GrassWorks Conference Brochure 2015 half size 2.indd

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A N NU A
L
GRAZING
CONFERENCE 2015
The grass is ALWAYS
greener on our side
of the fence!
January 15 - 17, 2015
Chula Vista Resort, Wisconsin Dells, WI
www.grassworks.org
(Online registration available through EVENTS link.)
Or go directly to:
www.regonline.com/2015GrassWorksGrazingConference
About GrassWorks
For the past 25 years, GrassWorks has been a
hub of grazing education in the state,
coordinating the annual Grazing Conference,
serving as a clearinghouse for local grazing
networks and publishing resource materials on
managed grazing. The organization continues
to advance grazing through innovative new
projects. GrassWorks designs and implements
many successful programs. The Dairy Grazing
Apprenticeship is an exciting educational
program that combines on-farm training with
formal instruction. The Apprenticeship
Program provides experienced graziers with
the opportunity to transfer their knowledge,
and eventually transition their farms, to the
next generation.
The Grazing Ambassadors project is an
initiative to connect farmers with non-farmers
to talk about the practice and benefits of
managed grazing, an adaptable method for
grass-based livestock farmers. Presentations
are given by WI farmers/grazing experts to
conservation, consumer and other non-farm
groups as an overview of how a rotational
managed grazing systems works, and how it
supports perennial landscapes. There is so much
potential for innovation and growth in grazing—
and GrassWorks is at the leading edge.
GrassWorks appreciates your commitment to
grass, grazing and grass-fed products and
encourages you to become an annual
member to sustain our on-going programs.
GrassWorks also looks to the future and so we
have enclosed an envelope for your
convenience to consider a contribution to the
GrassWorks Foundation.
Check out our Website www.grassworks.org,
too, and see you at the Conference!!
2 l www.grassworks.org
Volunteers Needed
Help out at the registration desk, running a
presentation or other work for a reduced
registration fee. Contact Heather for complete
details at grassheather@hotmail.com or
715-289-4896.
Savor the Food
We aim to source the entire conference menu
from grass based, organic and local farms. Do
you have something to serve? Contact Heather
Flashinski at grassheather@hotmail.com or
715-289-5896 to provide her your
information, product available, and price or
donation. Products need to be processed/
packaged in an approved facility. THANK
YOU!!! We will work with the hotel to offer
gluten-free and vegetarian meal options for
those interested. Let Heather know if you want
these dietary choices.
Book Store
Be sure to visit the GrassWorks Bookstore for
the latest grazing-related titles and authors.
Donate your gently used books and do
double-good! The books will go on to
enlighten, inform and entertain others graziers,
while proceeds go to support your statewide
grazing organization. Also available for
purchase will be GrassWorks logo wear and
Grazing Pasture Sticks.
Brochure design by Stavroula Designs.
www.grassworks.org l 3
Accomodations
Chula Vista Resort
2501 River Road
Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965
www.ChulaVistaResort.com
The Chula Vista Resort is offering
guests $70 single rate and $99
double rate. Make sure you reserve
your room at Chula Vista Resort by
calling 855-990-0204 with
Booking ID number D34235.
You must reserve before
December 15th. Not only do you
get a great rate on great rooms,
but you’ll get FREE water park
passes for everyone in your room
with no additional resort fee.
Sounds like a great family
vacation. Vacation...enlightening
grazing ideas...and networking
opportunities. What more could you
ask for!?!?!?!
For specific directions from
multiple locations, go to
www.ChulaVistaResort.com.
4 l www.grassworks.org
Schedule at a Glance
Thursday, January 15th
11:30 AM Registration Opens
12:30 - 4:00 PM
GrassWorks is ecstatic to work with Dairy Grazing
Apprenticeship for a day of dairy talks. Here’s a sneak peak
at what they are planning.
Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship is proud to welcome Gareth
van der Heyden and Pip Hedley from the Grassland
Consultants, LLC. Grasslands milks 6,500 cows on 10,500
acres (5,000 in dairy and the balance in corn and heifer
replacement land) near Monett, Missouri. Employee training
and steps to advance into management and share milking
roles are an important element in their farm management
strategy. Gareth and Pip will be leading several presentations
on the structure of Grasslands and share some of their best
management practices that allow them to handle thousands of
cows on grass! Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship will be
coordinating several more dairy related sessions.
Breakout
Sessions:
4:00 - 5:30 PM
Please watch for more details on Thursdays sessions at
www.dairygrazingapprenticeship.org or
www.grassworks.org.
