Horticulture Workshops, Conferences & News

Field Day
* Our annual field day will be held on September 11, 2009.

Ag. Education Day
* Our Ag Education day will be held on September 10, 2009.

Southwest Center FFA Workshop
* The Southwest Center sponsored a workshop for area FFA students, which will be held on March 11, 2010.

SW CTR Grazing Dairy

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Contact us
Email: Southwestcenter@missouri.edu

Superintendent:
Dr. Richard Crawford - Bio
14548 Highway H
Mt. Vernon, MO 65712-9523
Phone: 417-466-2148
FAX: 417-466-2109
Email: crawfordr@missouri.edu

Southwest Center RUMINATIONS
April - June, 2002
Vol. 8, No. 2

2002 Grazing Schools Scheduled

Another year of Grazing Schools has been scheduled for the southwest region. These schools, conducted on a regional basis since 1995, have offered to hundreds of producers the basic principles and practices of management-intensive grazing. The schools also help producers qualify for certain cost-share programs (check with NRCS for details).

A Definition of Management-Intensive Grazing "To obtain a constant supply of fresh grass, let us suppose that a farmer who has any extent of pasture ground, should have it divided into 15 or 20 divisions, nearly of equal value; and that, instead of allowing his beasts to roam indiscriminately through the whole at once, he collects the whole number of beasts that he intends to feed into one flock, and turns them all at once into one of these divisions; which, being quite fresh, and of sufficient length of bite, would please their palate so much as to induce them to eat of it greedily, and fill their bellies before they thought of roaming about, and thus destroying it with their feet. If the number of beasts were so great as to consume the best part of the grass of one of these enclosures in one day, they might be allowed to remain there no longer - giving them a fresh park every morning, so as that same delicious repast might be again repeated. If there were just so many parks as there required days to make the grass of these fields advance to a proper length after being eat bare down, the first field would be ready to receive them by the time they had gone over all the others; so that they might be thus carried round in a constant rotation. John Anderson of Scotland in 1777

This year, we are offering six schools at various locations within the region and various dates to better fit your needs. We are also one of the only regions in the state to offer some evening and Saturday classes for those unable to attend the daytime schools. Below is a listing of schools in the southwest region for 2002. Attendance is generally limited to 30 participants, and some schools may fill up quickly.

Cedar/Dade Co (Arcola), Apr 2, 4, 9, 11 (evenings) and Apr 6 (all day Saturday), contact: Howard Coambes 417-276-3388

Polk/Dallas Co (Bolivar), Apr 30, May 2, 6, 7, 13 evenings and May 11 (all day Saturday), Polk County Fairgrounds Youth Bldg., contact: Bob Howe 417-326-5993 ext 110

Southwest Center Grazing School (Mt Vernon), May 22-23 daytime, contact the Center at 417-466-2148

Newton/McDonald Co (Neosho), June 12-13 daytime, Crowder College, contact Lynn Jenkins 417-451-1366 ext 3 or David Whitson 417-455-9500

Christian/Stone/Taney Co (Ozark), June 18, 19, 20 daytime, St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Ozark; contact Ian Kurtz 417-581-2719 ext 202

Greene/Webster Co (Marshfield), October 22, 23 & 24 daytime, contact Mark Emerson 417-468-4176 ext 3

Note that the school at the Southwest Center in May will be a regular two-day school for all types of livestock. The program begins at 8:00 am both days. A steak dinner the evening of the first day will give you a chance to visit with instructors and fellow producers while you enjoy a good meal; the second day concludes at 4:00 pm.

The Southwest Center will also be hosting an Advanced Topics School on Tuesday, August 13, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Our tentative list of topics includes irrigating pastures, winter management of the grazing system, manures for pasture fertility, pasture renovation, weed management and control, and management requirements of various forages. The finalized program and announcement will appear in the next issue of Ruminations.

Information on schools in other regions is available by calling Joetta Roberts with the Missouri Forage and Grassland Council (573-499-0886) from 9:00 am to noon, at the MFGC website http://agebb.missouri.edu/mfgc/index.htm, by email (mfgc@gte.net), or by contacting your local Extension or NRCS office.

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