The Livestock Conservancy

Poitou Donkey Chat with Natasha Sprengers-Levine

Special Guest Natasha Sprengers-Levine from Blue Wood Farm and Vineyards (https://bluewoodfarm.com), chats with Charlene Couch and Brittany Sweeney about critically-endangered Poitou donkeys nutrition and reproduction.

Natasha Sprengers-Levine is the COO of STRIDER, the largest equestrian bookings platform and software services provider for the horse industry. She is a United States Pony Club graduate and USDF Silver and Bronze Medalist who holds a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Vermont, where she was captain of the Dressage Team. Natasha currently operates a dressage training business at Blue Wood Farm & Vineyard in Verbank, NY where she also oversees the care and management of her family’s four Poitou donkeys. Blue Wood Farm has been home to Poitou donkeys since 2011 and successfully foaled out a jenny in 2018.

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Donkey Chats this month! Learn more about how they are nurturing life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022.

Marketing Monday with Dayna Burtness

Special Guest Dayna Burtness of Nettle Valley Farm (https://www.nettlevalleyfarm.com/) joins Brittany Sweeney and Samantha Gasson from FACT (foodanimalconcernstrust.org) to chat about niche marketing and creating a community around your farm.

Dayna Burtness farms full time at Nettle Valley Farm and does most of the day to day farm management and livestock care. She grew up near the Twin Cities but is actually part of the the 6th generation in her family to farm in Houston County, MN. Nettle Valley Farm is a 70 acre farm in Spring Grove, MN, where Dayna and her partner Nick Nguyen raise pastured pork and try to increase the resilience and biodiversity of the land they steward, be good neighbors, and pay it forward whenever they can. ​

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Marketing Mondays this year! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Cayuga Duck Chat with Jon Alden

Welcome to Duck Chats! Special Guest Jon Alden, Breeding Flock Manager at Hoover's Hatchery (https://hoovershatchery.com/), joins Jeannette Beranger and Brittany Sweeney to chat about Cayuga ducks, listed as Watch on the Conservation Priority List.

Growing up on a small farm in central Illinois, Jon first got into chicks when he bought his first 12 from the local farm store, which quickly turned into 20 chickens, and a few ducks. His passion for poultry quickly expanded to more birds, leading him to attend the University of Arkansas, pursuing a degree in Poultry Science. From there Jon worked at a couple other poultry outfits before joining Hoover’s Hatchery in 2018, where he oversees all the breeders at Hoover’s while working to expand our selection to include more variety that we believe will appeal to our customers.

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Duck Chats this month! Learn more about how they are nurturing life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Corolla Horse Chat with Meg Puckett

Special Guest Meg Puckett, Herd Manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (https://www.corollawildhorses.com/) joins Charlene Couch and Emily Rose Johnson to chat about this critically-endangered breed located on the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

 

 

Meg Puckett accepted the role of Herd Manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF) in July 2016. She came to the CWHF from The Virginia Zoo in Norfolk, where she worked in education, volunteer management, and media/public relations. Before that she was an educator at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, and she also worked on the USS Monitor project at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News. Meg graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College with degrees in History and English.

 

Meg’s background in nonprofits, public history, education and interpretation, and animal science has helped prepare her for the multi-faceted role of Herd Manager. In addition to that, Meg has more than 20 years experience working with and caring for horses, and a deep rooted love and connection to the Albemarle region. Preserving the ecology and the history of the Outer Banks is something that she’s always been passionate about, and the wild horses of Corolla have held a special place in her heart since she was a little girl.

 

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Cattle Chats this month! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Galiceno Horse Chat with Rick Blaney

Special Guest Rick Blaney of Galiceños of Suwannee Horse Ranch (http://Galiceno.org) joins Charlene Couch and Emily Rose Johnson to chat about this critically-endangered breed.

