Webinars for veterinarians, farmers to cover organic livestock grazing

COLUMBUS — A new series of free workshops and webinars offered by Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association can help veterinarians and livestock producers learn more about and expand their services for certified organic livestock and poultry.

The objective of this series is to help veterinarians and their clients design best herd health management practices that comply with federal and state regulations and organic standards when considering the health and well-being of the animal.

Lessons learned

Participants will learn how to perform an on-farm risk assessment, or audit, to identify and rank risk factors associated with herd health and performance.

The series will also demystify the organic standards and clarify the requirements for individual animals to obtain and maintain their organic status. This is important for Ohio, which ranks second for the number of dairy farmers that produce milk for Organic Valley. Approximately 270 Ohio farms are certified organic livestock and poultry operations.

Dates and topics

The webinars begin at 1 p.m. and the issues covered include:

June 23, CSI for Dairy: On-Farm Audits to Assess Risk; July 10, Certified Organic Livestock Standards; Oct. 1, Organic Livestock Inputs.

Also, a certified organic dairy tour and workshop is set for June 26, 1 p.m. at the Pleasantview Farm, 20361 Florence Chapel Pike, in Circleville. Topics to be discussed during the workshop and webinars include transition cow management, calving-related disease prevention and on-farm risk assessment; organic standards for livestock, allowed inputs and the certification process; management of somatic cell counts and mastitis control; parasite management and control.

Additional topics include pain management, regulatory medicine and science-based treatments; organic poultry flock health; nutrition-related diseases; on-farm health audits to assess herd risk factors; and defining, monitoring and recordkeeping of health events.

In addition, veterinarians and poultry and livestock producers can join a network to share ideas and find answers to questions.

The series is funded by the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education professional development program. Veterinary continuing education credits will be granted on an hour-for-hour basis.

For more details or to register go to oeffa.org or vet.osu.edu/extension, or call 614-421-2022, Ext. 209, or email education@oeffa.org.