Fencing school April 15 in Owenton, Ky.

Spring goat events planned in East Texas

  

By Fred Vandermartin

The East Texas Goat Raisers Association Spring instructional and general membership meeting will be held at the ETGRA Home Place on Saturday, April 5^th starting at 10 a.m. The speaker will be Dr. Kelly Thompson, DVM from Prairie View A&M and she will be addressing the subject of general goat health. Dr. Thompson has worked with both the dairy and meat goat herds at PVA&M and will be ready to answer all of those questions ya’ll have been itching to ask! The election of officers will be addressed so if you want to cast your vote by mail and see how it was counted then come on to the meeting. There’s always other topics of discussion brought up so if you’d care to share an idea or propose something then stand and be heard. Of course we’ll also have our traditional pot luck dinner in between the instructional session and the general meeting so bring an appetite and a taste of your favorite vittles to share with others. I like desserts!  Directions to the ETGRA Home Place can be found at http://www.etgra.com/etgra_property_is_located_midway.ht.  Acting president Gwen Vandermartin has approved of this message!

   The East Texas Goat Raisers Association would like to invite Dairy Breeders to their inaugural April Showers Dairy Show on Saturday, April 12th, 2014 at the Navarro County Expo Center in Corsicana, Texas. This two ring ADGA Sanctioned show will feature the Junior/Senior Nigerian Dwarf, Junior/Senior Nubian, Junior/Senior AOP, Senior Alpine, and Senior LaMancha breeds. The Judge for ring A will be Scott Horner and the Judge for Ring B will be Tamara Taylor. ADGA rules will apply. Friday evening at 7 p.m. there will be an educational seminar and clinic given by Mr. Horner followed by a showmanship jackpot. Winner receives cash prize. For registration information please visit our show page at http://www.etgra.com/shows.htm or our Facebook events page at https://www.facebook.com/events/173213586209365/. We also have sponsorship opportunities. For more information contact Gwen VanderMartin at dewgoats@gmail.com. Also if anyone is interested in having a vendor table please let Gwen know. We also are going to have a Raffle/Silent auction as well.

    The East Texas Goat Raisers Association is sponsoring a Forages for Goats Seminar and Pasture Walk on Friday, May 16, 2014, in Alba, Texas.  The event will focus on practical information about forage and parasite management for goats and includes a pasture walk at Lake Fork Kikos. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. at the Family Community Center, 147 Hopkins Street, Alba, Texas (directly across the street from the U.S. Post Office).  Cost for the event, which runs until 4:00 p.m., is $15.00 per person and includes a delicious chevon lunch.  Advanced registration by phone (903-316-6959) or by email (kstemme@gmail.com) is greatly appreciated. Speakers at the seminar will be Clint Perkins / CEA-Ag Wood County, Ryan Walser / USDA-NRCS Grazing Lands Specialist, John Stone / USDA-NRCS District Conservationist, and Kraig Stemme, DVM.  Lake Fork Kikos, a 32 acre farm in Wood County, Texas, was the 2013 recipient of Top Herdsman Grand Champion Award from the Oklahoma Forage Buck Performance Test sponsored by the OSU Extension Service and Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, OK.

Tuskegee to host grazing/browsing program March 25-26

The Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension Program in collaboration with other land grant universities (Auburn, Langston, and Mississippi State), Alabama Natural Resources Conservation Service, and PadmaDal Memorial Foundation is conducting a 2-day training program – Sustainable Year-Round Forage Production and Grazing/Browsing Management (goat focus) for field agricultural professionals and livestock producers. Training will be conducted on March 25-26, 2014; March 24 and 27 will be the travel dates for those who will be coming a long way to Tuskegee. 

Program Objective

The objective of this program is to train field-level Extension and technical assistance personnel (hereafter field personnel) and livestock producers in year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management in the Southeast Region. The trained field personnel are expected to educate and help goat producers in the Southeastern Region make their production system more sustainable through pasture improvement and sustainable grazing management.

