The Clark County Cooperative Extension Office is excited to announce an upcoming multi-county program that should draw a large interest from our local agriculture community.

The Kentucky Master Stocker program is an educational series that is open for any beef producer who is involved, or interested in stocker cattle.

The program is similar to the popular master cattleman program. It consists of six classroom sessions during a six week period.

Topics covered will improve the understanding of best management recommendations for stocker and backgrounding operations.

The Master Stocker sessions will alternate between the Estill and Clark County Cooperative Extension Offices on Monday nights.

The first meeting will be Monday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Estill County Extension Office. From that point, the sessions will be Monday nights, alternating between Clark and Estill counties.

The classes will be taught by specialist from the University of Kentucky and topics include; nutrition for stocker calves, new developments in forages, taking advantages of farm resources, confinement building considerations, preventative herd health, and financial risk management.

All are timely topics and should be helpful to anyone in the cattle industry.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to the Clark County Extension Office by Friday, Feb. 15 at 744-4682.

There is no cost for the program and light refreshments will be served each night. We hope to hear from you and see you there.

Clay Stamm is one of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Agents for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Clark County.