Third annual Grass Grazing and Animal Management School begins Jan. 15
The 10-month Grass Grazing and Animal Management School coordinated by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office in Hemphill County will kick off Jan. 15 in Canadian.
The school will meet from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. each third Monday of the month through October in the Hemphill County Exhibition Center’s Sand Sage Room at 10865 Exhibition Center Road, said Andy Holloway, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Hemphill County.
Registration is $350 per producer. Those planning to attend can preregister by calling the AgriLife Extension office at 806-323-9114. Payment should be sent to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service-Hemphill County, 10865 Exhibition Center Road, Canadian, Texas 79014.
“This is 40 hours of in-depth training on grass grazing and animal management here in the Texas Panhandle,” Holloway said. “This will be the third year for this class and we are limited to the first 30 to register for the course.”
Course instructor will be Tim Steffens, AgriLife Extension range specialist in Canyon.
Topics will be as follows:
Economics of a grazing-based operation with an emphasis on cow-calf production;
Basic understanding of ecological processes and how grazing affects the process;
How plants react to defoliation, and ramifications for the plant and its competitive ability with neighbors, risks associated with drought;
Animal nutrition and reproduction;
Livestock interaction with the plants, e.g. distribution, selection of diet;
Managed grazing to achieve desired economic, production and rangeland goals;
Goal-setting and monitoring to determine progress toward those goals; and
Infrastructure development and planning.
“This school is the first of its kind in Texas A&M AgriLife and is based on the vision and dream of Dr. Steffens and his desire to assist beef cattle producers to produce more profit and create greater stewardship over the land, wildlife, cattle and other natural resources here in the Texas Panhandle,” Holloway said. “To date we have had ranchers from nine Texas counties and two other states take this course.”
