Past Events

Annual Workshop of the Hawaii Sheep & Goat Association. I will give three presentations during the 2-Day Workshop: (1)  Management Intensive Grazing. (2)  Nutrient Deficiencies in Forage-based Diets. (3)  Technology Tools for Small Farmers.

DSANA. My sessions will be on forage and grazing management, technology updates and transfers, etc.

Guest lecturer for the Course VMC 720 (Veterinary Clinical Nutrition) at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. This course is now required for first year veterinary students. Topics that I will cover in this 2-hour class: Rumen physiology, nutritional terms, basic nutrition concepts (energy, protein, etc.), components of feed analyses, fiber digestion, herbivore anatomy and architecture, forage nutritional quality, scoring hay.

At the DCLA Spring Livestock Conference, Sutherlin, Oregon: My talk (4:30-5:30) is entitled "New Forages, Traits We Can Use". I'll focus on the new species and cultivars that can be utilized in PNW pastures on the west side of the Cascades (Western Oregon, Western Washington, and the north Coastal area of California). Forages like the improved hybrid brassicas, BMR sorghum-sudangrass, Grazing Brome, Italian Ryegrass, Balansa and Persian clovers, the new cultivars of Tall Fescue, and a few surprising others. This…

I will give a 1-hour session on the basics of MIG -- Management Intensive Grazing. This will be part of a day-long workshop that focuses on fencing and pasture management. Other speakers will present information on techniques for electric fencing, fence construction, stream-bank erosion, Federal programs for riparian restoration and fencing. The entire day's workshop will be held outdoors, in a beautiful field next to the Coquille River in Coos County, Oregon. Instructor on fencing will be Randy Bailey of…

At the Black Sheep Gathering, Eugene, Oregon: I will conduct a practical workshop on how to feed sheep and goats. We’ll cover the basic principles of energy and protein nutrition and how to apply these principles to day-to-day choices of rations and feeds. We’ll focus on the different periods of your animals’ production cycle: growth, flushing, gestation, lactation, and weaning. Some topics will include matching animal needs with pastures, growing replacement animals, how, what, and when to supplement grain, vitamins…

At the Rogue Valley Dairy Goat Association Educational Day, Central Point, Oregon. I will give two 90-minute presentations (including Q&A): 1.  Basic Goat Nutrition -- The nutritional calendar of dairy goats throughout their production year. What they need nutritionally, how to feed them, practical issues. Some common nutritional terms. How to reduce feed costs, avoid nutritional problems, and raise healthy goats. 2.  Minerals and Vitamins for Dairy Goats -- A review of what goats need, what to feed, what to…

I will give three 75-minute sessions on livestock nutrition, especially focusing on goats: Session #1: Basic Dairy Goat Nutrition 101 Session #2: Minerals -- Practical Tips, Common Problems Session #3: Vitamins -- Surprisingly, Less is More

There is nothing else like them: producer groups. New Zealand, Australia, England, South America – shepherds in these areas regularly join and attend producer groups, often for many years. Why? Because producer groups work. Sheep producers and other farmers and ranchers meet on a regular basis, share knowledge and experience, gain up-to-date information from guest speakers and other sources, evaluate their own operations, try new techniques, improve productivity, and gain immeasurable knowledge to help their operations expand and be profitable.…

Workshop Name: "Tips, Tips, Tips: Practical Notes for Sheep & Goat Producers" This will be one of the most useful and down-to-earth production workshops you’ve ever attended. We will cover dozens of sheep and goat topics and give practical tips about them. Lambing, kidding, flushing, breeding, late-gestation nutrition, feeding in the jug, bottle-feeding, weaning, minerals, vitamins, reading those feed-tags, new feed regulations. Details on copper, selenium, lambing percentages, and how and when to take forage and feed samples. Nutritional problems…

I will give a short presentation "The Future for Effective Sheep Industry Information: From the Spooner Station to Producer Groups" Since the Spooner sheep flock will be dispersed this fall, this will be the 64th and last Spooner Sheep Day.

This is a 5-session course: Sept. 16, Sept. 17, Sept. 20, Sept. 22, and Sept. 23. The session on Sept. 17th will occur from 10-12 and 1:30-3:30. All the other sessions will be from 5:30-9:00 pm. Details are on the class website. On Tuesday, Sept. 20, I will give a presentation on "Managing A Forage Chain" -- this will be about raising livestock on forages, particularly grazing conditions in western Oregon.