Enhancing Educator Knowledge of Sheep and Goat Production

Enhancing Educator Knowledge of Sheep and Goat Production

Summary

Increasing interest in sheep and goat production in the Southern Region has been noticed in recent years. Cooperative Extension agents and other educators are in many cases not knowledgeable about small ruminants, and there is a need to train the educators so that they may better serve the farmers. Resources will be helpful, and especially resources that encourage sustainable production of sheep and goats. Communication among researchers, agents, and farmers will also be useful in increasing knowledge of sheep and goat production.

A group of farmers, researchers, and NRCS and CES agents met in August of 2002 in Fayetteville, AR, to brainstorm a list of topics important to sustainable sheep and goat production. This list has been organized and condensed and was used to construct a Small Ruminant Sustainability Checksheet. This document is meant to be used by educators and farmers to help farmers evaluate and improve the sustainability of their sheep or goat enterprises within their whole farm plan.

On March 26, 2004, a group of cooperators met in Fayetteville, AR to discuss revisions to the Checksheet, materials for a training manual to be offered to agents, and a schedule for workshops to be held in the next six months in Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Arkansas. In the year following this meeting, the group has worked to complete the Checksheet and the training manuals, planned and taught workshops in all the states involved, produced a CD that contains the contents of the training manual, presented information at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas, and engaged in several complementary activities. As of April 13, 2005, the project is nearly complete. The Small Ruminant Sustainability Checksheet and related materials are available by calling 1-800-346-9140 (toll-free number for the ATTRA project), or on-line at www.attra.ncat.org (look in the “Livestock” section and then under “Hogs, Sheep, and Goats.”)

Objectives/Performance Targets

Producers and educators will cooperatively design a sheep and goat checksheet, and use it as a tool in assessing the sustainability of a sheep or goat farm or enterprise.

Through workshops, demonstrations, and farm visits, educators’ knowledge increases and they improve their ability to work with small ruminants.

Through the establishment of a listserv, educators and producers in the Southern region are actively engaged in communication about research needs, educational opportunities, and practical methods of overcoming challenges or small ruminant production.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Since the spring of 2003, the Small Ruminant Sustainability Checksheet has been written, and drafts have been tested by farmers and Extension agents in at least six states (AR, KY, NC, GA, OK, and TX). Feedback has been generally positive, though several agents are concerned that the length of the document will make it less likely to be used. The farmers who have tested the checksheet think that it is a helpful tool, and note that it takes about 2 ½ hours to read and answer the questions.

On March 26, 2004, a group of cooperators met in Fayetteville, AR, to work on revisions to the checksheet and to discuss the manual and workshops. This group included:
Farmers—Jack Black, AR goat producer; Delane Wright, AR goat and cattle producer; Jim Morgan, AR hair sheep producer; Ken Hargis, AR wool producer; Linda and Ken Coffey, AR wool sheep and dairy goat producers
Extension agents—Dr. Jodie Pennington, AR State Livestock Specialist; Steve Morgan, GA CES agent; Johnny Gunsaulis, AR CES agent
NRCS agents—Dr. Ron Morrow, AR State Grasslands Specialist, and author of previous checksheets for beef and for dairy production; Rhonda Foster, AR NRCS
Researchers—Dr. Jean-Marie Luginbuhl, NCSU; Dr. Steve Hart, Langston University; Dr. Ken Coffey, University of AR; Dr. Dianne Hellwig, D.V.M., Berea College, and wooled sheep producer (called in on conference phone)
NCAT staff—Dr. Ann Wells, D.V.M., author of previous checksheets for beef and dairy and member of the Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners; Tim Johnson, Linda Coffey, and Margo Hale

Each of the participants came well-prepared with a marked-up copy of the checksheet draft, and all contributed to a great discussion. The changes suggested by the group were made, another draft was circulated for comment, and finally the document was submitted to formatters. The finished Checksheet was published and distributed through the ATTRA Web site in July, 2004, and included a brief “QuickStart” version, several appendices, and the Small Ruminant Resource List. The resource list and the QuickStart are offered as individual documents, because we believe they will make useful handouts for educators to use with producer groups and at conferences. These pieces offer a quick way to help farmers, and we hope they will lead to use of the full Checksheet.