Major Training Topics

The training will consists of various topics relevant to year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management, such as agronomic aspects of forage production, sustainable grazing/browsing management, suitable forage species for developing year-round grazing systems for goats and cattle, grazing facilities for different grazing systems, browse species, supplementary feeding, weed management, resource conservation, and economics. Each topic will include hands-on activities

Detailed information (including program flyer, agenda, and registration form) is available at this link: http://drkarkiu.blogspot.com/2014/01/sustainable-year-round-forage.html

East Texas Spring Open Sale Saturday in Fairfield

• The East Texas Goat Raisers Association will hold The Spring Open Sale on March 15th, 2014 at the Ike Carden Arena in Fairfield, TX. Freestone County has a wonderful facility with covered pens, and a covered arena. This is an auction sale and is open to anyone who has goats for sale. Check-in begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at noon. Sale starts at 1 p.m. Consignors pay the commission of $7 per head for ETGRA members and $10 per head for non-ETGRA members. The PO Fee is $7 per head for ETGRA members and $10 per head for non-ETGRA members. Consignors can join the association the day of the sale and take advantage of the $7 per head commission or PO fee. Animals will be checked for signs of illness and registered animals must be tattooed. Please read the sales rules posted on the Sale Information page at http://www.etgra.com/sales.htm. Vendors are welcomed. The Eagle Country 4-H of Freestone Co. will be doing the concessions and helping out at the March sale.

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SW Missouri Sheep and Goat Conference March 22

Saturday, March 22, 2014 (Pre-register by March 18), Anderson, MO

McDonald CO Fairgrounds, 100 Mustang Lane (exit 5 from I-49-Hwy 71 to Hwy 76)  (Exit on Hwy 76 from Hwy 71; then southwest 0.7 mi to  Hwy 71B, left for 0.1 mi to Mustang Lane on left)

8:30-9:00 am — Registration—Rachael Kennedy and Christy Cole, Newton CO Goat Producers: Pre-register  for $10 by March 18; register at the door for $15.

9:00-9:10 am — Welcome, John Hobbs, University of Missouri, McDonald County Cooperative Extension Center, Pineville, MO

9:10-9:40 am — Goats Versus Hair Sheep for Browse Management, Dr. Jodie Pennington, Lincoln University   Cooperative Extension Service, Newton County Extension Center, Neosho, MO              

9:40-10-30 am — Parasite Control for Small ruminants, Dr. Steve Hart, Langston University, Langston, OK

10:30-11:10 am — Grades and Grading of Sheep and Goats, Mark Kennedy, Retired State Grazinglands Specialist,  NRCS, Houston, MO

11:10-11:45 — Overview of Budgets for Sheep and Goats, Jodie Pennington

11:45-12:30 — Lunch (provided in registration fee), questions, and view exhibits

12:30-1:15 pm — Panel: “How to make a profit with sheep and goats:  production and marketing?”, Questions and Answers, Information Exchange, TBA—some of the top producers in the area

Two Sessions:  

Session (A) 1:15-2:00 pm  — Pasture and Grazing Management, Mark Kennedy

                              2:00-2:40 pm  — Feeding of Small Ruminants, Steve Hart

                              2:40-3:15 pm  — Multi-species grazing, Mark Kennedy

Session (B) 1:15-3:15 pm  Fitting and Showmanship: in fairgrounds arena

Livestock Producers Affected by Severe Weather Urged to Keep Good Records

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2014 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Juan M. Garcia, today repeated his appeal to livestock producers affected by natural disasters such as the drought in the West and the unexpected winter storm in the upper Midwest to keep thorough records. This includes livestock and feed losses, and any additional expenses that are a result of losses to purchased forage or feed stuff. 


"The 2014 Farm Bill provides a strong farm safety net to help ranchers during these difficult times,” said Garcia. “We’ll provide producers with information on new program requirements, updates and signups as the information becomes available. In the meantime, I urge producers to keep thorough records. We know these disasters have caused serious economic hardships for our livestock producers. We’ll do all we can to assist in their recovery.”


In addition to western drought and the early-winter snowstorms, there are a variety of disasters from floods to storms to unexpected freezes. Each event causes economic consequences for farmers and ranchers throughout the United States. FSA recommends that owners and producers record all pertinent information of natural disaster consequences, including:


Documentation of the number and kind of livestock that have died, supplemented if possible by photographs or video records of ownership and losses; Dates of death supported by birth recordings or purchase receipts; Costs of transporting livestock to safer grounds or to move animals to new pastures; Feed purchases if supplies or grazing pastures are destroyed; Crop records, including seed and fertilizer purchases, planting and production records; Pictures of on-farm storage facilities that were destroyed by wind or flood waters; and Evidence of damaged farm land.


Visit www.fsa.usda.gov or an FSA county office to learn more about FSA programs and loans. For information about USDA’s Farm Bill implementation plan, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.