Oklahoma Meat Goat Boot Camp

1
Oklahoma Meat Goat Boot Camp

• Situation
• Producers started coming to OSU Extension for
  information about meat goat production.
• Many were small first time livestock producers
  with little or no livestock production background.

Solution Oklahoma Meat Goat Boot Camp
Results
Completed 7 workshops with 369 participants from
25 states.

• The Boot Camp is a three day workshop that uses a
  mixture of hands-on and classroom exercises to
  teach producers about meat goat production.
• Cost 100 and class size is limited to 50
  producers.

Instructors show how to band a male goat kid.

• Different production practices are demonstrated
  on live goats by the instructors.
• Participants are then encouraged to perform the
  same practice on a goat.
• Participants can also come back during free time
  for more practice.

Impacts

• First extension meeting attended 68.5
• Adoption rate of recommended practices 69.8
• Change in knowledge gained 37.9
• Estimated total value of workshops 810,000
• Comments from Participants
• I loved it and I hope that there will be more
  because I personally learned more in three days
  than I ever knew about goats.
• I am leaving this program full of excitement and
  motivated to have the best operation that I can
  afford.
• It has helped me decide if I want to go into the
  goat business.

Two participants practice tubing a goat.

• In the classroom instructors provide short
  presentations followed by exercises.
• Participants are then put into small groups to
  work on the exercises.
• Groups are brought back together to discuss the
  exercises.

A small group works on the forage exercise.

• In the Future
• With a grant from Southern Region RME Center
  video presentations of boot camp sessions are
  being created.
• Videos will be presented on OSU Meat Goat website
• http//meatgoat.okstate.edu

Topics Tagging, Castration, Hoof Trimming, Aging,
Fecal Egg Counts, FAMACHA, Herd Health, Ration
Balancing, Farm Business Planning, Forage
Planning, Reproduction, Pregnancy Testing,
Tattooing, Fencing, Forage Testing, and more. We
also tour a goat operation.
An instructor helps participants with fecal egg
counts.