By Blair Fannin
Texas A&M AgriLife
Cattle marketing options, animal welfare standards and herd restocking will be featured topics at the 2016 Blackland Income Growth Conference set for Jan. 5-6 at the Waco Convention Center.
The annual conference is sponsored by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Waco Chamber of Commerce.
The conference is being held a month earlier than usual to give farmers more time in advance of corn planting to incorporate much of the information shared at the conference, coordinators said.
The beef session will feature the following topics and speakers:
– Animal welfare standards, five freedoms of cattle, Dr. Ron Gill, AgriLife Extension beef cattle specialist and associate department head for animal science at Texas A&M University, College Station.
– Cattle marketing options, Dr. Jason Banta, AgriLife Extension livestock specialist, Overton.
– Restocking and growing a quality herd, panel discussion.
Beef session attendees will receive 2.5 Beef Quality Assurance credits.
Registration for the main Blackland Income Growth Conference is $20 per person and includes lunch. Several sessions will award continuing education units. Producers can download the brochure at http://bit.ly/1WwKzd4 to see specific continuing education credit allocations, sessions and speakers.
Producers will also be able to take part in the Mid-Texas Farm and Ranch Show at the convention center. Vendors and agricultural equipment dealers will be on hand to showcase the latest in farm supplies and implements.
The keynote luncheon speaker Jan. 5 will be Rod Snyder, president of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, a diverse alliance that works to create opportunities across the agriculture supply chain for improvements in productivity, environmental quality and human well-being. He will present “Defining, Measuring and Advancing Sustainability in Agriculture.”