A key UK agriculture station that helps Kentucky farmers was destroyed by tornadoes
The tornadoes that raked across Western Kentucky wiped out a University of Kentucky agriculture station as well as livestock and crops for farmers in the area.
The UK Research and Education Center in Princeton in Caldwell County took a direct hit, according to a news release from the university. The facility also was home to the UK Grain and Forage Center of Excellence.
Employees, led by director Carrie Knott, worked through the weekend rounding up and caring for livestock and assessing damage. The research center buildings and a conference center that opened in 2019 were destroyed. Temporary buildings were being placed on the site on Tuesday so personnel could return to work helping Kentucky farmers.
The center was established in 1925, one mile from downtown Princeton, on 1,300 acres and has done important research impacting grain and beef farmers.
“The outpouring of community support has been very humbling to us,” Knott said in the release. “We are not closing our doors, but we will look a little different and be a little more fragmented at least for the near future.”
UK president Eli Capilouto said in a statement that the university is committed to rebuilding. “As the University for Kentucky, we understand how important faculty and staff at the UK Research and Education Center and Cooperative Extension Service are to relaying educational information to their communities. We are committed to rebuilding, helping the area recover and emerging stronger than before.”
Members of the public are asked to stay away as the area is unsafe and structurally unsound, according to the release.
“The Kentucky agricultural community is a strong community. It is a kind community, and it is a generous community,” said Chad Lee, director of the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence. “We are going to rely heavily on them to help us get through this as we work to build anew. Our hearts are broken but not our spirits.”
Lee said Tuesday that of the 68 or so employees that worked at the center, there were only a few non-life-threatening injuries.
“Those occurred while they were sheltering in place in their homes off the station,” he said. “We had about five employees who did shelter here, all five are ok but they were all in buildings that did not survive.”
Some of the employees have been with the research center for 40 years, so it is as much a home to them as their own, Lee said.
“We had seven families that lost their homes or their home is damaged to the point that they can’t be in it,” Lee said.
He said 90 percent of the structures on the farm have been condemned. The facility lost four head of cattle out of more than 200 who are safe.
“There are some farmers who have lost a lot more, and like many we lost a lot of fencing,” Lee said.
He said that the outpouring of support has been overwhelming. Farmers hauled water to their cattle until power could be restored to pump stations. “One farmer drove 50-60 miles to drop off some electric fence to put the cattle back in,” he said.
How to help Kentucky farmers affected by tornadoes
UK agriculture extension agents and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture are working with farmers who have been impacted by the tornadoes. Several groups are collecting donations and taking volunteer applications to help farmers including:
▪ Kentucky 4-H has a 4-H’ers Helping 4-H’ers Relief Fund kentucky4hfoundation.org/relief-fund/ that is collecting donations to help affected 4-H members, families and staff.
▪ The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management is also accepting donations and relief effort volunteer applications. Individuals can offer to donate supplies or apply to volunteer at arcg.is/8aqnO.
▪ The Kentucky Department of Agriculture has partnered with the Kentucky Farm Bureau to develop a GoFundMe account at gofund.me/6855c668 to provide monetary support for affected farmers. Donations are tax deductible.
▪ Individuals, who wish to make monetary donations to the tornado victims, may do so by donating through UK’s Office of Philanthropy at uky.networkforgood.com/causes/9900-cafe-annual-discretionary-fund.
▪ Individuals may donate to help affected UK students at uky.networkforgood.com/causes/10124-basic-needs-and-persistence-fund. UK also offers the C.R.I.S.I.S. (Crisis Relief in Situations Involving Staff and Faculty) Program to help UK employees experiencing personal hardship. UK faculty and staff may request assistance at staffsenate.uky.edu/crisis.
▪ You can also mail checks with a comment to support UK CAFE Tornado Relief to UK Philanthropy, P.O. Box 23552, Lexington, KY 40523.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 12:52 PM.
