Diversifying with Small Ruminants for Profitability

Diversifying with Small Ruminants for Profitability

Summary

PASA is coordinating field days, intensive learning programs, conference workshops and regional group meetings for small ruminant producers for the purpose of encouraging stewardship and farm profitability. It is our hope that current producers will see an improvement in management and profitability as a result of attending our programs, while others will gain the confidence to introduce small ruminants into existing operations.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Of 250 farmers participating in this project, 35 will attend at least half of the technical programs and 25 will use the trainings to successfully introduce small ruminants to diversify operations or implement a change to significantly improve profitability of existing operations.

Accomplishments/Milestones

PASA’s goal for the 2007 field day season was to hold three field days attracting 150 farmers. We actually held four field days with a total of 134 attendees.

Field Days of 2007:
1. Grazing, Browsing and Fencing for Small Ruminants, June 20, 2007
2. Naturally Raised Livestock, July 19, 2007
3. Pastured Poultry and Small Ruminants on a Shoe String Budget, July 26, 2007
4. Parasite Control in Small Ruminants with Dr. David Pugh, September 27, 2007

PASA hosted one Intensive Learning Program that enabled 12 farmers to spend two full days working on holistic planning for their farms. Our instructor, Karl North lent a small-ruminant focus, as his business is a sheep dairy in New York.

1. Holistic Decision Making for Farmers,
November 2 and 3, 2007

We are very pleased to have put together a stellar line-up of workshops and an entire pre-conference track at the 2008 Farming for the Future conference. Sandra Miller, a member of our advisory committee has organized an all-day Thursday program at the conference exclusively on Small Ruminants including the following presentations:

Goat Nutrition from A to Z and Managing Parasites with Steve Hart, Ph.D., Langston University
Managing Goats on Pasture and Browse with Tatiana Stanton, Ph.D., Cornell University
Sustainable Sheep: Farm Products and Ecological Services with Karl North, Northland Sheep Dairy
Managing Goats for Prescribed Grazing with Kathy Voth, Livestock for Landscapes
From Grass to Garment: Fiber Farm Production with Linda Singley, Bearlin Acres Farm & Phylleri Ball, Steam Valley Fiber Farm

We expect this pre-conference track to sell out at 80 participants. Also scheduled for the 2008 conference are four small ruminant related workshops. We anticipate approximately 200 people to benefit from these workshops.

1. The Secret Life of Goat and Sheep Gastrointestinal Worms
2. Alpacas: Profitable Livestock on a Small Farm
3. Parasite Controls in Small Ruminants
4. Feeding the World in Your Community: Capturing Ethnic Markets

This year the Educational Outreach department experienced a huge transition with Heather House leaving the position of Director after four years. Considering this change in staff, we have managed to maintain the small ruminant programming well despite my being new and having to learn the best publicity tactics, etc. One area we have fallen behind in is the regional producers meetings outlined in the grant. These meetings are still very important to us and upon the hiring of an associate in the Educational Outreach department this spring, we plan on establishing these meetings.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We are happy to report that we attracted a diverse group of farmers to our programs this year. The majority were PASA members, but we had registrations from many non-PASA members as well. From our exit surveys, we learned that the large majority of participants learned what they expected to learn and plan to make a change in their farming operation, business, or community as a result of something they learned at the event. For example, we learned that at least 17 farmers plan to implement changes in their rotational grazing/management practices and de-worming strategies as a result of the Parasite Control field day. The results from a Survey Monkey evaluation given to attendees of all field days show that in every category, when asked about knowledge/involvement before attending a PASA program compared to current level of knowledge/involvement, participants rated their current levels higher than before attending the event. This confirms that our programs are helping people change their practices and abilities in a positive way. Some of the comments received through our surveys indicate everything from learning about Project Grass and funding opportunities for their small ruminant farming operation, to learning about temporary fencing, to marketing improvements. I feel that significant changes in farming practices resulted from the programming we held this year.