Since 1990, the Missouri Grazing Schools have provided its more than 18,000 participants with pertinent information related to management-intensive grazing (MiG). The schools, a partnership between the University of Missouri and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), are designed to touch on each aspect of management-intensive grazing, delivering research findings and vital information to its attendees. A recent economic…
Rotational grazing ⋅ Page 1
Keeping It Simple
Good grazing practices, strict protocols lead to success of heifer replacement program
Denis Turner, of Hartville, keeps his southwestern Missouri heifer replacement operation simple. For the most part, it is one man for 500 to 1,000 heifers at Turner’s Heifer Haven, a pasture-based operation where Turner raises heifers for others. “Make sure every task can be carried out by one person,” Turner says. “Two-man jobs are accomplished on time only about half…
CAFNR Grad’s Ranch a Hub for Education and Fun
Greg Buckman will take the reins of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association in January
Greg Buckman, B.S.E. 1976, just wanted to farm when he graduated from high school. College was far from his plans of riding John Deere tractors and working in the family dairy barn. “All I ever wanted to be was a farmer,” he says. He also liked buying and restoring John Deere equipment and decided he wanted to work for Deere.…
Blindness Doesn’t Stop Sixth Generation Farmer
District supervisor for Rehabilitation Services for the Blind serves on MU Extension's AgrAbility team
Jim Brinkmann’s blindness does not keep him from helping others with vision problems reach their potential. Brinkmann helps people with visual impairments succeed in agriculture, says Karen Funkenbusch, Missouri AgrAbility Project state director and University of Missouri Extension specialist. Brinkmann serves with Funkenbusch on the AgrAbility team. He is mid-Missouri district supervisor for Rehabilitation Services for the Blind (RSB), one…
Dairy Farmer Uses MU Extension Research to Grow
Mike Meier wants to use same principles for beef herd
Fourth-generation farmer Mike Meier knows change will help his family’s Century Farm survive. The rotational grazing and breeding system he uses for his dairy herd works well — now he wants to apply those principles to beef cattle. “At 56, I wanted to go in a different direction,” he says. Meier wants to see how much profit per acre he…
MU Grazing School Key to Edgewood Dairy and Creamery
June is Dairy Month
Twenty years ago, Charles Fletcher of Edgewood Dairy and Creamery attended a University of Missouri Extension grazing school. It would change the future of the family dairy operation. Fletcher’s father started the dairy farm in 1966. His father milked cows by hand 365 days a year, morning and night. In 1993, the Fletcher family formed a partnership that included poultry…
Black and Gold and Green
Research centers improve efficiency in research and practice
From turning today’s tuna salad into tomorrow’s tomatoes, and improving water quality and conservation through advanced irrigation and drainage techniques, CAFNR’s 17 research centers are improving production efficiency, reducing costs and inputs and working to conserve natural resources. Sometimes the solutions involve working with what nature provides, such as capturing ground source air to maintain consistent temperatures for heating and…