A new building in Versailles is home to the University of Kentucky's Meats and Foods Industry Advancement Center.

Officials with the Martin Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment welcomed visitors to the facility Wednesday.

Today represents an important step forward for Kentucky agriculture.

This new 30,000ft square foot facility brings research, extension, teaching, training and industry support together in one place.

It will serve farmers, food producers, processors, extension professionals, entrepreneurs, students and communities across the Commonwealth.

It's a dream come true.

It's a lot of work.

Last five years to come true as well.

And so this facility is going to really help us advance not only our teaching extension, but research as well.

We don't we didn't really start worrying about food safety until the 90s, and the old facility was opened in the 70s, and so was it designed around food safety?

This facility is designed around 50, say, for our farmers.

Oh my goodness.

This is the ability for to teach our farmers how it what happens that product once it leaves their farm gate so that beef animal that leaves the farm gate, what happens to before it gets to the grocery store?

Same thing with our chicken things, the pork and lamb and so on.

So this from a farmer standpoint, is really going to be instrumental in teaching them of what happened.

So they have a better understanding of the whole food chain.

Kentucky agriculture and agriculture across this country has been through some pretty tough times, with increased cost and depressed prices and trade issues.

There's many things.

But the more that we can work to innovate and to find ways to do things more efficiently, to do it better, to find ways to connect farmers and consumers on a more direct relationship while doing it on, in scale and efficiently.

That's where this work that we're doing, and that's investment that has been made.

That's where it all comes together.

A 56 seat classroom that contains a meat rail will allow carcass fabrication to be visible and immediate for students, while specialized spaces will support the development of products such as ham, sausages and other value added foods.

Also housed on this C.R.

and little research center is the Kentucky Livestock Innovation Center, which will bring together livestock and grain organizations to the Kentucky Livestock Coalition and create additional opportunities for education and industry engagement.

Serving as president of the Kentucky Livestock Coalition, the last several years is that this organization works together, bringing our commodity groups across the state along with our livestock, equine, poultry together, and finding ways that while small a number.

All right.

Folks often, really, punt past their coverage and really go the extra mile.

And when we can find ways to work together and be a team and find partnerships with our land grant university with the legislature, this is the result and the things that will come from this will be an investment for generations to come.

That makes Kentucky and Kentucky agriculture better.

The facility also includes the Wildcat Meats and AG Market, formerly the butcher shop that will have meats and other products available for sale.