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Beef Breeding School To Be Held November 5th
Livestock Update, November 1998
Rodney Leech, Highland County Extension Agent
The Valley Regional Commercial Beef Breeding School will be conducted on Thursday, November 5, 1998 beginning at 8:30 a.m. The classroom portion of the program will begin at Evers Family Restaurant at Mt. Crawford, which will be followed by an on-farm workshop in the afternoon at Dwight Houff's Holly Hill Farm. The program is targeted towards commercial cow/calf producers, however much or the information presented will be applicable to seedstock producers as well.
The school will begin at 8:30 a.m. with registration and coffee, followed by an introduction on "Evaluating Your Cow Herd," by Animal Science Agent Mr. Pete Martens. A session on Breeding Management will be lead by Dr. John Hall, animal science specialist from Virginia Tech. Dr. Hall will review nutrition and health programs for commercial herds and their importance for a sound-breeding program. Dr. Bill Beal, professor and reproductive physiologist with the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences at Virginia Tech, will teach the hour session on Synchronization Programs and review the new choices that producers have. Dr. Beal will discuss how to take advantage of these programs with natural service as well as artificial insemination opportunities. The last hour of classroom instruction will be on "Selecting Bulls for Your Herd; Understanding Sire Summaries and EPD's" with Dr. Scott Greiner, Extension animal science specialist from Virginia Tech, as the instructor.
Following lunch at Evers Family Restaurant, the afternoon session will be an On-Farm Selection Clinic lead by Dr. Hall and Dr. Greiner. The Hands-On Clinic will be conducted at Holly Hills Farm located in northern Augusta County off of Route 11. Registration is required by November 2nd which includes an $8 per person fee to cover lunch, breaks and material. Please make checks payable to Virginia Cooperative Extension - Augusta and mail to the Augusta County Extension, P.O. Box 590, Verona VA 24482-0590. For more information and/or a registration form contact Rodney Leech at (540) 468-2225 or 839-7261 or email: rleech@vt.edu. If you are a person with a disability and desire assistance or accommodations, please call (540) 245-5750 15 days prior to the activity.