An upcoming workshop will introduce beginning farmers to different approaches to raising sheep and goats for meat.
Catskills Young Farmers and the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship will sponsor a hands-on training titled Small Ruminants 101 on Oct. 26 and 27. Teachers will be Delaware County farmers, processors and educators focused on sustainable practices.
“Historically, there hasn’t been significant demand for sheep and goat meat in the U.S.,” Rhiannon Wright, program manager at CADE, said in an email. “As our new American population grows, farmers are stepping up to meet their needs for culturally relevant foods. We also are featuring farmers that are focused on agritourism — the Catskills are a major destination for farm stays, so offering educational experiences for tourists (and locals!) is a growing way to create business income.”
During the two-day workshop, participants will visit farms throughout Delaware County, a media release said. At Roam on the Range in Hobart, participants will learn about goat herding, silvopasture and agritourism. At Weathered Hill Farm in South Kortright, they will learn about rotational sheep grazing and custom on-farm processing. At East Brook Community Farm in Walton there will be a goat slaughter demonstration and at Solinsky’s Meats in Stamford they will learn about working with a USDA meat processor. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County will give information about the support it provides to farmers. Wright said the owners of the farms participating are all connected to the Catskills Young Farmers, which is a local chapter of the National Young Farmer Coalition.
“Farmers really value peer-to-peer learning, and crave the opportunity to see practices ‘in action,'” she said “These on-farm trainings offer a more in-depth opportunity to ask nuanced questions, meet other local aspiring farmers and develop relationships with service providers.”
Wright said registration is full for the workshop, but there will be more in the future. “CADE and the Catskills Young Farmers are collaborating to offer hands-on training on a variety of regenerative practices for beginning farmers,” she said. The first event in this three-year series was Draft Horse 101, which was held this past spring and was also full of participants.”
CADE is a nonprofit organization that relies on government grants and community donations to offer free programs to beginning farmers, she said.
For more information about CADE, visit cadefarms.org.