In the spring of 2023, Dr. David Brown was hired as the first small ruminant (sheep and goat) specialist by the Missouri Extension for the state of Missouri. Based at the St. Clair County Extension office in Osceola, he started speaking at Chamber of Commerce meetings and to business organizations like the Cattlemen’s Association to introduce himself, and started to build a support group for goat and sheep farmers in Missouri that he could serve.
His goal: to put Missouri lamb and mutton on the map, and to double the value of Missouri agriculture by 2030.
One of his ways to reach farmers: monthly webinars, a seminar presented online, of subjects of interest to Missouri farmers who are diversifying their farms by raising hair sheep for meat. This month, for the January webinar, he is hosting Dr. Dahlia O’Brien, a small ruminant professor/extension specialist at Virginia State University.
Dr. Brown was finishing up a post-doctoral program at Virginia State University when he was hired to work in Missouri. He and his family had moved to Baltimore, Maryland from Africa, where he was raised on his grandparents’ sheep farm in Nigeria. Dr. Brown had a doctoral degree in small ruminant nutrition from the University of Limpopo in South Africa.
Dr. Brown will host the webinar, with Dr. O’Brien presenting strategies for managing resistance to de-worming in sheep and goats. Keeping flocks healthy is key to making a profit from sheep and goat farming.
The January 28 online webinar is from noon to 1 p.m. There is no cost for the webinar, but registration is required.
Last year on Feb. 29, Dr. Brown organized a “Lamb for Leap Year” workshop in Osceola, featuring a hands-on demonstration by Kyle Whittaker on how to cut up a lamb carcass, donated by Ed and Diane Persike of Persike Farms. Chef Lou Rice of Performance Food Service and Daniel Oawster, owner of Salvatore’s Italian restaurant in Ozark, prepared a dinner of grilled lamb kebabs and burgers for the workshop participants. More than three dozen sheep and goat farmers attended the workshop, most from the southern half of the state.
Go to the Missouri Extension of St. Clair Facebook for information about the programs. Register online for the Jan. 28 webinar at:
https://extension.missouri.edu/events/strategies-for-managing-dewormer-resistance-in-sheep-goats,
Also to put on your calendar: the 41st annual Southwest Missouri Spring Forage Conference on February 25th, 2025, at the Oasis Convention Center in Springfield. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Gary Bates, head of the Plant Sciences Department at the University of Tennessee. A forage extension specialist for almost 30 years, Dr. Bates focuses on forage management to improve the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of livestock production.
While the emphasis is on raising cattle, breakout sessions include sessions on incorporating additional forage species and sheep and goats production, as well as lengthening the grazing season through improved grazing practices, grazing land economics and recovering from the drought. Trade show exhibitors will display current innovations in fencing and forage management, livestock handling and genetics.
