As the world grapples with the stark realities of a global pandemic, the need for environmentally sound, profitable, and personally rewarding agricultural enterprises has never been greater. No matter your lens — climate-change mitigation, return-on-investment, or farmer mental health — pastured livestock offers an array of exciting opportunities and solutions. Learn how to leverage grazing ruminants to advance ecological, economic, and emotional resilience within your operation!
Food Animal Concerns Trust welcomes guest presenter, Paul Dorrance, from Pastured Providence in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Contact: Register at https://www.anymeeting.com/AccountManager/RegEv.aspx?PIID=E050DF82844A39.
The 5th installment of the Winter Learning Series has Rick Kersbergen and Gabe Clark discussing the 2020 Grazing season and management options heading into 2021.
Contact: Visit Zoom Webinar Registration to register.
Visit Facebook for the complete Winter Learning Series Schedule.
This four-part series is open to service providers and farmers. Come to all if you can.
· Webinar 1: Friday 02/19/21 Introduction to the development of a simple grazing plan, featuring UVM’s Jenn Colby, Susan Parry of PA NRCS and Daimon Meeh of NH NRCS
· Webinar 2: Wednesday 03/10/21 Grazing plan calculations, with Masoud Hashemi of UMass, Sam Glaze-Corcoran of the New England Grazing Network and Jenn Colby of UVM
· Webinar 3: Tuesday 03/23/21 Mapping out your grazing plan, with Jenn Colby (UVM) and Daimon Meeh (NH NRCS)
· Webinar 4: Tuesday 04/6/21 Refining your grazing plan
Contact: For more information visit http://www.meatsystems.uconn.edu/index.php or register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHEndlB6zBKtFfbRy1P_b_mKViz58-o6QCWBZurb0cEpRefg/viewform. Contact rachel.bespuda@uconn.edu with any questions.
Elaina Enzien will present a Webinar on Going With The Flow: Low-Stress Livestock Handling
Handling livestock can be stressful for both the human and the animal, and it doesn’t always go as we planned. There is ample opportunity for situations to turn for the worse and for us to be left scratching our heads wondering, where did we go wrong? How you handle your livestock has a direct impact on your production, and therefore your profit. In this session we will discuss the basic techniques behind low-stress livestock handling, a method used to improve the efficiency, welfare, and profitability of your livestock herd. Whether your farm is big or small, how we handle our livestock can make all the difference.
Contact: Visit Zoom Webinar Registration to register.
Visit Facebook for the complete Winter Learning Series Schedule.
Our 7th installment of our Winter Learning Series on Grain-Free Dairy. Ben Gotschall is the owner of Holt Creek Jerseys and the Dairy and Livestock Manager at Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport, Maine. He will discuss the challenges and opportunities of 100% grass-fed dairy production as well as share some lessons learned, mistakes made, and success stories from a lifetime of raising and grazing Jersey cattle on native rangeland and improved pastures.
Contact: Visit Zoom Webinar Registration to register.
Visit Facebook for the complete Winter Learning Series Schedule.
You are raising and selling local meat, but are you making a profit doing so? Matt LeRoux will walk participants through the recently updated Cornell Meat Pricing Tool and the supporting marketing techniques needed to command prices that deliver a profit in every channel. For those familiar with the Meat Pricing Calculator, this workshop will provide more hands-on training than in previous years.
Matt LeRoux, Ag. Marketing Consultant, has nearly 20 years of experience serving farms through Cornell Cooperative Extension, non-profits, and consulting. Specializing in market strategy, Matt works with a diverse mix of produce and livestock farmers and food businesses. Career highlights include developing the Marketing Channel Assessment Tool for produce growers and the Cornell Meat Price & Yield Calculator.
IMPORTANT:
To participate, farms will need to gather some simple data from the next animal(s) they take to the processor (see below) and know their cost of production. If help is needed to determine CoP, farmers should consider attending the workshop Basic Farm Financials for Successful Pricing.
