To begin, I would like to thank all of you at Purina for putting on such a great program and my local dealer for thinking enough of me to send me. My son and daughter show beef cattle and hogs but showed lambs for a few years so of course I have some idea about how to feed these species and as an Agriculture instructor, you work with all of the species. The species I have no background in is with goats. I have several families that show and have had a lot of success with goats but advice has always been sheep based with a lot of phone calls and reading to gain information to help them out as needed.

Poor Mike Harbour spent probably way too much of his time with me Monday evening but I was able to receive answers to a lot of my specific questions on goats. The Thursday I was back I had a family who had a goat die and another that was extremely sick. I thought back to what Mike and I discussed that Monday and made a recommendation and the goat got better and is still doing fine. As teacher-educator we forget a lot of the tricks and remedies because we don’t use them or they are not common to a geographic area. I think visiting with other professionals and breeders is a way to add more tricks to the tool box and refresh a lot of what you may have forgotten.

Even though I may have more confidence in the species we raise and show, I learned something from every one of your presenters. Bob May explained to me how he trims a steer’s forearm for specific judges. Dave Guyer explained how to manage your young person’s time and daily regimen. Kirk Stierwalt came up with the two minute per head rule in determining time to judge a class. Ryan Watje was a wealth of information and had a different point of view since he is out of the traditional corn-hog belt. Bryan Vaughan outlined the holding strategy for heavy weight pigs while Mark Johnson did a great job on selection and worming. These are a few of the specific things I have learned and already have in practice in my home and my decisions in recommending to my feeders.

Your nutritionists were extremely helpful in explaining how you use research strategies and then your industry partners for testing. Every presenter I talked to feeds and relies on the Purina brand for their livelihood. I know other ambassadors for different brands and they pick and choose products but supplement with other brands to accomplish the desired result. If the invitation is still available, I would like to tour the Longview Facility this fall with our FFA chapter on the way to the National FFA Convention.

There were three things that stood out from Mike and the other presenters throughout the event. The first is your commitment to ingredients. Your consistency in the bag can be traced back to the initial receiving of that specific commodity and the quality assurance checks through the feed making process. So much of the feed related problems that I deal with are consistency and quality. The second thing was your four point winning matrix and the belief in keeping it simple by covering the basics. I have many feeders that will shop around and buy the cheapest feed and then add several additives to make the ration the most expensive. And the third was you fed us way too much. I kept thinking we were the ones on the feed trial and some of us were going to be in a carcass contest.

Again thanks and I hope I can attend again!

Philip Beard | Las Cruces, NM
Las Cruces FFA

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