“Preserving Hay,
“All forage diet. Is
“Tools in the Farm
Baylage for
it worth it because
Bill Tool Box”
Winter Feeding”
of lower production, Speaker:
Speaker:
but higher premium? Ag Risk
Dan Undersander,
What forages work Management
UW Extension
best in an all forage
Forage Agronomist diet?”
Speakers:
Tom Kriegl,
University of WI;
Dan Olson, Byron
Seeds; and Kevin
Mahalco
Crop Advisor CEU credits applied for.
www.grassworks.org l 5
Thursday, January 15th cont’d
5:30 - 6:30 PM Social hour in tradeshow
6:00 PM Dinner and Address by Gareth van der Heyden
Evening networking and music time!
Gareth van der heyden
Gareth is Chief Executive of Grasslands
Group which milks 6,500 cows in Missouri and
7,500 cows in New Zealand. Grasslands has a
significant focus on growing and utilizing grass
and operating an efficient large-scale grazing
operation across multiple farms.
Tradeshow
Exhibitor Hours:
Thursday, January 15th, 4 - 8 PM
Friday, January 16th, 8 AM - 5 PM
Saturday, January 17th, 8 AM - 2 PM
Forty+ exhibitors display the latest agricultural
technology that yields results on grass-based
farms. These exhibitors, which include
businesses, agencies and organizations, provide
a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Have a business you’d like to showcase at our
conference? Contact Heather Flashinski, by
email at grassheather@hotmail.com or call
715.289.4896 to reserve your spot today
since space is filling up.
6 l www.grassworks.org
Friday, January 16th
7:00 AM Registration Opens
8:00 - 8:45 AM General Session: “Thinking Regeneratively”
Speaker: Joshua Dukart
“Soil Fertility and
“Positioning Your
Breakout
Decoding Soil Tests“ Grazing Dairy for
Session 1:
9:00 - 10:30 AM
Speaker:
the Future”
Mark Kopecky, Soil Speaker:
Agronomist with
Larry Tranel, Iowa
Organic Valley
State University
Extension
“Animal care in the
pasture”
Speakers:
Dr. Silvia Abel
Caines (OV) and
Dave Scott NCAT
Livestock Specialist
10:30 - 11:30 AM Poster Presentations 10:40-11:20 / visit the tradeshow
11:30 - 1:00 PM
Lunch and GrassWorks Annual Meeting – Be a Member
of this active organization and make your voice heard
regarding important grazing activities and policy.
1:00 - 1:30 PM
Visit the tradeshow
Breakout
Session 2:
1:30 - 3:00 PM
“Grazing Tricks
Every Farmer Can
Use Today”
Speaker:
Meg Grzeskiewicz,
Rhinestone Cattle
Company
Learn about Policy
related to grazing
with representatives
from Wisconsin
Farmers Union,
Michael Fields
Agricultural
Institute and Land
Stewardship Project.
“What’s More
Profitable—
Organic Dairying
or Millionaire
Model Dairy
Farms?”
Speaker:
Larry Tranel, Iowa
State University
Extension
“Harvesting the
Power of Solar
Energy - Integrating
solar energy into
your farms
financial future.”
Speakers:
Rob Peck and Craig
Buttke, NorthWind
Renewable Energy
www.grassworks.org l 7
Thinking Regeneratively
A presentation focused on how conservation is not enough and how regenerative
agriculture focused on holistically managed healthy soils is needed and possible to
create a sustainable future.
Joshua is a Certified Educator of Holistic Management who speaks and teaches internationally.
His career path started as an agricultural &
bio-systems engineer, but has evolved into a
professional role of educator & facilitator.
Through this progression was born a consulting
business that assists land managers, families, and
organizations in achieving a sustainable balance
of land stewardship, economic viability, & quality
of life. Joshua also assists farmers/ranchers
through the Burleigh County Soil Conservation
District and the ND Grazing Lands Coalition,
providing education, support, and technical
Joshua Dukart
assistance in developing grazing, cropping,
ND Grazing Lands Coalition gardening, and cover cropping plans for the purpose
& Burleigh County Soil
of enhancing soil, plant, animal, and human health.
Conservation District
In Her Boots putting one foot in front of the other
and getting to the other side
Sit back and relax as Inga takes you through the ups and downs of grazing dairy
cows. Ever wonder what it’s like to retrieve a herd of cows from the neigbors corn
fields at 3am? Wondering what to do when the Department of Homeland Security
shows up asking about an ox? Well it’s your lucky day! Inga also tells about the
transition her pastures have made from CRP land to lush(ish) pastures, and learning
and being
g inspired
p
by
y the g
grazers of the Midwest.
