some, you lose some.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Oliver Ag Oliver Agg development dollars. I mean, that was that was his baby, you know. Yeah. He he got that he got that tobacco buyout done. We call that ties right into our office of agolicity.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Governor's office of agape policy in Kentucky. Kentucky off of that's all from him.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

That was them. They set it up in a fund that would continue funding for years down the road. Yeah, that was that was one of the one of the best things he did.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

Unfortunately, the vaping industry is gonna almost put an end to some of that. It's true. And as hopefully we could find something soon to tie into that part. But yeah. All right. Well, thanks again to our sponsors. Um, who are who's our sponsors again this week?

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Masterson Farms, those guys over there. So thanks again for taking care of us this week and putting us out on the radio.

unknown 44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

See you next week.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Y'all ain't got nothing else. See you next back from the beach. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

You'd like to be by yourself if you don't make it back.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Me some aloe.