Brian Worthington
In Town: Brian is the Field Production Manager for the Missouri Division of Pennington Seed, Inc. Pennington Seed, Inc., is one of the largest manufactures and distributors of lawn grass seed as well as other lawn, garden and turf care products, forage and wildlife seed, wild bird seed and wood pellets. “Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue Seed is one of our largest selling lawn seed products, and I work with the farmers here in Missouri that grow Kentucky 31 for seed production. The quality of Kentucky 31 seed grown here in Missouri has decreased over the past several years, and it has been very damaging to the Kentucky 31 market. I work to promote management practices that will help farmers raise higher quality and higher yielding fescue seed. This includes a quarterly newsletter that we mail out to 6,700 seed producers.”
In the Country: Brian started exhibiting Shorthorn cattle over 10 years ago at fairs across the area, which grew into exhibiting Shorthorn cattle at major stock shows across the country. “When I graduated from Missouri State and started working full time, I transitioned from showing Shorthorn cattle to raising and selling Shorthorn cattle for others to show or use as replacement animals in their herds. Over the years of showing cattle, I purchased many high quality females, and my wife, Sarah, and I are now building a herd based on those animals through extensive usage of Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer.”
How does your work at Pennington complement your work at the farm?
“My job and my farm go hand in hand. I spend all day working with farmers on how to improve fescue, and I utilize those spraying, fertilizing and grazing management practices on my own operation. I also incorporate Pennington Seed’s line of forages in my grazing system, and have found great success with them.”
What are your goals for the future with your herd?
“We are planning on continuing to grow our cow herd with quality Shorthorn animals. We are going to start exhibiting Shorthorn cattle again at livestock shows over the next couple of years. We have also recently decided to start incorporating Angus cattle in our operation as well to increase our marketing opportunities. We hope to continue to grow the farm as large as we can over our lifetime, because like most others, farming is a way of life for us.”
By OFN Staff
