KWIA Grant Program
Meet Kelsey Chadwick of Chadwick Sheep Company located in Murray Kentucky. Kelsey is one of the recipients of the 2024 KWIA Producer Grant.
Her operation consists of 100 head of Polypay Ewes. They market 90 lambs and process up to 35 for retail sale. They also process a few sheep for mutton and approximately 15 hogs. She sells her meat through various Farmer’s Markets in the area.
Kelsey will be using the grant funds to purchase four chest freezers and a Freezer Max Organization System. She will be purchasing a trailer with her own funds. She is currently using Marine grade coolers to transport the meat to markets. These purchases will allow her “to take more product to market and increase professionalism and confidence in my products by switching from marine grade coolers to electric freezers”.
We wish Kelsey the best of luck with her project and look forward to hearing from her at our annual conference in November.
Congratulations to Tonya Cherry of Cherry Farms, one of our 2024 KWIA Grant Recipients! Tonya raises beef and pork for retail sale on their farm in Fountain Run Kentucky. She sells from her home as well as various Farmer’s Markets in South Central Kentucky. Her business has grown so much it is difficult to accurately keep up with inventory and sales with pencil and paper. In 2024 she projects to process 36 beeves and 50 hogs for retail sale.
Tonya will use the Grant funds to help purchase a Square POS system. She stated “The Square POS system will speed up checking out customers, less room for error, and print the customer a receipt. It will keep inventory better, give us access to looking at customer purchase history and do reports for me afterwards, which has taken me hours to do manually. But more importantly, we will have more time for customer interaction. I repeatedly tell customers I will answer their question, after I finish adding up their order. If I stop figuring, to answer a question, I always have to start over. Scanning the products, does not require me to think, so I will be able to converse more easily with my customer and provide better customer service.”