Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: corn, millet, oats, grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Animals: goats
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage, housing, parasite control, animal protection and health, feed rations, inoculants, manure management, mineral supplements, grazing - multispecies, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, preventive practices, range improvement, grazing - rotational, stockpiled forages, vaccines, watering systems, winter forage
- Crop Production: agroforestry
- Education and Training: decision support system, demonstration, display, extension, farmer to farmer, focus group, participatory research, study circle
- Farm Business Management: whole farm planning
- Natural Resources/Environment: afforestation, habitat enhancement
- Pest Management: disease vectors, genetic resistance, sanitation, weed ecology
- Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management
- Sustainable Communities: sustainability measures
Proposal abstract:
The Regional Goat Project with 6 collaborative states will provide professional training on sustainable goat production and marketing systems including forages, environmental aspects, economics, marketing, climate concerns, parasite and disease control, breeds and breeding, and outreach concerns for non-traditional producers and consumers. Multi-disciplinary expertise and educational materials will be shared across state lines. One facilitated regional conference will be held with professional and farmer participants from each collaborative state, and other interested states to review, expand, adapt, and develop goat production and marketing educational materials, and to develop and strengthen new multi-disciplinary, multi-state initiatives and educational teams. Kentucky State University, University of Kentucky, Fort Valley State University, Tennessee State University, University of Ternnessee, Prairie View A&M University, Langston University, Florida A&M University, collaborators.
Project objectives from proposal:
Objective 1. Agricultural professionals and paraprofessionals accept meat (and dairy) goats as sustainable farm enterprises for small farmers in the region. Upon accepting goats as a viable, sustainable enterprise, they will initiate farmer education and hands-on demonstration programs in their counties on sustainable goat production including feeds/forages, breeding programs, parasite control, environmental aspects, and economics. They will facilitate efforts to develop sustainable systems for goat production, marketing, and value-added goat products. They will facilitate efforts to develop farmer cooperatives, goat associations, marketing associations, and to identify potential markets for goats and goat products.
Objective 2. Agricultural professionals and paraprofessionals target educational programs to nontraditional clientele. Because many goat producers are nontraditional including Middle Eastern, Hispanic, African American, women, youth (4-H and FFA), religious groups, small and limited-resource farmers, educational programs for producers must include outreach and materials targeting nontraditional clientele. In developing and delivering educational programs, the professional must become sensitive to social and environmental issues as well as the economic and production aspects of the goat industry. As a result, the professional strengthens his or her social and outreach skills and acceptance leading to inclusion of diverse groups in Extension programming.
Objective 3. Agricultural professionals and farmers from across the Southern region will share expertise to develop multi-state, multidisciplinary teams (including 1890, 1862, and farmers). These teams will provide cross-state educational programming in sustainable goat production/marketing systems. They will develop mid-term and long-term collaborative initiatives to strengthen and continue their educational efforts. Agricultural professionals will broaden their scope of activities and become “system thinkers”.