Reaching New Audiences with Oklahoma

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Reaching New Audiences with Oklahomas Master
Cattleman ProgramDamona Doye, Agricultural
EconomicsDavid Lalman, Animal ScienceOklahoma
State University
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Motivation and Planning

• Motivation
• Area and county educators requests
• Manual in need of update
• Risk Management Agency education funding
  possibility
• Planning
• Multi-disciplinary ag econ, animal science,
  plant and soil sciences, biosystems and ag
  engineering, vet med, entomology and plant
  pathology
• County, area, state staff, district director
  planning team

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Program Components, Requirements

• 4 hours each from
• Business planning and management
• Marketing and risk management
• Nutrition and production management
• Animal health and quality assurance
• Managing natural resources
• Genetics and reproduction (cow-calf producers)
  plus
• Electives, 4 to 8 hrs and/or a special project
• 28 credit hours
• Must pass quizzes on individual chapters to earn
  credit hours
• Must complete an initial assessment survey and
  final assessment survey
• No more than ½ of credit hours in any segment by
  correspondence

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Resources

• Manual
• Educator Guidebook
• PPTs
• Lesson plans
• Quizzes
• Brochures
• Posters
• Website

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www.agecon.okstate.edu/cattleman

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Marketing and Promotion

• The usual
• News releases
• Brochures
• Oklahoma Cattlemans Association district
  meetings, annual Cattlemans college
• Word of mouth

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Participants receive

• Information/education
• Oklahoma Beef Cattle Manual
• MC farm gate sign
• MC certificate
• MC notebook
• Local incentives

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Participants

• Many small, part-time producers new to Extension
• Some large producers
• Some with no cows

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Participation by year
Year Number of sessions Number of new MC Groups Number of MC students Number of MC grads
2004 17 2
2005 231 19 165
2006 150 5 148
2007 to date 57 1 69
Total 455 27 602 382
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Evolution of program

• December 2003 in-service, some chapters drafted
• March 2004, manual draft completed
• December 2004 in-service, Educator guidebook,
  PPTs for most chapters, bulk manual distribution
• 5,000 manuals distributed
• August 2005, updated manual
• December 2005, in-service with more training for
  educators to present chapters
• July 2006, AAEA paper from cow/calf assessments
  (poster at these meetings)
• September 2006, Master Cattleman summit
• March 2007, in-service on Electronic Based Cattle
  Management
• April 2007, Beef Industry conference
• September 2007, Master Cattleman summit

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Program evaluation

• Initial assessment survey
• End of course survey
• Post-participation survey underway

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Funding support

• RMA
• 2003-04 107,800 (personnel, manuals, travel,
  conference)
• 2004-05 124,073 (manuals, travel, video-,
  students)
• 2005-06 143,774 (manuals, video-, travel,
  undergrad and grad student assistants, in-service
  travel)
• 2006-07 114,638 (student assistants, travel,
  laptops and personal response systems, software)
• Fees of 75 per person or couple if sharing
  materials
• Scholarships to graduates 2 per county in East
  Central OK FCS trade area (54 of 77 counties)

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Program Delivery

• Ag Econ
• Mostly state and area specialists, occasional
  Extension Educator
• Animal Science
• Extension Educators, Area Specialists, and State
  Specialists
• Plant and Soil Sciences
• Extension Educators, Area Specialists, and State
  Specialists

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Important lessons learned

• Well-developed curriculum plan was key
• Website has been critical management tool
• Events proposed, approved, listed
• Quizzes, credit hours recorded
• Hard to anticipate all the flexibility needed
• Multi-disciplinary efforts are always a
  management challenge.

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New programs added to follow-on

• Master Cattleman summit
• Beef Industry conference
• Occasional e-mails with upcoming events

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Comparison to other programs
OK TN KY AL/MS
Participant Cost 75 150 75
Other funding RMA Dept of Ag Tobacco
Hours 28 credits, more hours 12 sessions 8 sessions, 32 hours 8 sessions, 20 hours
Other Summits BQA certification reduces fee CowPokes, Advanced MC, Master Grazer Distance