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January 29-30
I’m attending the second annual Winter Green-Up Grass Fed Beef Conference at the Century House in Latham, NY.
The First speaker is someone whom I know very well… My very own Supervisor for this position… We all know him as “the Grass Whisperer” Troy Bishopp…
He decided to try for shock value by wearing a pair of “blinders” and he would be “led” in. It’s a metaphor for “farming with the blinders on” or farming the same way day in and out, year in and year out not really paying much attention to other ways things could be done.
Troy talked about his grazing farm and about the custom grazing he does on other properties.
He was proud to say that “Today, My cows were outside eating grass! Even at the end of January… Yes it can be done!”
After Troy, we listened to Ken Jaffe who gave a talk about Grazing and his marketing to restaurants in Metro New York.
After a Pleasant lunch we Listened to Terry Gompert give us a presentation about “Ultra High Stock Density Grazing” or sending a large group of grazing animals into a small paddock for a short period of time… sometimes moving the wire every 4-5 times per day…Some spoke of using “a million pounds” of beef on 1 acre for 1 hour…. Using the hoof action of these animals and their natural behavior in these tight groups, they will break up the soil surface a good portion of what has grown out there. According to the hand out given at the conference ” The results of such practices over the years have been reported to thicken stands, increase diversity, and increase production over TWO FOLD. Sounds like pretty powerful stuff… Holistic management provides the framework to help use this management scheme in context of a larger program.
Well A break then a fine dinner…
Then we listen to Dr. Allen Williams from Tallgrass Beef Company.
This picture says it all… for many farmers across America… it has been a tough year!
Dr Williams Spoke to us his tallgrass beef company…
The genetics of the animals to the challenges associated with maintaining the integrity of his product all the way to the store shelves.
For more info on his farm check out: http://www.tallgrassbeef.com/
Well thats all for Saturday,
Sunday started with Mark Deboo from Diamond D ranch in Montana…
Mark Gave us a talk about How he uses Line Breeding in his herd and how he transitioned from the traditional Grain-fed diet to an all forage diet.
After a short break, Eric Shelley and Clint Layne gave us all present a different perspective. Eric is a Butcher and he also runs the Meat Processing Facility at SUNY Cobleskill. Clint has been his business partner with Cowboys Custom Cutting. Eric and Clint talked about what graziers can do to improve the consistency and quality of grassfed beef.
A lot of info packed into a 2 day weekend!
Hopefully they have it again next year!
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The Grazing Adventures of FarminMike 