 

Their farm's Facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/Galicenos-of-Suwannee-139480129479917

 

Their YouTube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/GalicenosOfSuwannee/videos

 

Rick Blaney is a retired college Professor of Biological Sciences with a Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University (1965) in Biological Sciences and a Doctorate from Louisiana State University (1970) in Zoology. He taught courses in Biology, Zoology, and Anatomy and Physiology before retiring in 2006. Now a rancher, Rick and his wife Pat are dedicated to preserving Galiceño horses on their 80 acre horse ranch located in Suwannee County near Live Oak, Florida.

 

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Cattle Chats this month! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Lipizzan Horse Chat with Esther Buonanno

Special Guest Esther Buonanno from the United States Lipizzan Federation (https://www.uslipizzan.org/) joins Charlene Couch and Brittany Sweeney to chat about this threatened breed.

Esther Buonanno is the Program Director of the Tempel Lipizzans (https://www.tempelfarms.com) as well as granddaughter of Founders Esther and Tempel Smith. Tempel Lipizzans is located in northern Illinois and is home to 70 Lipizzan horses. The mission is to promote and preserve Lipizzan horses and classical riding in the United States through a careful breeding program and public performances and tours.

Esther is on the Board of Directors of the United States Lipizzan Federation and on the Honorary Committee of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Horse Chats this month! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Marketing Monday with Matt LeRoux and Sarah Blacklin

In 2022, Marketing Monday is focusing on how to turn your audience into a community. Today, Special Guests Matt LeRoux Extension Associate at Cornell University & Marketing Specialist at NC Choices (https://ncchoices.org/), and Sarah Blacklin, NC Choices Program Director, chat about their new Marketing Channel Assessment Tool for produce growers and the Cornell Meat Price Calculator (https://www.meatsuite.com/calculator/).

Matt has over 20 years’ experience serving farms through Cornell Cooperative Extension, non-profits, and consulting. Specializing in market strategy, Matt works with a diverse mix of produce and livestock farmers and food businesses. Career highlights include developing the Marketing Channel Assessment Tool for produce growers and the Cornell Meat Price Calculator.

Sarah Blacklin is a NC Cooperative Extension educator and Program Director at NC Choices, a program of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems. Sarah helps small farmers in NC maximize direct and wholesale marketing efforts to enhance profitability. She deals directly with livestock farms and local meat businesses along the entire local meat supply chain including commercial meat processors, restaurants and butcher shops, regulatory agents and various allied businesses.

Sarah’s work of extending educational programming, networking opportunities and technical training to sustainable food businesses has gained attention on the local and national scale and in 2016 Sarah was honored among the “top 100 national agricultural leaders shaping rural America” by National Farm Credit. Among other activities, Sarah serves on the board of the National Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network. Before working with meat, Sarah served as Market Manager for the Carrboro Farmers’ Market for 5 years, originally getting her start as a farmhand for local farmers.

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Marketing Mondays this year! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Florida Cracker Cattle Chat

Special Guests historian Doyle Conner Jr. and Cowboy Poet Stephen Monroe join guest host Martha Hoffman Kerestes and Brittany Sweeney to chat about Florida Cracker cattle, listed as threatened on the Conservation Priority List.

 

Doyle Conner Jr., a sixth-generation Cracker and cowman, has studied, researched and shared Florida's cow history for more than 20 years. During his service as a curator of the Florida Agriculture Museum he conserved the material of the state's heritage and developed a healthy respect for the tough minded individuals who made "la Florida" what it is today. Doyle is also the Florida Cracker Cattle Association’s Historian.

 

Stephen Monroe has owned and managed cattle since he was 11 years old. Along the way, he competed in rodeos, became a rodeo clown and bullfighter, and learned cowboy poetry to entertain himself during long days in the saddle. In 1985, Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture recruited him to help with reservation efforts of cattle descended from the first cattle to set hoof in the US. The Florida Cracker Cattle Association was formed in 1988 and the registry formed the next year. Stephen has served as the association's volunteer Executive Director and Manager of the Annual Sale since their inception and has been blessed to help guide the efforts of so many great families who are the strength of the association.

