diff --git a/crates/core/Cargo.toml b/crates/core/Cargo.toml
index c6407bd..a8b02e4 100644
--- a/crates/core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/core/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ categories = ["cryptography::cryptocurrencies", "web-programming"]
 asset_proxy = ["strum", "cid"]
 credits = ["kafka_internal", "rand", "strum", "toml"]
 kafka = ["kafka_internal"]
-kafka_internal = ["rdkafka"]
+kafka_internal = ["rand", "rdkafka"]
 solana = ["solana-client", "solana-sdk"]
 metrics = ["opentelemetry",  "opentelemetry_sdk", "opentelemetry-prometheus", "prometheus"]
 
diff --git a/crates/core/src/producer.rs b/crates/core/src/producer.rs
index bc9135c..4e45ff7 100644
--- a/crates/core/src/producer.rs
+++ b/crates/core/src/producer.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 //! A Kafka record producer
 
-use std::fmt;
+use std::{
+    fmt,
+    sync::atomic::{AtomicI64, AtomicUsize, Ordering},
+};
+
+use rand::Rng;
+use rdkafka::producer::Producer as _;
 
 use crate::{prelude::*, util::DebugShim};
 
@@ -23,11 +29,27 @@ impl Config {
     }
 }
 
+#[derive(Debug)]
+struct Shared {
+    partition_count: AtomicUsize,
+    last_partition_check: AtomicI64,
+}
+
+impl Default for Shared {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            partition_count: 1.into(),
+            last_partition_check: i64::MIN.into(),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// A producer for emitting messages onto the Kafka topic identified by this
 /// service's name
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub struct Producer<M> {
     topic: String,
+    shared: Arc<Shared>,
     producer: DebugShim<rdkafka::producer::FutureProducer>,
     msg: PhantomData<fn(&M)>,
 }
@@ -62,6 +84,7 @@ impl<M: Message> Producer<M> {
 
         Ok(Self {
             topic: config.topic,
+            shared: Shared::default().into(),
             producer: DebugShim(producer),
             msg: PhantomData::default(),
         })
@@ -74,13 +97,46 @@ impl<M: Message> Producer<M> {
         payload: Option<&M>, // TODO: don't wrap this in Option
         key: Option<&M::Key>,
     ) -> Result<(), SendError> {
+        const INTERVAL: i64 = 5 * 60;
+
+        let now = chrono::Local::now().timestamp();
+        let parts = if self
+            .shared
+            .last_partition_check
+            .fetch_update(Ordering::Release, Ordering::Acquire, |t| {
+                (t < (now - INTERVAL)).then_some(now)
+            })
+            .is_ok()
+        {
+            match self
+                .producer
+                .0
+                .client()
+                .fetch_metadata(Some(&self.topic), Duration::from_secs(5))
+            {
+                Ok(m) => {
+                    let topic = m.topics().iter().find(|t| t.name() == self.topic).unwrap();
+                    let parts = topic.partitions().len();
+                    self.shared.partition_count.store(parts, Ordering::Release);
+                    Some(parts)
+                },
+                Err(e) => {
+                    warn!("Updating the partition count failed: {e}");
+                    None
+                },
+            }
+        } else {
+            None
+        };
+        let parts = parts.unwrap_or_else(|| self.shared.partition_count.load(Ordering::Relaxed));
+
         match self
             .producer
             .0
             .send(
                 rdkafka::producer::FutureRecord {
                     topic: &self.topic,
-                    partition: None,
+                    partition: Some(rand::thread_rng().gen_range(0..parts).try_into().unwrap_or(0)),
                     payload: payload.map(prost::Message::encode_to_vec).as_deref(),
                     key: key.map(prost::Message::encode_to_vec).as_deref(),
                     timestamp: None,