The  “Pre-symposium Hands-on Activities” on Friday are geared towards helping novice sheep and goat raisers learn to trim hooves, give vaccinations, eartag/tattoo, and practice body condition and FAMACHA scoring. We’ll have goats and sheep for each group of farmers to work with, respectively. We’ll also cover general management, choosing a breed, and evaluating animals for soundness and productivity. Later in the day we’ll work on hay evaluation, pasture management, and tour the sheep farm.

The Symposium itself will be on Saturday at Morrison Hall on the Cornell Campus, Ithaca, NY. Dr. Steve Hart from the American Institute for Goat Research is our guest speaker. Steve is a very active member of the Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control which has spearheaded the research on using trace minerals, botanical dewormers and high tannin forages to try to control barber pole worm in sheep and goats. Steve has been very involved in this research and also does research with meat and dairy goats and hair sheep in grazing and dry lot environments. He’ll discuss “what’s new in parasite management” as well as leading several other workshops, and a FAMACHA certification Program (sign up required).  As part of the symposium, a field necropsy workshop for experienced farmers will be held at the Cornell Sheep Farm at 2:30 pm on Friday with Dr. Mary Smith, DVM. Although this workshop is included in the Symposium registration, sign up is required and space is limited.

Saturday’s Program includes a panel on “Using sheep and Goats for Vegetative Management “with Dr. Gary Kleppel from SUNY Albany discussing his studies using different sheep breeds to control specific invasive plants and Larry Cihanek from Green Goats, a business using goats to control brush in federal and private parks.  We’ll also have plenty of farmers speaking about their farm enterprises ranging from commercial goat and sheep dairies to grass fed meat and fiber sheep operations and on to meat goat farms striving for a balance between marketing breeding stock and market animals. Rene DeLeeuw has years of experience managing large goat dairies while Darrell Emmick has spent years teaching us all how to better manage grazing.  Our speakers include Cornell nutritionists and Cooperative Extension educators with lots of hands-on experience raising small ruminants.