Cattle Rancher
Trimble Co.’s Rand to be inducted into Ky. Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame
The statewide group inducts only
five new members a year
MILTON, Ky. (January 2019) – Reggie Rand runs his cattle farm with honor and integrity, and people know it. The 83-year-old farmer from Milton, Ky., has earned an outstanding community reputation for the quality of his animals and his prudent stewardship of the farm. His is a name you can trust, and the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association agrees.
On Jan. 18 at the Owensboro, Ky., Convention Center, Rand will be inducted into the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame honors a cattleman who has made a positive difference with their time and talents. Inductees are nominated by their peers, and only five people are selected for the Hall of Fame each year.
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Photo provided Reggie Rand poses at his Milton, Ky., cattle farm. His longtime work in the beef cattle industry will be recognized on Jan. 18 in Owensboro, Ky. |
Born in Bedford, Ky., Rand has been farming in Trimble County since he was a young boy. He remembers being dropped off at the farm during the summer while his father, the late John Rand, worked in the insurance agency in town. Reggie would stay with his grandmother on the farm and work, and he completely fell in love with it.
He recalls those young days fondly, saying, “Those farmers around here, and the neighbors around, they worked me pretty hard, but they taught me a lot, too.”
When he was 15 years old, Rand decided to raise some tobacco of his own as a tenant farmer. His crop was successful, and he had a little profit at the end of the season. What did he do with the money?
“I bought my first tractor,” says Rand. “A Super A International.”
Rand went on to raise a family of four children: Rick, who is now a Kentucky State Representative; Regina, who operates Rand Insurance in Bedford with Rick; Susan, who is retired from Dow Chemical; and Todd, who operates the farm with his dad and also runs a beef operation on his own adjoining farm.
Reggie is a longtime board member of the Farmers Bank of Milton.
Today, Reggie runs 80 Angus cows and a highly selective group of Angus bulls on his 235-acre Trimble County farm with Todd, 57. Reggie has a cow-calf operation, which means he carefully tends his herd of brood cows and raises up their calves to sell to other farms after they are weaned. The customers come to him, year after year.
“We have a lot of repeat customers, and they continually come back,” Todd says. He describes an extensive selection process that he and his dad use to determine which bulls they will sell for breeding and which will become beef steers instead. The result is a pool of available bulls for sale that have made it through many culling stages, leaving only the animals of the highest quality.
Both Reggie and Todd have been active in the farming community and in educational outreach programs. Last year, Todd played host to more than 300 people for the UK Extension Field Day on his farm. In the Field Day program, different learning stations are set up around the farm for folks to learn new skills, such as a freeze-branding station, a feeding station, and more.
Reggie has played host to similar farm day events in the past (although not through the UK Extension Service). Some of his favorites have been with school children. He was a dedicated Future Farmers of America member when he was in school, and he still loves working with FFA and 4-H kids. Some children, he noted, have the drive to work with cows, but they have none at home. He has been so pleased to have been able to provide calves for some of these children to use in 4-H.
The school children he works with must feel the pride he has for the future generation of farmers. After a farm day event he hosted for a local school group, the classmates took it upon themselves to present him with a special gift. He had shared with them that although he had spent many years as a member of FFA, he was never able to get that FFA blue jacket. After hearing this, the students got together and presented him with a new FFA blue jacket.
“It was unbelievable,” he says, “that the children at school would do that. It really impressed me.”