Data needed to participate:
1. Carcass weight and all sellable cut weights from one or more “typical” animals. Getting cut weights from one animal (or one group) usually means weighing the cuts out when you get the meat back home. Some processors can provide this data to you, but the old “kitchen counter” scale method is fairly easy too.
2. Keep your processing invoice, with carcass weight(s), slaughter fee, cut and wrap fee, and other fees from any additional processing (hot dogs, patties, sausage, smoking, etc..).
3. Have a list of your current prices for cuts in the channel(s) you use.
CONTACT: REGISTER HERE. Please contact Stevie, stevie@buylocalfood.org, if you need assistance or have questions.
See here for more information about this workshop, its associated workshop (Basic Farm Financials for Successful Pricing), and other CISA workshop offerings.
This four-part series is open to service providers and farmers. Come to all if you can.
· Webinar 1: Friday 02/19/21 Introduction to the development of a simple grazing plan, featuring UVM’s Jenn Colby, Susan Parry of PA NRCS and Daimon Meeh of NH NRCS
· Webinar 2: Wednesday 03/10/21 Grazing plan calculations, with Masoud Hashemi of UMass, Sam Glaze-Corcoran of the New England Grazing Network and Jenn Colby of UVM
· Webinar 3: Tuesday 03/23/21 Mapping out your grazing plan, with Jenn Colby (UVM) and Daimon Meeh (NH NRCS)
· Webinar 4: Tuesday 04/6/21 Refining your grazing plan
Contact: For more information visit http://www.meatsystems.uconn.edu/index.php or register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHEndlB6zBKtFfbRy1P_b_mKViz58-o6QCWBZurb0cEpRefg/viewform. Contact rachel.bespuda@uconn.edu with any questions.
The next to last Winter Learning Series brings Leah Puro from Wolfe’s Neck Center to speak about soil health.
As a part of a mission to address the major global challenges brought on by climate change, on-farm research initiatives have gradually moved to the forefront of our operations. Through research, we can test out agriculture-based strategies to adapt to and be more resilient in the face of unpredictable weather patterns that are becoming more common. Our work can both inform future practices here at Wolfe’s Neck Center and other farms in the region. Leah will discuss the soil research at Wolfe’s Neck Center to understand the impacts of grazing and haying management practices on soil health. She will also discuss and present open source and free tools to easily learn about and assess your own soils in the field.
Contact: Visit Zoom Webinar Registration to register.
Visit Facebook for the complete Winter Learning Series Schedule.
In our final installment of the Winter Learning Series (but the first in a 4-part series of “Grazing Concepts for Better Farm Resilience” Elaine Enzien of the UNH Corporate Extension and Rick Kersbergen from the University of Maine talk the very basics of Ruminant Nutrition.
Contact: Visit Zoom Webinar Registration to register.
Visit Facebook for the complete Winter Learning Series Schedule.
This four-part series is open to service providers and farmers. Come to all if you can.
· Webinar 1: Friday 02/19/21 Introduction to the development of a simple grazing plan, featuring UVM’s Jenn Colby, Susan Parry of PA NRCS and Daimon Meeh of NH NRCS
· Webinar 2: Wednesday 03/10/21 Grazing plan calculations, with Masoud Hashemi of UMass, Sam Glaze-Corcoran of the New England Grazing Network and Jenn Colby of UVM
· Webinar 3: Tuesday 03/23/21 Mapping out your grazing plan, with Jenn Colby (UVM) and Daimon Meeh (NH NRCS)
· Webinar 4: Tuesday 04/6/21 Refining your grazing plan
Contact: For more information visit http://www.meatsystems.uconn.edu/index.php or register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHEndlB6zBKtFfbRy1P_b_mKViz58-o6QCWBZurb0cEpRefg/viewform. Contact rachel.bespuda@uconn.edu with any questions.