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Impact Report

For plan Livestock Disease/Agriculture & Food Safety Biosecurity (Quay County)
Date October 25, 2011, 5:32 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Programming efforts for this plan include a series of events in Tucumcari and surrounding areas in an effort to better inform consumers as well as producers about the many food recalls and safety alerts in the national media. Similarly, this plan provides educational programming to small acreage owners and home horticulturists on the best and safest methods of producing and handling food items for home consumption. The agriculture industry will also have a better understanding of the importance of having an Emergency Management Plan for their respective farms and ranches as well as method and means to handle bio-security issues and prevention on livestock disease outbreaks. January 2011 began with our Annual Agriculture & Home Economics Seminar’s main theme focusing on Food Safety and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). The days topics included food safety and security, processing of food at home in a safe and clean manner. Other topics of interest for the seminar included “The New Food Safety Bill and You”, Good Agricultural Practices for Small Farm operators”, and “How to Stay informed about Food Recalls and Pandemics.” Speakers covered other health concerns, alerts, from the Center for Disease and Control. The seminars participants numbered 73 total. Ninety seven percent of evaluations returned stated having an increase awareness of the topics discussed as a result of the program. Additionally, 87% of evaluations stated they would implement a GAPs practice taught at the seminar on their respective operations/homes. Other programming with lead sponsorship by Quay Extension office includes the Quay County Drought management Workshop with over 40 participants attending. The workshop topics covered federal and state assistance programs, cash flow strategies during drought and range management practices for dry and arid regions. Additionally, National Weather Service representative was on hand to give an overview and in depth analysis on El Nino/ La Nina systems and their relation to weather in the southwest. This workshop provided specific information to local producers on how to deal with the natural disaster of drought in both crops and beef cattle operations. Participants attending the workshop with 90% completed the retrospective post evaluation. Ninety seven percent rated themselves as very little to average knowledge on all topics covered at the workshop and a 98% increase in knowledge on all topics discussed. Eighty three percent of participants stated that the weather overview and in depth discussion was their favorite topic discussed. All evaluations stated coming away with some new knowledge and would put it into practice along with other management decisions. Other activities and professional improvement include New Mexico Ag. Expo – Portales, NM Cattle Growers Association Northeast Region Emergency Preparedness Training – Tucucmari, NM Dept. of Homeland Security and Emergency management Conference, the Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center’s – Preparing Communities for Animal, Plant, and Food Incidents Training. Feral Hog Workshop A new and ever increasing problem in Quay County and other areas of New Mexico are feral hog infestation into range and cropland. Feral hogs have caused tremendous amounts of damage to agricultural producers in both destroyed crops and depredation of livestock. As a result NMDA, NM Cattle Growers, and various state and federal agencies have concentrated efforts to control this unyielding pest. Additionally, feral swine are carriers of a variety of diseases, they also play host to insects that carry and transmit a list of common and infectious bacteria. As a result, Quay County Extension held the first ever Feral Hog Symposium in Tucumcari. The day’s events covered an assortment of topics such as History, Diseases and Dangers, Regulations and Management/Control. Most popular of the topics pertained to wildlife and domestic livestock interactions and the future of feral hog infestations in New Mexico. The educational symposium consisted of 56 participants, representation of 5 federal and state agencies and various landowners from across the state. Additionally, the day’s presenters were broadcast over Centra to include 12 counties and 3 individuals reviewing the archived sessions. Since this event feral hog programs have been held throughout New Mexico with strong attendance and interest in the topic. All participants rated their knowledge on feral hogs at a very low to no previous knowledge before the program. The post test evaluation rated participants as knowledgeable to very knowledgeable. “This was a very educational program and will certainly be a useful tool in my management of prevention of feral hog infestations.” ,says Phil Bidegain of the historic T4 Cattle Company. The event was coordinated by Quay County Extension Agent, in cooperation with NMDA Wildlife services, and NM Cattle Growers Association.