Sheep and goat workshop offered

FREEPORT, Ill. — Sheep and goats are a popular choice for youth and adults. Small ruminants are a good place for anyone to enter the livestock business on small acreage. Often, they develop into significant farm enterprises.

Either way, small ruminants come with unique challenges to manage the feed supply and meet nutritional needs.

Owners and managers of small ruminant livestock are invited to join University of Illinois Extension livestock specialist Teresa Steckler for a Small Ruminant Feeding, Nutrition and Management Workshop at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.

The workshop will be hosted by U of I Extension at the 4-H Building on the Stephenson County Fairgrounds, 2250 S. Walnut Road, Freeport.

Steckler will be sharing insights from her years of experience working with and raising sheep and goats.

The workshop will start with Steckler sharing an overview of small ruminant nutrition and management. She will discuss feed selection, nutritional needs and general health management.

Tools for evaluating animal condition and performance, such as body condition scoring and the visual parasite screening technique, the FAMACHA scoring system, will be presented.

Following the formal presentations, Steckler and other U of I Extension staff will lead a discussion of other topics of interest and concern of the participants.

A live animal demonstration of body condition scoring and FAMACHA scoring will follow the presentations, weather and facility permitting.

Register for the workshop at 815-235-4125 go.illinois.edu/jsw.

Registration is $5 per family or farm. The registration deadline is Sept. 19.