In addition to the documents offered on the ATTRA site and through the ATTRA toll-free line, we produced a trainer’s manual that has been very well-received. This manual is organized to match the sections of the Checksheet, and it includes ATTRA publications pertinent to the subject, as well as publications from other sources. Each section also includes a list of further resources. The manual comes in a sturdy 3-inch binder and includes a pocket with a CD copy of the materials. This makes it possible for an agent to use the materials in a form that is most useful at the time. The CDs are cheap to produce, and we can offer agents the option of requesting copies of the CD for producers. For those with computers but slow Internet access, the CD saves a great deal of time, because the publications can be downloaded so easily. So far, we have produced and distributed 180 of the binders and more than 300 of the CDs.

The main objective of the workshops offered through this project is to give the trainers an understanding and appreciation of Whole Farm Planning and sustainability, especially in the context of small ruminant production. The main goals of the workshops are to show the trainers how to use the Small Ruminant Sustainability Checksheet, how to teach it, where to get more help, and to give the trainers hands-on experience with sheep and goats.

To meet these goals, we planned to hold the workshops on sheep and goat farms and use them as visible examples. Dr. Ron Morrow (NRCS) and Dr. Ann Wells (Springpond Holistic Animal Health), cooperators on this project, have successfully used this strategy to teach agents about sustainable livestock production during previous SARE-funded projects.

After the training materials were ready, we began to hold workshops to “train the trainers.” To date, these workshops have been held in Kentucky (2 sessions), Arkansas (2 sessions), North Carolina, and Georgia (2 sessions). Feedback has been very positive, and several of the agents attending have asked whether we could help them offer producer workshops using the materials from this project. Further details about the workshops will be included in the final report, as several of the workshops were held in March 2005, and reports are not complete.

In addition to the planned activities, project leader and cooperators took advantage of a golden opportunity to extend this project to other states and regions. In February 2005, the annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) was held in Little Rock, Arkansas, convenient to several of the project participants. Many researchers who work in the area of small ruminants attended sessions specific to small ruminant production research and extension, and we used this opportunity to give a presentation about the checksheet project and to distribute CD copies of the Small Ruminant Resource Manual. Dr. Will R. Getz of Fort Valley State University gave the PowerPoint presentation, and Dr. Jean-Marie Luginbuhl and Dr. Jim Morgan were present during the session and also helped inform others about the project. During that session, there was some discussion about possible uses of the QuickStart, and much interest was shown in the project.

At the same meeting, NCAT intern and University of Arkansas graduate student Margo Hale gave a poster presentation about the project. This was in the Agricultural Education session, and reached a different audience from the above-mentioned presentation. Margo fielded questions from several interested persons and gave out several CDs.

Cooperator Dr. Jodie Pennington extended this project further by applying for and receiving a SARE Enhancement Grant. He used these funds to offer a three-day tour of Missouri meat goat farms and a graded goat and sheep buying station. This tour was available to Arkansas CES agents and to grant cooperators, and it was a great way for agents to gain information and see the whole farm planning principles in action. The farmers who allowed us to come to their farms were very gracious and informative, and gave us all valuable clues to the needs of producers of various kinds of goat farms. The agents who attended were all unanimous about the value of this tour, and about our gratitude to Dr. Pennington and to Mark Kennedy, Missouri NRCS, who made all the arrangements for us, and to SARE, which provided the funds.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

As a result of this project, communication has increased among researchers, farmers, and educators in the Southern region. Opportunities for further cooperation are great, and other collaborative efforts are being planned. The checksheet will be used as a basis for educational efforts in the Southern region and beyond, and the Small Ruminant Resource Manual will help agents to assist producers with their questions. This manual, coupled with the hands-on training the agents received at workshops, will increase the confidence of the agents and expand their willingness to get involved with sheep and goat producers.

A Small Ruminant Resource List has been compiled as an appendix to the checksheet, and this list will provide agents with help in finding websites, books, publications, suppliers, and organizations to help farmers. This list will also be useful as a handout offered by agents to farmers to provide resources for their needs.

The QuickStart (two-page summary of the Checksheet questions, designed to help steer farmers to the areas they most need to improve) will serve the needs of farmers who do not have the time or interest to work the full Checksheet. Agents have pointed out that the QuickStart will be a useful tool for them to use with a group of farmers as well. They anticipate handing out the QuickStart forms during a meeting, asking the farmers to take a few minutes to fill it out, and then collecting them. The summary of responses will help agents to plan programming for the year, as they can tailor speakers and workshops and other educational efforts to the areas that are the biggest problems for the group. Agents are excited about the possibilities of using this document as a quick and easy screening tool.

The interest and confidence built in inexperienced agents as a result of this project and the training and resources offered will help producers in the Southern region. They will find agents better equipped to help them with their sheep or goat production questions, and this support will be valuable to producers as the sheep and goat industries continue to grow.

Collaborators: