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Virginia Stocker Cattle Conference - March 2
Livestock Update, February 2006
Rodney P. Leech Extension Agent, Animal Science, Highland County
Mark your calendars for the Virginia Stocker Cattle Conference to be held on Thursday, March 2 at the Holiday Inn in Staunton, VA (I-81 Exit 225). This year's conference will focus on marketing outlook and avenues and will provide tools for successful management of stocker operations. Registration and coffee begins at 9 a.m.
The program begins at 9:30 a.m. with our keynote speaker, Dr. Emmett Rawls, Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Rawls will present the topic entitled "Outlook for Stocker Business 06 & 07." He will examine the cattle market's current situation and the outlook for the future of stocker cattle prices and tools producers can use for marketing and risk management.
Dr. John Hall, Extension Animal Science Specialist at Virginia Tech, will present the topic "Getting the Most Out of Being a Low-Cost Producer." He will discuss management practices that cut costs and/or increase rate of gain/income. How much can you pay for health and genetics is just one of the questions to be examined.
After lunch, Dr. John Currin, Extension Veterinarian for beef cattle at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine will discuss "Using Antibiotics Strategically and Other Stocker Health Issues." Mycoplasma, BVD Persistent Infected calves and shipping fever continue to plaque the stocker industry. Dr. Currin will visit prevention and treatment protocols and new tools for use in these and other nagging and deadly cattle health problems
The Conference will conclude with a panel group discussion of marketing opportunities. The panel will consist of Jim Russell, an order buyer with American Cattle out of Lexington, Kentucky, Butch Foster, Fieldsman with the Virginia Cattlemen's Association, and cattle buyers TBA after press release. These panelists will give you an awareness of changes in cattle marketing, discuss how animal ID and source age verification may come into play, and other buyer/seller relationship, and issues that affect our cattle marketing decisions.
The Conference should end around 3:00 p.m. and participants will receive handouts and notes on the program in a set of proceedings. Registration is requested by February 27 and is $20 payable to VCE-Augusta County at P.O. Box 590, Verona, Virginia 24482. After February 27 and at the door, the fee will increase to $25. For more information, contact Rodney Leech at 540-468-2225 or rleech@vt.edu or Troy Lawson at 540-564-3080 or rolawso3@vt.edu.
If you have a disability and desire accommodations to participate, please contact 540-245-5750 by February 27 to discuss accommodations. This program is partially sponsored by Farm Credit of the Virginias, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Cattle Association, and First Bank & Trust.