SBC/GW's Journal- Spring shows DONE! & Update

[animalmom]

Maybe @Southern my choice has an exceptional good agent. The one here for my county is about as useful as teats on a boar... never in the office unless the question/problem has to do with the dairy industry, then he falls all over himself coming up with solutions. But the homesteader can just forget about any useful assistance.

Go in and get buried in brochures that are not all that helpful, ask about help growing your vegetable garden and get handed a soil test bag and told to follow the directions. You get the result back in lab talk that even the county agent doesn't understand. Useless.

And don't get me started on the FFA here. If it ain't meat it doesn't rate as far as they are concerned. Want to do rabbit in the FFA well there's some teacher assigned but no one who knows rabbit or how to set the rabbit up or how to teach the kids what they need to do or know or anything. Throw three rabbits at a kid and tell him to bring them back for the judging. Good luck.

Does make me a wee bit miffed. I expect better our of a rural county especially one with a university.

 

[babsbag]

Agent...we have an agent? Just kidding as I know that we do but I have no idea what they do as I never hear them mentioned in any fashion. And they have never been mentioned by anyone in my goat assoc. and no suggesting that we use them as a speaker on any topic at of our education days. Back in the day that I was a city dweller in another county I was a Master Gardener and I used to use the extension for many things related to gardening, including fruit trees. The director or head guy was a merit badge counselor for Scouts and did all the Ag badges. Not sure about here.

I am going to hijack this thread for a minute. @greybeard, do you or anyone you know test their cattle for Johne's? I want to by a bottle calf at auction and sell it at about 3-4 months as I don't have a way to raise one to butcher age. Someone mentioned Johne's and suggested I not do it. But it isn't that prevalent in beef cattle and the calf wouldn't be shedding the virus when they are young. Just wondering what your experience is, if any, with Johne's and beef cattle.

 

[greybeard]

No, I don't test for it and don't know anyone locally that does. It's not a reportable disease in Texas beef industry either unless it's been added to the list recently.
From what I know about it tho, calves are just as much if not more susceptible to Johnes as any mature cattle.
More prone to have been exposed during birth and to lay in manure and bunched with like aged stock if they come from a purebred seedstock breeder.
If I were a seedstock producer or was bringing a lot of outside replacements, I probably would test for it. Diarrhea is one of the things I look for when buying calves or replacemnts, especially private treaty. Not unusual for sale barn cattle to get the runs but you can usually tell if they've had it for a while by their backsides and overall condition.

 

[greybeard]

The one here for my county is about as useful as teats on a boar... never in the office unless the question/problem has to do with the dairy industry, then he falls all over himself coming up with solutions.

Probably at a school somewhere..

 

[BoboFarm]

I was the poultry coordinator for FFA through high school. We did presentations for 3rd graders for our Ag Fair. We had over 600 kids attend the fair each year! It was an amazing opportunity for us and for the students that came.

 

[Southern by choice]

County agents in this state now spend so much time, effort and $$ resources on 4h/FFA, youth in general and on hobby farms that it's almost impossible for a commercial producer to get any assistance other than his office assistance trying to hand you some brochure or handout.
Nutrition or mineral problems? Forget it. They'll just refer you to a feed mill rep or "Go talk to 'Bob Smith' over on FMxxx, I think he had the same problems and may have figured it out". One of our previous agents flat told me he didn't have time to do anything with commercial operations and we were the ones that are supposed to be able to tell everyone else everything about anything in the cow business.

Foster the improvement of agriculture and agribusiness.

Maybe @Southern my choice has an exceptional good agent.

We have a really great agent. She grew up in this county. Born and raised farmgirl. Her family has run cattle, horses, and poultry houses.
They do alot for cattle here because it is a cattle county. Most workshops are cattle related and pasture related. The focus in reality is revenue makers.
This is why dairy goats will never be a focus group.

At the same time they do work with and encourage new people getting into farming. The majority of newcomers are sheep and meat goat people. They are turning into producers.
Cattle, first... then sheep and goat.

They do a lot of workshops. Last year not as many because of other circumstances but there were 28 courses.

The 4-h's... from what I see 80% are already farm kids... alot to do with cattle. But they are doing many other things too. Meat goats are pretty big and poultry.
The group of kids just got first place in judging. (cattle)

Now, our sister county does alot with crops. The agent is really good there but I notice the focus and many workshops are all about "climate change, global blah blah blah, organics" etc.
I don't think I've ever heard those words from our agent.
Another sister county has a new agent whose background is small ruminants... I think we may see more from that county in regard to goats.

Every meeting we get to see what producers show as savings from the implementation of the practices taught on.

That is why the advisory committee is there. The agents in the county are so busy and spread thin, but at least they are good!

 

[babsbag]

No, I don't test for it and don't know anyone locally that does. It's not a reportable disease in Texas beef industry either unless it's been added to the list recently.
From what I know about it tho, calves are just as much if not more susceptible to Johnes as any mature cattle.
More prone to have been exposed during birth and to lay in manure and bunched with like aged stock if they come from a purebred seedstock breeder.
If I were a seedstock producer or was bringing a lot of outside replacements, I probably would test for it. Diarrhea is one of the things I look for when buying calves or replacemnts, especially private treaty. Not unusual for sale barn cattle to get the runs but you can usually tell if they've had it for a while by their backsides and overall condition.

I am looking for a newborn calf and they come through the auction quite often and sell for pennies as no one wants to take a chance of no colostrum, or bottle raising, etc. I am a sucker for a cute face and I know that risks of sale barns but that doesn't mean I might not try it once.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

I am looking for a newborn calf and they come through the auction quite often and sell for pennies as no one wants to take a chance of no colostrum, or bottle raising, etc. I am a sucker for a cute face and I know that risks of sale barns but that doesn't mean I might not try it once.

@babsbag They would likely do better in at least a pair.

 

[babsbag]

@Wehner Homestead Now there is an option I had not considered. YIKES !!! I know that no colostrum is a real problem and highly likely but I have been told that sometimes the cow will literally calve at the sale barn and they sell the calf separately Hopefully it will be soon enough that my goat's milk colostrum could still be of some benefit. Not sure...just thinking.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

@babsbag Freeze the excess colostrum so you have some accessible when you need it. Also, don’t be afraid to give probios in a bolus form and sustain III calf boluses for any signs of scours.