Class 40 started out the morning in Kentucky at the Holliday Inn Express in Lexington. What a difference in the weather. We left the sunny skies of Washing DC to wake up to some light rain and much cooler days. Dr. Steve Isaacs with the UK Extension met up with the group at the hotel at 7:30 to take us to our destination. By 7:45 we were on the phone with the bus company wondering where they were. Bus showed up about 20 minutes later and off we went to the Scott County UK Cooperative Extension.

Dr. Steve Isaacs and Dr. Will Snell are the co-directors for the Kentucky Ag Leadership Program (KALP), got the morning program off to its start. Our morning session was with alumni and class members of the KALP. The morning sessions consisted of seven 20 minute up-dates on Kentucky agriculture initiatives. The final session was a farmers panel made up of 3 Kentucky farmers and our own Dan Sutton and Karm Bains. Interesting how we shared such similar issues with labor and regulatory controls that seem to hinder more than help.

Lunch was provided by Triple J Farm and was home grown hamburgers and homemade chocolate cake. During lunch we got caught up on or time, at least for a short while, and hustled off to our afternoon tours around Lexington.

First stop was to the Kentucky Horse Park for a tour around their facilities. There are several new improvements going on around the grounds as the World Equestrian Games are coming to Kentucky. Horses and Riders will be coming from around the world to showcase their skills in several events and Kentucky is stepping up to the plate with a world class facility.

Our next stop was to KALP alumni Todd Clark’s tobacco farm. It was the first time any of had seen such an operation. It was raining so we spent most of the time in a drying barn learning about the changes and challenges to tobacco farm industry. Todd and Steve taught us how the leaves of the plant were graded into 4 grades from lowest to highest quality. They shared that in the old days, about 10-15 years ago, that this work was done mostly by family members. Now most this work is done by farm labor. The majority of the costs for production are in the labor, sound Familiar?

As we pulled out of Todd’s farm we were on our way to the Fares Thoroughbred Horse Ranch. We were heading down the road when the familiar aroma of hot brakes started to fill the air in the bus. A couple of checks in the rearview mirror confirmed that the bus brakes were smoking hot. The driver pulled to the side of the highway, and our own fireman, Dan Sutton, confirmed that the brake were on fire. As the fellows calmly unloaded the bus, Dan spent the next few minutes putting out the fire. The KALP group came to the rescue of about 75% of the class while the rest of us waited for the backup bus to arrive. We ended up about 15 minutes behind the rest of the group as we arrived to the ranch.

Our host Shannon White at the Fares Farm was very welcoming and brought the group into a guest house and offered refreshments for the group while they waited for the bus. The ranch was amazing. Shannon did a great job of explaining the operation and fielding lots of questions about the thoroughbred industry. Toward the end of the tour Shannon was kind enough to take us the fowling barn where we may have seen a future Horse of the Year, by the way Fares has produced a back to back already.

The trip back to the hotel was quick and uneventful. Most of the fellows went for some quick food and were ready to reload for wheels up and on our way to Wood Songs Old Time Radio Hour.

The show kicked off at 7pm sharp. The show is a live radio, PBS broadcast and is played on every navy vessel in our fleet world wide. We were treated to 2 bands that played Bluegrass and American Folk. The bands were generous and each played an additional song for the audience. After the show we were able to hang out and meet and greet with the band members and take some photos.

When the dust settled some of 40 went out to enjoy downtown Lexington and some headed back to get ready for the next days events.