The information decimated today was on above of what I had expected. I enjoyed listening to each workshop topic. This morning the presentations included: Basic Principals of Weed Management; Livestock Health-Pinkeye, Bloat, and Foot Rot; and Field Fecal Examination for Diagnosis of Parasitic Infections.
We received a little history on the use of herbicides and how it has come full circle since the early days of herbicidal use. Where animals were used for weed control, then potent chemicals, to safer chemicals, and then back to animals using multi-species grazing to control weeds. Most of the health care issues taught this morning also related to small ruminants which I am familiar with. Most of the fecal exams, I already knew. What was interesting to me was the new field microscope and centrifugal machine that the presenter showed us. I'll have to invest in one a set of those. But it was still great to hear a different perspective to what I already knew.
A couple of the women ranchers brought snacks and lunch for the attendees and presenters. That was really nice and cool of them. The breads were homemade Sun Flower Seed and Sweet Onion Bread. The Sun Flower Bread tasted really good. The Sweet Onion Bread...well, it was a blessing and I ate it...that's all I'm going to say.
The afternoon we touched on topics: Beef Quality and Marketing; Breed Characteristics of Beef Cattle, Animal Science 101, and End of Seminar Survey. It was great to see the standard that Hawaii is using for it's Grass Fed Beef Industry. Most of the work was done by the cattle association in Hawaii. All we have to do on the Marianas Islands is to follow their approach and tweak it to our advantage.
The next topic surprised me. I thought I was well versed on the different cattle breeds, especially the Continental or Western Breeds the Bos Taurus and the Asian Breed the Bos Indicus. Like you, I knew of Angus Charolais, Hereford, Simmental from the Bos Taurus. Then the Brahma, Beefmaster, Brangus, and Santa Gertrudis. I was surprised to learn of a breed that was developed in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the early 1900's called the Senepol. The traits for the Senepol is exactly what the Marianas Islands needs for our growing cattle industry.
Animals Science 101 was basically definitions. That's a needed workshop to get all the producers and presenters on the same page when talking about cattle or livestock. They should have really put that topic at the beginning of the seminar.
The last topic was just our end of summary questions rating what we would like to see in future workshops. The Academy Team will be back this Fall for another series of workshops. This is a two year project, and their trying to extend it for a couple of more years.
In the meantime between workshops, I'm going to help get the Guahan Livestock Association get started on Guam. The Northern Marianas Islands are already ahead of us in getting started. We need an organization to help the local ranchers with new information and techniques that are working on similar climates and geography. I was also invited to be on the Advisory team for the MGL Academy.
We have one more day of class. Tomorrow, we'll be doing some field work at a ranch in Dededo Village.
Keep Smiling
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