Hands-on training focused on beef cattle grazing will take place June 24 and 25 in and around Carlisle, PA, during the Summer Grazing School.
The school is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Capital Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Area Council Inc.
It will begin with an evening pasture walk at the Ketterer Farm in Newville on June 24. The June 25 schedule includes classroom and field sessions on topics such as mob grazing, stockpiling, fencing installation and watering systems as well as pasture soil quality at the Cumberland County Service Center in Carlisle and Emerald Valley Farm in Newville. Local producers and technical advisers will share their personal knowledge and experience during interactive sessions with participants.
“This training will help our local farmers learn from their peers as well as provide some great tools for landowners to use in their grazing systems,” says Titus Martin, GLCI board member and grazing adviser for the Grassroots program, sponsored by the Capital RC&D Council. That program aims to improve the economics and environmental quality of livestock operations by promoting beneficial practices as part of a grass-based system.
The cost is $10 and includes all materials (textbooks, printed materials and grazing tools) and a catered lunch Saturday. For more information, contact Dan Ludwig, NRCS, at 717-274-2597, ext. 119, or Mark Muir, GLCI, at 814-676-2832. Registration information is also on the Pennsylvania GLCI Web site at http://www.paglci.org/4701.html.