"As much as my husband loves to tell everyone I went to South Korea just to go riding horses and play on the beach (which I also did), it was actually a very busy business trip. The trip was sponsored by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Keeneland and in partnership with the Lexington Sister City Commission, with the goal of exchanging knowledge and ideas, strengthening the connection between Lexington and our sister city, Jeju City and encouraging the sale of American horses to the Korean racing market. Those are big ideals for a single extension specialist, so my focus specifically was simply to meet with farmers and talk about how forage production is managed in Jeju, and how that compares to Lexington. Even with some research going into the trip, the similarities and differences were surprising to me in many ways. My itinerary included a trip to a thoroughbred auction, a training facility, a few breeding farms, two museums, a garden, a large-scale hay production farm, a tangerine orchard, a sit down with the mayor, and a workshop with horse farm managers where I talked about forage production in Kentucky. Thankfully, I brought bourbon for everyone!
The climate of Jeju is similar to Lexington: the summers are
just as hot and humid, but the winters are not quite as cold and snowfall is
rare. The soils contain volcanic ash, so they are well drained and contain less
clay than ours. Compared to mainland South Korea, Jeju island is much more
productive. Several of the farms we visited relied heavily on Italian ryegrass
as their main pasture and hay crop and would be similar to the perennial
ryegrass we would be familiar with in Kentucky, though it is managed more
similar to a European style of regular tillage and replanting. Other farms were
planting in perennial mixtures of Kentucky Bluegrass, orchardgrass, and tall
fescue, the same mixture that I plant on my own farm and recommend to farms
throughout central Kentucky. This mixture appeared to be thriving in Jeju. Also
similar to Kentucky, farm managers were still unsure how to identify these
grasses in the pasture which was a great opportunity for me to do what I do
best and show them how to!
Space was a major difference that Korean farm managers are
challenged with that Kentucky managers generally aren't. Pasture and hay land
is Jeju is very limited. Very little horse quality hay is grown in S. Korea, so
most is imported from the US, making hay feeding very expensive. Pasture is
also very limited, and what is available must be intensively managed and
frequently replanted to be maintained, also making it very expensive. In some
cases, feeding more concentrate and minimal amounts of forage is more
economical, a stark reversal from the US.
This was a truly incredible trip and I am so grateful for
the opportunity to go. What I hope anyone who reads this takes away is a bit
more curiosity for our sister city of Jeju, South Korea, and a greater
appreciation of the riches of soils and pastures that we are blessed with here
in the Bluegrass."~ Krista Lea, University of Kentucky Extension Specialist
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