 

Martha Hoffman Kerestes grew up helping her parents raise Dutch Belted and Milking Shorthorn cattle, and today she works alongside her mother with the dual-purpose dairy herd and family genetics business, Best yet A.I. Sires. She hopes to honor her late father's legacy by continuing where he left off in conservation work. She is Vice President of the Dutch Belted Cattle Association of America. In addition to her work with heritage cattle, Martha does freelance ag writing for publications like Graze magazine and farms with her husband, Brian, in northern Illinois.

 

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring Cattle Chats this month! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022

Wooly Wednesday with The Natural Spinner Kimberly Radcliffe

Special Guest Kimberly Radcliffe joins Cindra Kerscher to chat about working with raw fleece, combed preparation and lace spinning. Learn more about this "Unapologetic Raw Fleece Enabler" on her website at https://thenaturalspinner.com.

 

As a young child, Kimberly learned from her grandmother, how to knit and crochet. In 2009, she gifted herself spinning lessons as a birthday present. Once introduced to raw fleece, she never looked back and fell deep into the fiber prep rabbit hole! She loves worsted prep and specializes in combing and spinning lace yarn.

 

Kimberly's passion for sharing her love of fiber led her to teach classes at many major fiber festivals on the east coast. She has also demonstrated her craft at fiber festivals, fairs and other venues for over 10 years. You’ll usually find her in the fleece barn at the fiber festivals!

 

Contact Kimberly at thenaturalspinner@yahoo.com, watch her on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/thenaturalspinner, or find her on Ravelry @TheNaturalSpinner and Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/KimberlysHandcrafts

Cattle Chat with Richard Browning and Martha Hoffman Kerestes

On today's Cattle Chat, Special Guest Dr. Richard Browning, Professor of Animal Science at Tennessee State University in Nashville, joins guest host Martha Hoffman Kerestes and Brittany Sweeney to chat about small farm economics and Dexter cattle, listed as recovering.

 

Richard Browning grew up in Raywood, Texas where he was active in the Hull-Daisetta FFA and Liberty County 4-H through the raising and showing of Red Brahman cattle. He earned a B.Sc. (1989) from Prairie View A&M University and M.Sc. (1992) and Ph.D. (1994) from Texas A&M University.

 

Dr. Browning’s graduate research, under the senior guidance of Dr. Ron Randel, focused on the reproductive performance of Brahman cattle and comparative calf performance of tropically-adapted Tuli cattle along with Angus and Brahman. In 1994, Dr. Browning arrived at Tennessee State University in Nashville. At TSU he studied physiological mechanisms and heat-tolerant cattle genetics in relation to fescue toxicosis using Angus, Brahman, Hereford, Holstein, and Senepol breeds. He started meat goat research in 2002. He began by studying performance traits among Boer, Kiko, and Spanish breeds, and later added Myotonic and Savanna goats to the research program.

 

Dr. Browning established a Dexter cattle herd at TSU in 2015. The Dexter cattle will be used to advance student teaching and ruminant research. He is married to Dr. Maria Leite-Browning who is a veterinarian and Extension specialist. The two of them are thoroughly engaged in outreach activities to assist meat goat producers. An overview of his work can be found at http://www.tnstate.edu/faculty/rbrowning/

 

Martha Hoffman Kerestes grew up helping her parents raise Dutch Belted and Milking Shorthorn cattle, and today she works alongside her mother with the dual-purpose dairy herd and family genetics business, Bestyet A.I. Sires. She hopes to honor her late father's legacy by continuing where he left off in conservation work. She is Vice President of the Dutch Belted Cattle Association of America.

 

Big thank you to Manna Pro for sponsoring International Species Chats this month! Learn more about how Manna Pro is Nurturing Life at https://www.mannapro.com/promotions/nurturing-life-2022