UPDATE: Please register by June 24, our catering deadline, to be assured of lunch. Click here to register.
Farmers and ranchers understand profitability when it comes to their cattle — but may not realize that the true “workhorses” of any operation are its dung beetles, the hardest working livestock around for whole-systems health.
Find out why Dung Beetles are your hardest-working livestock, and how to manage them for whole-operation health and profitability, at “From Poop to Profits,” July 1-2, 2019.
We are pleased to announce “From Poop to Profits: Dung Beetle Management for Farms & Ranches,” featuring an all-star lineup of folks who really know their dung — and their beetles!
Join us for this 2-day seminar focused on the role of Dung Beetles in your healthy farm or ranch ecology, how to manage to encourage their populations, and about potential market incentives for your products. And, start your own management plan utilizing Holistic Management.
Hear from keynote speaker and Northern California rancher Spencer Smith about how he factors healthy ecological practices into his organic cattle herd management;
Learn about dung beetles of the prairies, their life cycles and needs;
Tour a farm utilizing novel herd management approaches;
Learn strategies for profitability, including new markets opportunities;
Start your own holistic plan, exploring decisions about next-steps for your own ecology and profitability management.
The seminar will be hosted by two area farms. Day 1 will feature a keynote address by rancher Smith of Surprise Valley, California. It will include education about dung beetles of the prairies and include a farm tour, led by Dr. Mary Liz Jameson and Morgan Trible of Wichita State University.
Day 2 will provide a hands-on holistic management workshop in which participants can start their own paths toward dung beetle management, co-presented by Smith and Lawrence-based Holistic Management field professional Julie Mettenburg of the Tallgrass Network.
“Dung beetles in pastures is a sign of a healthy and productive land base. However, to the alarm of entomologists and ranchers worldwide there has been a decline in the population of dung beetles on industrially farmed land,” Smith wrote in an article for Acres magazine, November 13, 2018. “Recent studies of nature’s ‘pooper scoopers’ have indicated that these amazing creatures are important to the health of the soil and to the farmer and rancher’s bottom line.”
Cost of the 2-day seminar includes lunch both days plus materials and is $149 per person. It will be held at Neosho County Community College - Ottawa Campus, Ottawa, Kansas. Register at tallgrassnetwork.com.
The seminar is provided with additional financial assistance from the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops.
For more information about speakers:
Spencer Smith, Jefferson Center website.
Dr. Mary Liz Jameson, Jameson Lab at Wichita State University.
Julie Mettenburg, Tallgrass Network.
Please email Julie at tallgrassnetwork@gmail.com for more information.