Inga Witscher Around the Farm Table
Beauty school drop out and the least likeliest of
her sibilings to farm, Inga randomly moved to
Wisconsin to start an organic dairy farm. She
farmed with the supervision from her dairy
grazing father until meeting her husband Joe, who
now helps get the cows milked and the chickens
fed. Inga, Joe and her father Rick were inspired
to start a television series called Around the Farm
Table after seeing the diversity of Wisconsin
Agriculture. The series is now aired throughout the
Midwest on PBS.
8 l www.grassworks.org
Friday, January 16th cont’d
3:00 - 3:30 PM Visit the tradeshow
Breakout
Session 3:
3:30 - 5:00 PM
“Holistic
Management”
Speaker:
Joshua Dukart
“Using Goats to
Change The
Landscape”
Speaker:
Cherrie Nolden,
UW Madison
“The People Make
the Farm: Working
Relationships for
Farm Success”
Speaker:
Leslie Forstadt,
University of Maine
Cooperative
Extension
“Cash Flow and
Profitability: The
Grasses and
Legumes of
Economic
Sustainability”
Speaker:
Paul Dietmann,
Badgerland
Financial
5:00 - 6:00 PM Happy Hour in the tradeshow
6:00 - 7:30 PM Buffet Dinner with Keynote: “In Her Boots: Putting One Foot
in Front of the Other and Getting to the Other Side”
Speaker: Inga Witscher
7:30 - Midnight Live Auction w/ music and socializing afterward
Poster session
There is a lot of great research and programs regarding grazing animals and
grassfed foods. We cannot find room for all of them in a traditional conference
sessions. For the first time, GrassWorks Grazing Conference will have a poster session.
This is a great opportunity for you to see what research and projects and information
is available and talk with those doing the work.
Musical Jam Session
Bring your instrument to play along or plan to just kick back and enjoy the music on
Friday evening.
www.grassworks.org l 9
Saturday, January 17th
7:00 AM Registration Opens
8:00 - 8:45 AM General Session: “Restoration Agriculture and Livestock”
Speaker: Mark Shepard, Forest Ag Enterprises
“Naturally
Grassroots success “Silvopasture
Breakout
Fertilizing your
in Landscape Level Roundtable:
Session 4:
9:00 - 10:30 PM
land and the
Change – Robin
How do we get
Nutrient Cycle”
Moore and Andy
past “cows in the
Speaker:
Marcum - Land
woods?”
Joshua Dukart
Stewardship Project Speakers:
Diane Mayerfeld,
“Cattle Handling
UW Extension and
Basics”
Keefe Keeley,
Speaker:
Savanna Institute
Curt Pate, Curt Pate
Stockmanship
10:30 - 11:00 AM Break and visit the tradeshow
11 AM – 12:30 PM Lunch with General Session: “Graze to the Top: Lowering
the Learning Curve For New Graziers”
Speaker: Joel Kuehnhold, Lonely Oak Farm
Breakout
“How Wolves
“Stockmanship for “Grazing Covers Session 5:
Made Me a
Improved Grazing” Bringing Diversity
12:45 - 2:15 PM
Better Grazier”
Speaker:
to Your Operation”
Speaker:
Curt Pate, Curt Pate Speaker:
Janet McNally,
Stockmanship
Jay Fuhrer, North
Tamarack Lamb
Dakota NRCS
and Wool
“Marketing your
grazing farm’s
products and
adding value”
Speaker:
Alexandra Frantz,
Animal Welfare
Approved
10 l www.grassworks.org
Saturday, January 17th cont’d
Breakout
Session 6:
2:30 - 4:00 PM
“Working with soil
biology for healthy
pastures”
Speaker:
Mark Kopecky,
Organic Valley
Agronomist
“Using Self“How to use
Regulated
different cuts of
Individual Minerals meat and teach
as the Key to
your customers how
Animal Health”
to use them”
Speaker:
Speakers:
Dr. Holliday,
TBA
Advanced Biological
Concepts
4:00 PM Ice Cream Social – Stay and enjoy some grassfed organic ice
cream from one of our local Wisconsin dairies.
Curt Pate Curt Pate Stockmanship
For more than a decade Curt has conducted
demonstrations and clinics on stockmanship, colt
starting, horsemanship and safety. His abilities
conducting both horsemanship and stockmanship
demonstrations along with his ability as an effective
communicator make him one of the most sought after
clinicians on both the national and international scene.
His personal experience incorporating effective
stockmanship principles support a for-profit mindset. He
fully understands the increased economic benefits of handling
stock correctly. Just as important, as livestock production comes under increased
scrutiny, is the understanding Curt has of the impact that improved handling practices
create for the sustainability of the cattle industry.
