Sustainable Livestock Mortality Management

Sustainable Livestock Mortality Management

Summary

The Northeast Carcass Management (NCM) Team comprised of Mark Hutchinson, Craig Williams, Jean Bonhotal, and members of the “NESARE 55” (the group of Ag Service Providers from Cooperative Extension, NRCS, State Agriculture agencies and private consulting who were trained through this project) continued to provide regional and local training for agricultural service providers and producers in all thirteen NESARE states in 2010. Over 4500 clients have received information about sustainable carcass management techniques during 2010. This is a strong testament for the success of the Train the Trainer model. Team members also assisted in the development of sustainable carcass management policy for local and regional governments.

The core team conducted a telephone survey of the “SARE 55” members. Unfortunately, 10 of the original participants have changed jobs since the original trainings in 2008 and 2009. This was not unexpected because of the length of the program, 4 years.
This program continues to have a positive effect on sustainable carcass management methodology, implementation and policy in the Northeast.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Three years after training 60 Agriculture service providers (ASP) across the Northeast SARE region in sustainable carcass management through composting, 500 farmers will adopt composting as carcass management practices. Project duration 4 years.

Accomplishments/Milestones

From the core group of 60, 30 will provide feedback on Carcass Management Tools website design. 15 months (2008-2009). The Northeast Carcass Management Team opted to use webinars and survey monkey to assess educational material and program success instead of a website. A website is still in the plans for 2010.

The NCM team conducted a phone survey with the “NESARE 55” group. One of the questions was to assess who was still actively involved in carcass management education. We found that seven (13%) of the participants had actually changed jobs and additional an fourteen (25%) were no longer involved in carcass management issues for a variety of reasons. However, twenty three (42%) of the participants have become regional contacts for sustainable carcass management.

One of our goals was to use technology to disseminate information. Even though the webinars were well attended, less than 33% of the “NESARE 55” attended the webinars. They preferred to get information through hands-on workshops or written material. The NCM team is not willing to completely drop technology from their programming plan. Educating the clients on the use of the technology is necessary to increase participation.

The core group will form 20 teams which will host 50 educational programs for producers and agricultural service providers, transfer information through agricultural events and write articles for agriculture publications. Of the 20 teams, 12 will use video teleconferencing as part of their training. Years 2-3 of program (2009-2010)

Members of the NCM team in conjunction with members of the “NESARE 55” held 18 Sustainable Carcass Management training programs during 2010. These programs provided research based information to over 2250 participants. Participants for these programs were Agriculture Service Providers, producers and policy makers. The total number of training programs presented by service providers during 2009-2010 was 51, which exceeded our milestone of 50. However, none of the programs involved videoconferencing.

Additionally, over 2000 people received mailed information about sustainable carcass management for routine and catastrophic events.

Only three of the fifteen teams formed during the initial training worked together to provide regional training programs, hence the majority of the training programs offered were presented by individual service providers working in their local area. Geographic distance, time and change of program emphasis were all cited as reasons for not working in the teams. A stronger emphasis on team formation before attending the initial training may help to strengthen this area.

Core group (60) will participate in two video teleconferences to share successes and assess program progress. Year 3 (2010): This milestone was completed and reported in 2009.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Adoption of compost as a sustainable carcass management practice is becoming widely accepted throughout the Northeast. Over 950 livestock, poultry and equestrian operations reported that they are currently using compost as a method of carcass management. This number exceeds our goal of 500.

Collaborators: