Workshops explore livestock harvesting, marketing

Livestock harvesting and marketing workshops will be held in north and south Louisiana for county agents, agriculture professionals, and livestock producers across the state.   These are important topics to ensure compliance with regulations as more farmers transition to home  harvest, processing and marketing of  meat from their grass fed cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.

Workshop speakers will present:

§  “Meat Inspection: Compliance with the Regulations” by Jim Jenkins, Program Manager, Meat and Poultry Inspection, Office of Animal Health and Food Safety, Louisiana  Department of Agriculture & Forestry

§  “Identifying and Utilizing Non-traditional Markets for Meat” by Stuart Gardener, Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA

§  “What the End User Wants” by Louisiana Chef Bobby Williams

§  “Further Processing/Added Value/Ethnic Markets” by YaSin Muhaimin, Louisiana producer

A workshop will be held in north Louisiana on Tuesday, April 6, at the LSU Calhoun Research Station on 321 Hwy. 80 East in Calhoun. The workshop will be repeated April 14 at the LSU/SU Breaux Bridge Extension Office at 114 Courthouse Street in Breaux Bridge.

The workshop is free but pre-registration is required. Contact James McNitt at james_mcnitt@suagcenter.com, or (225) 771-2262 x 270, Carl Motsenbocker at cmotsenbocker@agcenter.lsu.edu or (225) 578-1036, or Natalie Levy NLevy@agcenter.lsu.edu or (225) 578-1037 for more information or to register.

The workshop is sponsored by the Louisiana Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program, LSU AgCenter, and SU AgCenter. 

Join Southern University, Ag Center in Haiti Relief

The January 12 earthquake in Haiti devastated that nation and has many people wondering what they can do to help. In the years since Katrina, the process for managing donations has become more efficient, effective, and secure.

Southern University and the Ag Center have had a long history with Partners of the Americas, and many of our faculty and staff have travelled with them on many development projects in El Salvador, Louisiana's southern partner. Retired animal scientist James McNitt has worked in Haiti to develop a rabbit project which now involves more than 700 rabbit farmers.

If you want to make a donation to the Haitian Disaster Relief with assurance that it will be used properly, McNitt suggests donating to Partners of the Americas  http://www.partners.net/donate.

Southern University and A&M College professors Warner Anderson, Kristan Gordon and Ernst Pierre have started the Southern University Haiti Disaster Relief Drive. Items that are desperately needed by the Haitian children are:

Items needed are:

• Book bags
• Suitcases
• Clothes (for warm weather)
• Footwear
• Sanitizer
• Repellent
• Baby formula
• Thick blankets
• Toilet paper
• Female sanitary items
• Baby wipes
• Pampers
• Soap
• Shampoo and conditioner
• Caps

All donations can be brought to Southern University’s Center for International Education, Room 1100 in T.H. Harris Hall, located on Elton C. Harris Drive. A receipt will be given to all individuals making financial donations for the Haiti Disaster Relief Drive.  Contributions are tax deductible. 

Through the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Louisiana has offered the U.S. State Department and FEMA resources to assist in the Haitian disaster response efforts, including more than 65,000 MREs and thousands of bottles of water being donated by Lipsey Mountain Springs Water.

Businesses that want to donate equipment and large-scale commodities to the Haiti response efforts can donate through:

•  Department of State Global Partnership Initiative: http://www.state.gov/s/partnerships/
• USAID: http://www.usaid.gov/

Cash donations from individuals or the private sector can be made through the following websites:

• Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund: www.yele.org
• InterAction: http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti
• AidMatrix: http://www.aidmatrix.org/haiti.htm
• ALAN: http://www.aidmatrix.org/alan/about.html
• CIDI: http://www.cidi.org/
• American Red Cross: https://american.redcross.org
• Salvation Army: http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf

Visit FEMA http://www.fema.gov/rebuild/recover/howtohelp.shtm for a listing of other legitimate organizations and methods of donating.

Those seeking information on colleagues, friends, and loved ones missing in Haiti will find help at http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/ha/earthquake/index.htm for important public information from the United States Department of State or call 1-888-407-4747 (due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording).

For more information on Southern's Haiti Desaster Relief Drive, contact Anderson, Gordon or Pierre at (225) 771-2613.