Curt brings great value to the livestock industry. With his ability to think outside of the
box, his ability to challenge others to do the same, and a willingness to share his skills
Curt has set himself apart in conducting stockmanship clinics. His lifelong experience in
ranching adds credibility and enables him to communicate his methods effectively to
cattle ranchers throughout the country.
ice cream social
We have the privilege of having grassfed cows producing great ice cream. One of
these dairies has offered to provide us with their great tasting ice cream. So, stick
around for our final ice cream social before you head back to the farm. Ice cream will
be provided by Castle Rock Farms.
www.grassworks.org l 11
Graze to the Top Lowering the learning curve for
new graziers
Starting a farm from scratch can be an intimidating process. Joel will focus on the
highlights, oops and what he would have done differently as he identified his farm
goals, navigated grant and cost-share opportunities, networked with other farmers,
and most importantly, how he learned to profit from his mistakes as a beginning grazier.
Joel Kuehnhold Lonely Oak Farm
Joel owns and operates Lonely Oak Farm near
Milladore, WI, grazing sheep, laying hens, beef,
and periodically, hogs. He also raises vegetables
and rhubarb on his 80 acres. He has dealt with a
steep learning curve as he converts land enrolled
in the CREP program into productive pasture and
crop land while increasing his sheep flock and
beginning a beef herd. Additionally, Joel is the
Agricultural Education Instructor at Lincoln
High School in Wisconsin Rapids.
Restoration Agriculture and Livestock
Learn how to increase food production and fertility per acre by farming in nature’s
image. Mark Shepard will share what he’s learned from raising livestock on his
106-acre permaculture farm in addition to producing chestnuts, hazelnuts, apples,
annual vegetables, biofuels and more.
Mark Shepard
Forest Agriculture Enterprises
Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture
Enterprises and runs New Forest Farm, the 106acre perennial agricultural forest considered by
many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable
agriculture projects in the United States.
New Forest Farm is a planned conversion of a
typical row-crops grain farm into a commercialscale, perennial agricultural ecosystem using oak
savanna, successional brushland and eastern
woodlands as the ecological models.
12 l www.grassworks.org
Sponsors - Thank You
Room Sponsor
- CRV USA
Platinum Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
- United FCS
- Organic Valley - CROPP Cooperative
Session Sponsor
- North Wind Renewable Energy LLC
Break Sponsors
- Cutler Fence LLC
- Natures International Certification Service
- Shade Haven LLC
- Wisconsin Grassfed Beef Coop
Bronze Sponsors
- Northeast WI Technical College
- Hustler Equipment
- Wisconsin Farmers Union
- Albert Lea Seed
- Legacy Seeds, Inc.
- UW Center for Integrated Ag Systems
with the School for Beginning Dairy Farmers
- Barenbrug USA
- Badgerland Financial
- The Country Today
- Michael Fields Ag. Institute
- Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
- Graze Magazine
- MOSA Organic
- National Center for Ag. Technologies
- Wisconsin SARE
Other Sponsors
- Prairie Creek Seed
- American Hybrid Organic
Ag Risk Management
Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship
Gold Sponsor
Wisconsin Department of
Agriculture, Trade and
Consumer Protection
www.grassworks.org l 13
Conference
Planning Committee
Thank You:
Julie Engel
Anders Gurda
Stephanie Hoppa
Bill Kolodziej
Kevin Mahalko
Paul Nehring
Wally Sedlar
Joe Tomandl, III
Dave Vetrano
Registration
Remember to fill in all the names for whom you
are registering and paying. Make checks
payable to GrassWorks and mail with
completed registration form to: Heather
Flashinski, 16294 250th Street, Cadott,
WI 54727. Every full conference registration
includes: two lunches, two dinners and
conference materials. Online registration can
be found at www.grassworks.org. Just click on
events and then conference. Or go directly to:
www.regonline.com/
2015GrassWorksGrazingConference.
Questions call Heather at 715-289-4896 or
email at: grassheather@hotmail.com.
14 l www.grassworks.org
Please PRINT CLEARLY.
Name(s):
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Phone:
Email:
Animal Species Raised:
# Years Grazing:
Membership Conference Rates
Full conference
$190
Thursday & Friday only
$150
Saturday only
$70
Membership Renewal or Intiation
$50
Number
Total
Number
Total
SPECIAL: First Time Attendee and Student
Full conference
$150
Non Membership Rates
Full conference
$230
Thursday & Friday only
$180
Saturday only
$100
Children
Under 5
FREE
5 - 17 Years Old
$50
Subtotal:
GrassWorks Donation: $
Multiple Registrant Discount - $20 per person.
$20 X # of people
=(
)
GRAND TOTAL DUE: = $
No pre-registration after January 1, 2015.
On-site registration available at the conference for an additional $15 per person.
www.grassworks.org l 15