For a life-long farmer, nothing beats having local consumers enjoying a product that you put so much work into. As cattle farmers and producers for Perdue Farms, Joel and Cindy Smith are no stranger to having their product proudly displayed in your local grocery store. The chance to be able to participate in Kentucky Cattlemen’s Ground Beef has given the Smith family another way to provide for Kentuckians across the state, helping them to provide safe and healthy food for their families.
You can find Joel and Cindy Smith and their family farm, JWS Farms, in Ohio County in the heart of Western Kentucky. With his earliest memories being on the family farm with his parents, Jerry and Mildred Smith, Joel and his family have dedicated their lives to raising quality products. The quality of the Smith family’s character speaks for itself in not only how they care for their livestock and how they conduct business but how they care for their family.
You can find Joel and Cindy Smith and their family farm, JWS Farms, in Ohio County in the heart of Western Kentucky. With his earliest memories being on the family farm with his parents, Jerry and Mildred Smith, Joel and his family have dedicated their lives to raising quality products. The quality of the Smith family’s character speaks for itself in not only how they care for their livestock and how they conduct business but how they care for their family.
On any given day, you might find Smith in his truck with his two grandsons riding along, taking the opportunity to show young children how important it is to work in agriculture. For someone who has been involved in agriculture their entire life, Smith has seen a change in not only the interest of agriculture but how it is practiced. The cattle industry and how it has changed in Kentucky has led to this opportunity growth with Kentucky Cattlemen’s Ground Beef. This opportunity has given producers, like Smith, the chance to diversify how they sell and market their cattle and give them a different perspective on the cattle market as a whole.
The farthest away of any producer selling into the program, JWS Farms sits 240 miles away from The Chop Shop, the USDA-inspected processing plant that is partnered with Kentucky Cattlemen’s Ground Beef. While this is a long journey, Smith joined forces with neighboring producers to gather a load of cattle to make the trip worth it economically. Even with the distance, the trip proved to be successful. “It’s a Kentucky driven program that I would like to grow. It’s very beneficial for all producers” said Smith.
The farthest away of any producer selling into the program, JWS Farms sits 240 miles away from The Chop Shop, the USDA-inspected processing plant that is partnered with Kentucky Cattlemen’s Ground Beef. While this is a long journey, Smith joined forces with neighboring producers to gather a load of cattle to make the trip worth it economically. Even with the distance, the trip proved to be successful. “It’s a Kentucky driven program that I would like to grow. It’s very beneficial for all producers” said Smith.