Regional Goat Production and Marketing Project

Regional Goat Production and Marketing Project

Summary

The project collaborators were contacted and began plans for upcoming project activities. Goat educational meetings were held at Langston University and Prairie View A&M University prior to the official starting date of this project.

Upon notification to begin the project (August), Tennessee State University offerred a “Third Tuesday on Saturday”, September 25, 2004 Goat Field Day under the leadership of An Peischel. Topics included goat selection and grading, carcass fabrication, cooperative marketing alliances, the scrapie program, herd health maintenance, pastures for goats, feeding goats in confinement, minerals, basic goat cooking methods, and a list of resources. The program ended with a goat producer roundtable lead by Legg Farm (Bill Legg), Circle G Farm (Steve and Connie Gilliam), and Big Spring Farm (Gregg Brann). An Peischel’s “Goats Unlimited Farm” provided the goats for demonstrations. Participants numbered 210. A proceedings of the educational materials was published and made available to Extension and the public.

Kentucky State University had its March 18 “Third Thursday” Goat Day prior to the start of the project with 105 participants. Topics included general goat production, adding value to meat goats, non-food value-added goat products and marketing to diverse consumers (given by SARE-PDP recipient Betty King), and a hands-on program on parasites, forages, forbs, health and handling, a goat calendar, and a producer forum. The October 21 “Third Thursday” Goat Day had 75 participants. Topics included parasite management, nurse nanny utilization, dairy goat nutrition, value-added marketing (given by SARE-PDP recipient Betty King), understanding the FAMACHA test, temporary fencing (given by SARE-On Farm Research Grant recipient Terry Hutchens), sustainable small ruminant production (given by SARE-R&E recipient Diane Helwig),a goat production listening forum, and a hands-on workshop.

Paul Sizemore participated in the Langston Goat Day and spent a day shadowing a Langston research-extension specialist for his professional development. He offerred a goat workshop in Owsley County, KY, in the fall of 2005 for area agents and producers with nearly 65 participants. Kentucky State University Small Farm paraprofessional, Wanda Miick, hosted an Area Goat Field Day in Russell County with nearly 200 participants. “Hank” Schweickart and Terry Hutchens were the featured presenters.

Initial planning for the regional conference and state meetings for the upcoming year were discussed among collaborators (reported under 2005 Annual Report on April 12, 2005 and in this paragraph). The regional goat conference and educational materials development conference is scheduled for August 1-4, 2005 at Langston University and Oklahoma City. Final plans are underway for the Prairie View A&M University Goat Day on May 14, the April Tennessee State University Goat Day, and the May Goat Day at Langston University. Kentucky State University employed a Livestock Animal Scientist (primary responsibility goats) on January 18, 2005, who joined the collaborative team. The March 17 “Third Thursday” Goat Day had an attendance of 150. The program included marketing and grading, goat care and kidding, the Scrapie Program, goat USAIP identification issues, goat dairy issues and milk/cheese safety, current health issues in Kentucky, practical applications for goat selection for improved genetics, growth, and performance, two goat marketing issues producer listening forums, and hands-on sessions. Kentucky State University Small Farm paraprofessionals were provided with “kidding kits” for demonstrational use in their county producer education programs, plus they were taught to use each item that is included in the kit.

Objectives/Performance Targets

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 farmers 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 developing materials for 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 social and outreach skills and acceptance leading to inclusion of diverse groups.

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 midterm and long term collaborative initiatives to strengthen and continue their educational efforts. Agricultural professionals will broaden their scope of activities and become “system thinkers”.

Target 1. Each collaborator will conduct at least one agricultural professional training workshops for 1890 and 1862 Extension staff in their respective states. Farmers, farmer mentors, researchers, USDA, state Department of Agriculture, teachers and other agricultural professionals will be included. The educational workshops to include sustainable goat production systems, forages, diseases, parasites, breeds and breeding systems, environmental concerns, economics and marketing in the educational workshops. The training programs will include hands-on demonstrations and farmer educators. Each state will host at least one listening forum (as a part of the workshops) for farmers and Extension staff to identify the major Extension Agent and farmer training needs, educational materials needed, and research needed on sustainable goat production/marketing systems. Over 1,000 agricultural professionals and farmer mentors in the Southern region will receive training on sustainable goat production/marketing systems and over 400 farmers will provide input through the listening forums. At least one training workshop will include a session on outreach needs for diverse producers/consumers including sensitivity and bilingual considerations.
Target 2. The collaborative team will host one regional meeting to include agricultural professionals and goat producers from each state, plus invited participants who are involved in sustainable goat production systems. These participants, via a facilitated meeting, will identify regional goat education strengths and weaknesses, existing educational materials, potential collaborative multi-state, multi-disciplinary educational and research efforts, and new educational materials that need to be developed or adapted. This information will be used in developing educational initiatives, programming, and new materials. Existing and newly developed goat educational and research materials will be shared among collaborators for use in their Extension programming and training sessions. These materials to include sustainable production, marketing, parasite and disease management, breeds and breeding, forages, environmental concerns, and outreach needs.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Once the project commenced in September, educational programs in 2005 had over 550 participants in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Also reported under the 2005 Annual Report, the March 17, 2005 Kentucky State University “Third Thursday” Goat Day had an attendance of 150 and included two goat marketing issues producer listening forums. Kentucky State University Small Farm paraprofessionals were provided with “kidding kits” for demonstrational use in their county producer education programs, plus they were taught to use each item that is included in the kits.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

At this time, the impacts of the program have not been measured. However, there have been multi-disciplinary and multi-state educational programs that included recipients of SARE projects (PDP, On-Farm Research, and the R&E programs) as presentors.

The October, 2004 Kentucky State University “Third Thursday” Goat Days included these SARE project recipients as presentors: Diane Helwig (SARE-R&E Sustainable Ruminant Project), Terry Hutchens (SARE On-Farm Research Goat Forage, Intensive Grazing, and Parasite Project), and Betty King (SARE-PDP Goat Food and Non-Food Value-Added Products Projects).

Collaborators: