WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTATIONS PAGE
Sarah Flacks ’s workshops and lectures are interactive, dynamic and designed to meet the needs of a diverse audience. Most of these workshops can be done on-farm or in a classroom as a whole or half day workshop. They can also be offered as a one to two hour power point presentation.
Here is a listing of some of the workshops offered recently:
Basic Pasture Management
Covers the fundamentals of what you need to know to set up a new grazing system, or improve an existing one. Using practical examples of grazing systems, we’ll discuss pasture plant species and how to manage to keep desirable plants growing vigorously as well as what can be done with livestock and fence to transform the types of plants in your pasture to productive high quality livestock feed without expensive plowing and planting. Topics include plant species, grazing methods, fence, water systems, pasture design and layout, and how to calculate paddock sizes and the number of acres you’ll need.
Multi Species Grazing
Should you graze your sheep with your cows, or should you use a leader follower system? And what is the difference between an egg-mobile and a chicken tractor? Does multi species grazing really help with parasite management? We’ll answer these questions and more at this workshop on multi species grazing systems. Topics will include fencing and pasture water systems for cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs and poultry and many of the different designs of chicken tractors, egg-mobiles and pig-erators. We’ll discuss how each type of animal grazes, and the best ways to manage their pastures to keep your animals healthy and the pastures productive.
Sheep and Goat Pasture Management
This workshop will cover all the information you need to design a grazing system for your sheep or goat flock. We’ll cover pasture quality, plant species, using mob stocking to convert brush into pasture, paddock size calculations, fences, watering systems, internal parasites, predator control and more.
Mob Stocking — Clearing Brush and Rennovating Pastures
with Sheep and Goats
How can you convert brush and weeds to high quality pastures without mowing, bulldozing, plowing or reseeding? This workshop covers the basic principals of grazing management and mob stocking as a method of plant species conversion.
Fine Tuning Your Grazing System
This session uses real on-farm examples to help us learn how to “listen” to what our farms, pastures and animals are telling us. Observing plants, soil, animals and the interactions between them can guide us to improve the conversion of sunlight into high quality plants and healthy livestock through good grazing management. Topics will include pasture condition scoring and monitoring, grazing management techniques, pasture ecology, and the use of fence, water system, lanes and different stocking densities and re-growth periods.
Integrating Livestock Into the Garden and Orchard
How can you integrate small scale poultry, pigs, sheep or goats, a family cow or a small beef herd into your back yard, your gardens, vineyards and orchards? Using slides and practical examples we’ll explore different types of fencing, chicken tractors, egg mobiles, portable pig housing. Information will include grazing systems for permanent pasture, grazed (or pig-erated) cover crops and annual crops, and grazing orchards and vineyards. We’ll also cover some of the benefits grass based livestock can bring to your soil, compost piles, plant species and to your families health. The goal of this workshop is to provide you with many practical examples of systems which are working on other farms to help you design system which is flexible, creative and works well for your farm.
An Introduction to Vegetable Lacto-Fermentation
This method of food storage and preservation can be done without any expensive equipment in your own kitchen. This workshop will focus on what you need to know to get started with successful fermentation on a “home” scale. At this workshop, there will be a demonstration of sauerkraut making (using only salt and cabbage), samples to taste, and discussion of the basics of fermentation. Topics will include vegetable selection, preparation, recipes, some of the health benefits of lacto fermented foods, fermentation creativity, resources, ingredients and equipment to get the right type of fermentation to make sauerkraut, Kim chi and other natural pickles.
Maintaining Healthy Livestock
This workshop will focus on the role of plants as medicine and food for healthy livestock. We’ll look the plants in our pastures, forests and hedgerows which have useful medicinal and nutritional properties, and methods used to make them available to livestock by grazing when seasonally possible, or by feeding leaf hay and other strategies in winter. Medicinal plants can be used as part of daily feeding, or they can be used as remedies to treat sick animals. They can be fed fresh, dried, directly grazed or browsed, or made into teas, infusions, tinctures and salves easily in your own kitchen. Many of these same medicinal plants can also be used in a homeopathic form, along with the many other homeopathic remedies available now. Potentially poisonous plants will also be discussed. Since pastures are also a potential source of internal parasite infection, we’ll also discuss the role of grazing management and methods of multi-species grazing in parasite management. As time allows, we’ll briefly discuss other remedies for treating livestock on an organic farm and preventing illness including homeopathy, colostrum whey products, pro-biotics, and others.
Keeping a Family Cow — home-scale dairy farming
If you are thinking about getting a family cow (or a few…), this workshop will help get you started with the basics of selecting your cow, feeding, basic preventive health care, milking, and what to do with all that milk. We’ll cover feeding, housing, health care, milking, sanitation, grazing and some simple recipes for making yogurt, cheeses and butter in your own kitchen, as well as ideas on what to do with all the whey and buttermilk you’ll have left over.
What You Need to Know Before
You Transition Your Dairy Farm to Organic
This workshop will be a discussion of what to consider before making the transition to certified organic dairy production and what resources are available to help farmers making the transition. We will answer questions and give an overview of topics including: finding a market, organic health care, high quality forages from fertile soils, records required to meet organic standards, maintaining milk quality, understanding the organic standards, finding sources of certified feed as well as approved soil amendments and health care products, developing a good relationship with a supportive local veterinarian and other resource people, as well as developing a clear understanding of the cost of transitioning and long term organic production.
The Role of Grazing in Organic Farming
This presentation will cover the national organic program standards, how to include pasture in your organic transition, and common pitfalls to avoid when converting from zero grazing to a grass based system or from continuous to intensive grazing. We’ll also cover several methods to measure and keep records of dry matter intake from pasture and stored forages. Pastures provide a low cost feed, which is particularly helpful for organic dairy farmers. Good grazing management can improve livestock health, resulting in reduced cull rates, longer lived animals, reduced vet bills, and additional income from sales of heifers or sound older cows.
Organic Dairy Feeding Systems
This is a presentation designed to help non-farmers understand the wide variety of summer and winter feeding and housing systems on organic dairy farms. Topics include grazing and summer supplemental feeding with grain and stored forages, as well as winter feeding systems including total mixed rations, hay/grain systems, silage, minerals and other supplements. There will also be information on housing including tiestalls, barnyards & winter turnout areas, freestalls and bedded pack systems.
Understanding Dairy Rations — What You Need to Know
to Do a Dairy Feed Audit as Part of an Organic Inspection
This presentation is designed to help organic inspectors understand the wide variety of dairy feeding systems on organic dairy farms. Dairy rations vary from farm to farm, and from season to season. The record keeping systems on dairy farms also vary widely, making feed audits a challenge which is best approached with a good understanding of what is “reasonable”. Topics will include dry matter and as fed basis of feeds, records, total mixed rations, summer pasture rations, winter hay/grain rations and silage feeding sytems.