Titled the Nebraska Grazing Conference, this event draws 225-250 participants from several states each year. Presenters are producers, professional farm/ranch managers, university researchers, and government personnel. This year’s speakers from the UNL community with which you’ll be familiar are Terry Klopfenstein, Jim Stubbendieck, and Ronnie Green, who is scheduled to give the opening remarks. The program features three talks by Greg Judy of Green Pastures Farm in Clark, Mo., who will discuss production, marketing and stewardship aspects of grazing management. Other topics include maximizing gain on grass, developing baseline financial and production data, ranchers organizing to benefit prairie ecosystems, habitat management as it relates to grazing, use of by-products on pasture, winter grazing yearlings on cornstalks and pasture residue, controlling invasive species using prescribed burns, and impacts of multi-species grazing.
Registration is $80 if postmarked by Aug. 1 and $95 afterward. One-day registrations are also available, and walk-ins are accepted. Reduced registration fees are offered for full-time high school or college students.
Extension Educators should have received a brochure in the mail in June. Details are also available at http://nebraskagrazingconference.unl.edu, or by contacting the Center for Grassland Studies, grassland@unl.edu, 402-472-4101.
This year’s conference is dedicated to the memory of Extension educator Terry Gompert, who passed away in March. Terry was an integral part of the NGC planning committee from the start in 2001, and was a presenter multiple times.
– Pam Murray
