Nathaniel Keith, Poultry Complex Manager

“Ag is a very small group. Always stay humble and be kind. You never know who you will work for in the future. Be slow to speak.”

Nathaniel Keith is the Complex Manager at Cal-Maine Cage Free Layers in Bremen, KY.

While is father was not a farmer, farming has been in Nathaniel’s blood for nine generations. Both of his grandparents had farms, and he held several odd farming jobs when he was younger. Once he got his driver’s license, he got a job milking cows, which he loved. While attending Eastern Kentucky University for Livestock Production/Animal Science, Nathaniel earned an internship in Michigan and worked for Schell Farms, where they raised beef cattle, as well as tobacco and alfalfa.

Once he started working for Cal-Main, he got involved with the Kentucky Poultry Federation early on. Nathaniel worked on various committees and was the festival committee chairman in 2020. Now, he’s KPF's 2nd Vice President. These days, his daily routine consists of managing the livestock facilities and working things out with the FDA and USDA. Nathaniel has been at the Bremen facility for the past 9.5 years, starting as a manager trainee, then pullet manager, and onto facility manager.

Nathaniel is a graduate of the Kentucky Agriculture Leadership Program and is involved in several state and federal committees to help him better his industry and his own career. He says that if he could’ve done anything differently, he would’ve taken more business communications classes that would’ve helped better prepare him for a management role.