Having grown up on the farm and in a rural community, the summer season was always something I looked forward to even though it was a busy time for our family and our neighbors, as well.

I gained a strong sense of gratitude as we moved through each growing season with the anticipation of a strong fall harvest. There is a kind of satisfaction that is like no other when we look out over a tall corn field or a flourishing soybean crop; when we see healthy calves growing strong and tobacco leaves waving in the breeze; when we smell a freshly cut hay field and experience a summer sunset over rolling pastures.

It’s hard to explain those emotions if you don’t live on a farm. But we are lucky to be living where we do, with so much rural land to see, and so many great advocate organizations such as Kentucky Farm Bureau working hard to share that farm feeling with all of our citizens.

The success of farm families affects everyone in that we all need food to survive. We all have skin in the game. For me, nowhere is that connection more evident than at the many county fairs taking place each summer in communities across the Commonwealth culminating with the great Kentucky State Fair.

With a history dating back more than 200 years, and becoming official in 1902, our state fair is one of the oldest in the country and has always been a place to bring a little of the farm to the city each year.

It’s a place to watch the young and not so young exhibit their show animals, crafts, and crops in hopes of bringing home a prized blue ribbon. It’s the Sale of Champions, the Championship Horse Show, the Commodity Breakfast, Kentucky Farm Bureau Day, it’s Ag Land, and the Pride of the Counties, all rolled into one, with so much more to see, taste and experience.

It’s a time to enjoy all kinds of music, all kinds of good local food, and spend valuable family time together. 

It’s a time we can set aside our worries for a few days and celebrate heritage, rural life, and a country ham that has served as the backdrop of the largest farm-city event in Kentucky since 1964; the KFB Annual Country Ham Breakfast and Charity Auction.  

This state fair really is a showcase of all that is great in Kentucky and each year allows more than 600,000 people to enjoy a little of that greatness. And yes, it’s a place we can all enjoy the farm, if only for the day.

No matter how busy we get; no matter where we live; no matter if we farm for a living or live because of farming; let’s spend some quality time this summer with our families. Let’s enjoy a sunset or two, and who knows, maybe I’ll see you at the fair.  

Mark Haney, President
Kentucky Farm Bureau