LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The 60th annual Kentucky Farm Bureau (KFB) Country Ham Breakfast and Charity Auction brought in a new record Thursday morning.
The 18-pound ham was sold for a whopping $10.5 million!
The pricey piece of meat was bought by Joe and Kelly Craft, who were among the buyers of last year's winning ham.
Craft said that she and her husband plan to donate that money to the Boys and Girls Club and also to help build homes in Eastern Kentucky after historic flooding devastated the region in 2022.
That ham auction ended the morning on a high after speakers spent time discussing the challenges farmers face across the state. One of the big points was the loss of farmland.
Eddie Melton, President of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, said that from 2017-2022 Kentucky lost 6,500 farmers and over 500,000 acres of farmland. He said the organization is putting forth initiatives to help farmers retain some of that land, and ease the process of transferring that land.
“Farmers must have their voices here. I’ll repeat it again. I think farmers must have their voices heard in this initiative," said Melton. "They must be at the table affecting farmland retention.“
Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture, Jonathan Shell, echoed that sentiment while addressing additional concerns. He emphasized the responsibility of farmers to create a lasting legacy.
“Depending on where you are in the state and what commodity you deal is whether or not you have a big smile on your face this morning or a little smile on your face this morning. But in agriculture, what we do is we persevere. We move on for that next generation. We try to attack those challenges the best way we can," said Shell.
