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Texas
Agriculture Archive
July 5, 2002
Beef Cattle Short Course
due Aug. 5-7
Beef producers will have the opportunity to select and participate in two full days of "Cattleman's College" at the 2002 TAMU Beef Cattle Short Course to be held on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station Aug. 5-7, 2002. The Beef Cattle Short Course is a two and one-half day long beef cattle industry educational program.
"According to past participant surveys, the Cattleman's College is the most highly rated educational activity of the entire Beef Cattle Short Course," said Dr. Larry Boleman, conference coordinator. "Over 95 percent of last year's participants responded that they learned and adopted practices from Cattleman's College that would benefit their operations. This year's Cattleman's College has been extended and participants can select from over 50 hours of beef cattle instructional training through seminars, workshops and mini-symposiums to fit their own personnel needs."
The training will be taught by more than 40 different beef cattle speakers. On Monday, Aug. 5, seminars and mini-symposiums will be taught covering a wide variety of topics including Basic Ranch Management, EPDs and Carcass Trait Evaluation, Grazing Management, and Nutrition and Health of BQA Calves. Also scheduled for Monday is a Pesticide Applicator Training Special Session for those having a hard time finding training requiring specialized CEUs. CEUs are also offered for many of the other training sessions.
Mini-symposiums and seminars will be offered concurrently on the opening day of the Beef Cattle Short Course. The opening general session will be held Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. and will be followed by the Tuesday morning general session. Tuesday afternoon's general session alternative choices will include Beef Quality Assurance Training for producers that have not previously received Level II Training from across the state, a Producers Forum, and Purebred Data Base Symposium. A specialized in-depth training program for producers that have already completed the Level I BQA has been developed by the TAMU Beef Quality Faculty Committee and will include the certification process, management plan, and the management record keeping systems.
Cattleman's College will resume on Wednesday morning with mini-symposiums and workshops that will offer producers a more hands-on learning environment. Mini-symposiums will cover Cattle Production and Financial Record An-alysis Management, and Integrated Toxic Plant Management. Live cat-tle workshops will be offered including a Beef Cattle Management Working Demonstration, Cow Herd Reproduction Management Practices and Breeding Soundness Demonstration. Attendees may choose between the seminars and workshops based on their specialized needs in training and actually design their own personalized curriculum.
"The seminars and mini-symposiums are in-depth management training with the latest technology, and the workshops are more hands-on, visual demonstrations with live cattle and the most current cutting-edge information," said Boleman.
Rick Machen, Extension Livestock specialist, has developed a comprehensive Basic Ranch Management Program, which should prove very popular. This series of topics will be the perfect training session for new or novice beef producers, with discussions about the packing industry, "From Pasture to Plate," a well designed health management program, pasture weed control, and procedures for culling cows and selecting bulls for greater profitability.
Extension Specialist Joe Paschal will coordinate the Breeds and Breeding Systems seminar with a panel discussion, including a question and answer session about herd performance, and basics of bull evaluation for traits used in selection programs. This seminar will also include choosing breeds and building systems to optimize the market value of calves by Dr. Steve Hammack. Extension Agronomist Larry Redmon coordinates the Grazing Management Seminar with instructors Ray Smith, Vincent Haby, David Bade, Monty Rouquette, Bill Ocumpaugh, and Larry White. This group is planning a comprehensive Grazing Management School, with topics covering Utilization of Legumes for South, East, Central, and Southeast Texas, Alfalfa Production in Texas, as well as range management programs.
Dennis Herd, Extension Beef Cattle Nutrition specialist, will coordinate a seminar covering total management concepts for managing nutrition to decrease stress and increase immunity intended for specialized marketing programs. This seminar will include a discussion about the role of vaccines, the effects of parasites on immunity, source verified and backgrounded calves, VAC-45, nutrition of weaned calves, and the influence of protein, energy, minerals, and vitamins on health and efficiency.
Four Beef Production and Management Workshops will be offered in Wednesday morning's Cattleman's College. Extension Specialist Ron Gill is coordinating a Live Beef Cattle Management Working Demonstration. This workshop will focus on hands-on management practices for the beef quality assurance programs and vaccination procedures. Drs. Sprott and Sterle will provide a demonstration on live bull fertility testing, pregnancy ultrasound demonstration, and the female reproductive tract dissection indicating reproductive disease problems. Extension Economist Dr. Jim McGrann will coordinate the Beef Cattle Production and Financial Record Management Workshop. Producers will be provided information on beef management record keeping and financial record keeping software and there will be demonstrations of the various types by academic and industry professionals.
Dr. Bruce Carpenter, Extension Livestock specialist, is coordinating an "Integrated Toxic Plant Management" program discussing the more than 100 species of plants toxic to livestock. Discussion will include the 4-step process for managing livestock and toxic plants by professors John Reagor and Charles Hart.
The planning committees of the Beef Cattle Short Course identified a need for offering training leading to licensing for pesticide application for the producers of Texas. Dr. Don Renchie is coordinating three hours of CEU training featuring talks in pasture insects, calibration and drift management, laws and regulations.
Early course registration will continue until July 26 at $100 per person. Late registration and on-site registration will be available for $120/person. For further information or a registration form please visit the Beef Cattle Short Course website at http://animalscience-extension.tamu.edu/beef/shortcourse.html or contact Amy Perrin, Allyson St.Cyr, or Jenna Smith at (979) 845-3579.
