Conference to be held for area livestock producers
Brian Rees, Ag Agent
Originally published 09:15 a.m., December 15, 2007
Updated 09:15 a.m., December 15, 2007
Seasons Greetings! I would like to take this chance to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Maybe we can move past the recent ice storm and on to more joyous and positive thoughts at this special time of year.
Most of the county was pretty fortunate in comparison with some of our neighbors to the west and north. Hopefully by the time this is printed everyone in the county will have electricity and life will be close to normal again, whatever that is. There was much damage to trees and some to fences, especially the farther north in the county that you traveled, but hopefully that can be cleaned up once the ice is all gone. The precipitation was very welcome to just about everyone except those feeding livestock this time of year.
What impact might the ice have had on the wheat crop? Time will be the determining factor, but it would appear that the moisture probably will have a much more positive effect on the crop than the icy covering might have hurt it. A 1.5 to 2 inch rain this time of year will go a long way with the wheat crop. And there was some wheat around that was in need of some moisture to get growing again.
If you have livestock, please mark your calendars for Jan. 16 or 17, 2008.
Would you like to improve the health and performance of your livestock? Would you like to lower the stress for both you and your animals? Would you like to improve the safety for you and your livestock when you work them? Have you thought about designing your working facilities to make handling the livestock more efficient?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may want to attend one of the “Low Stress Livestock Handling Seminars” scheduled in Emporia and Lawrence on Jan. 16 and 17.
Dr. Lynn Locatelli, veterinarian from Benkleman, Neb., will be teaching the seminars. Dr. Locatelli along with her partner in practice, Dr. Tom Noffsinger, have worked closely with renowned livestock handling expert Bud Williams to develop their low stress handling skills and directly apply them in client operations on a daily basis. Locatelli has shared her knowledge with producers at the Kansas Graziers Conference, Kansas Livestock Association convention and seminar series, and in other states.
Locatelli uses videos to show how to utilize livestock instincts to your advantage in handling them with little stress.
“Low stress handling techniques are one of the best returns on investment that a cattle producer can make,” Locatelli said. “We need to learn the universal law of cattle herding, and then use it to communicate to them what we want them to do.”
Two of the seminars will be aimed at cow/calf producers. They will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at Emporia Livestock Sales in Emporia, and on Thursday, Jan. 17 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Lawrence. These two seminars will have registration at 4:30 p.m. and run from 5 to 9:30 p.m. A seminar aimed at more feedlot cattle will be on Thursday, Jan. 17, at Emporia Livestock Sales. Registration is at 9 a.m. and the seminar will run from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The registration cost for each of the seminars is $25, which covers a meal and supplies. Pre-registration for the seminars is due by Jan. 11. To pre-register for the Emporia seminars, contact the Lyon County Extension Office at 341-3220 or brees@k-state.edu.
To pre-register for the Lawrence seminar, contact the Douglas County Extension Office at 785-843-7058 or bdwood@ksu.edu. The $25 registration may be paid at the door for the seminar, but space is limited, so pre-registration is a must. Questions may be directed to County Extension Agents Brian Rees in Emporia and Bill Wood at Lawrence.
Irsik and Doll Feed Services, Frontier Farm Credit, and Emporia Livestock Sales are cooperating sponsors for the seminars at Emporia. Intervet Inc., a part of Schering-Plough Corporation, is a cooperating sponsor for the seminar at Lawrence.