Free national webinar on grass finished beef

Buster

Lovin' The Homestead
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October 20 at 1:00 PM Eastern time.

www.attra.ncat.org/webinars2010/grassbeef

From the site (god I hate the term "niche" for sustainable ag)...

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Grass-finished beef is part of a growing niche market of farm products that can command higher market prices and bring more to a farmer's bottom line. Consumers are concerned with the health attributes of meat products and are becoming more educated on grass-based production systems effect on environmental sustainability.

During this hour-long webinar you'll learn how farmers, large and small, are using more pasture and less grain to produce high quality meat products and how they compete in the market place. Using more pasture can cut input costs for producers and may allow alternative meats the ability to be more competitive in the marketplace. But challenges in grass-based meat production exist, especially for small-scale producers who have a hard time finding access to processing plants.


This webinar covers the following topics:

Animal selection
Scheduling the grazing season for grass-finished beef
Cattle nutrition and pasture management
Integrating cattle into cropping systems
Equipment and fencing
The market for grass-finished beef
Cost of production, price expectations, and profitability
Labeling and processing barriers

Presenters for this webinar are NCAT agriculture specialists Jeff Schahczenski and Lee Rinehart. Schahczenski has expertise in agricultural public policy and alternative livestock marketing and economics. Rinehart, a former extension agent and beef cattle ranch manager, provides technical assistance to farmer and ranchers on sustainable pasture management.

NOTE: The time of the webinar is 1:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 noon Central, 11:00 AM Mountain. Please join the webinar 10 minutes early to allow the required software applet to download.
 

Buster

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The webinar was a split decision for me. The guy doing the production side was genuinely enthusiastic and knew a lot about grass fed beef. I've decided Dexters are the way to go for us.

The guy who did the marketing side was a huge skeptic about the benefits of either grass finished beef or organic in general. Even when he was saying something nice about it he had to throw in caveates. He is obviously the conventional ag type who reports on this stuff merely because it is so popular now. I've seen speakers like this at sustainable ag workshops and they always irritate me.

But he did have SOME helpful info. It was his attitude that stunk. So, on balance I liked the program. Take the good, leave the bad. Wish the first guy had done the whole thing.

Anyway, the webinar will be archived at the site at www.attra.ncat.org in a couple of days, if you want to catch it. I'm going to check to see if they have others archived there.
 
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