Kentucky-Tennessee Livestock Market, Inc, opened the doors to the farmers in the community in the early 1960's. The current owners begin operations over thirty years ago in the fall of 1978. The business started by serving friends and family in the livestock industry and have grown to currently selling around 98, 000 head of cattle a year at both our Guthrie, Ky and Cross Plains, TN locations. Our business has always been based on two major principals, treating our customers and buyers as we would want to be treated, and the practice of grading cattle. Mark Barnett one of the owners of the livestock markets, has always said when telling the employees how to deal with the customers is to put yourself in the customers shoes. We have always strived to treat all of our customers and buyers fairly. The next major principal is grading cattle, the process of comingling and selling different farmers cattle as single lot groups based on weight, color and class. We were told from the start that this would not be practical for a livestock market because of all the extra labor that grading cattle involves. However, the market believed strongly that this was the best way to give the smaller farmers a way to market their cattle in larger groups and to receive the best prices for their product. Despite all the extra labor cost, grading cattle is now the corner stone of our market. We strive to sell our graded pens in as many load lots as possible, as that is the most attractive way to market cattle to the order buyers. KY-TN has always strived to be on the front edge of livestock marketing practices as to better serve our customers. We have worked on a consist basis with extension service in both Kentucky and Tennessee to provide the latest marketing programs such as electronic identification and PVP programs. The owners of the markets also continue to work with livestock marketing and auction associations at the local, state and federal level to insure that the issues and concerns facing our industry are addressed. The Cross Plains, TN location was added to the KY-TN livestock program in 2006, to provide better service to the farmers in a wider area.