For more information on the rabbit farm project, contact McNitt at (225) 771-2262 or email james_mcnitt(at)suagcenter.com

First seminar held today

You are invited to our first seminar in the series for the fall semester at the SU Ag Center, Thursday, August 27. Presenters of this seminar are professional agricultural producers Don Ashford and Wedge Barthe who will present "Sustainable Forage Management in South Louisiana." The seminar begins at 3:30pm in Room 191 of the Southern University Ag Center.

This is a regular seminar series presented by faculty and staff of the Southern University Ag Center and the SUBR College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences. The seminars are held every other Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and are free to the public. If you would like to present, or have questions, please contact Dr. James McNitt at 225-771-2262 ext. 270 or james_mcnitt@suagcenter.com

Workshop, farm tour explore management intensive grazing, May 27

A Management Intensive Grazing Workshop and Farm Tour for county agents and other agriculture professionals will be held Wednesday, May 27, 2009, at the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Baton Rouge.

MIG is a grazing system where the animals are allowed to graze small portions of the pasture for short periods of time while other areas recover. The workshop, which includes lunch, a workshop manual, and a DVD on management intensive grazing, is free for county agents and other agriculture professionals. Farmers are also invited to participate.

Sign-in begins at 7:45 a.m. and the workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m. Morning sessions include visits to the Center’s Experiment Station and two farms where management intensive grazing is practiced. During the afternoon session, Ron Morrow of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Arkansas will discuss the methods and benefits of management intensive grazing.

Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Please register for the workshop by contacting: James McNitt at james_mcnitt@suagcenter.com, or (225) 771-2262 x 270, Carl Motsenbocker at cmotsenbocker@agcenter.lsu.edu or (225) 578-1036, and Emily Neustrom at eneustrom@agcenter.lsu.edu or (225) 578-1037.

The workshop is sponsored by the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and the Louisiana Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program. For more information, contact McNitt at (225) 771-2242 ext. 270.

Who Moved My Cheese? session continues tomorrow

Part two of the Who Moved My Cheese seminar presentation will continue on tomorrow. Faculty and staff are invited to participate in this hands-on professional and personal development session. 

Participants completed a S.W.O.T analysis during Part 1. Session presenters Dawn Mellion-Patin, Ph.D, MBA, agricultural specialist, and Candace Semien, communications coordinator, said participants will develop individual plans on tomorrow to prepare for when "the cheese moves or is cut". 

"The interesting thing is that it does not pertain to cheese but life as we know it.  You need to hear it even if you have not read the book yet," said Bridget Udoh, Ph.D., communications specialist.

The presentation is tomorrow, Thursday, April 23, in the Ag Center, Room 191, at 3:30 p.m.

"Who Moved My Cheese?" presentation is part of the seminar series presented by faculty and staff of the Southern University Ag Center and the College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences. The seminars are held every other Thursday at 3:30 p.m., free of charge and open to everyone. If you would like to present, or have questions, please contact James McNitt, Ph.D., at: (2325) 771-2262 ext. 270.

For information on the book, Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, M.D., visit www.whomovedmycheese.com

Ag Center scientist publishes 'Practical Rabbit Housing Manual'

Most publications about rabbits have some information about housing but the material is often so general that it is of little practical use. That information also often omits many of the important "hows" and "whys" that are learned through experience which is a difficult and expensive way to learn. In order to provide more comprehensive information for rabbit owners and producers, James McNitt, Ph.D., researcher at the Southern University Ag Center and animal science professor at Southern University and A&M College, has published a Practical Rabbit Housing Manual.

This publication brings together information on rabbit housing and includes the reasons why certain designs, materials, or methods are favored by rabbit raisers. This information is especially important when the preferred method is more expensive or more difficult than an alternative method.

This rabbit housing manual covers:

• Requirements for rabbit housing
  
• Types of housing
  
• Construction of cages and hutches
  
• Types of wire and building materials
  
• Cage types
  
• Building cages
  
• Hutches
  
• Rabbitry buildings
  
• Location
  
• Ventilation
  
• Interior design
  
• Cage location
  
• Feeders
  
• Watering systems
  
• Nestboxes
  
• Waste handling
  
• Lights
  
• Office area

Download the manual at http://www.suagcenter.com/documents/publications/Rabbit%20Housing%20Manual.pdf

For more information, contact McNitt at james_mcnitt@suagcenter.com or (225) 771-2242.