Participants will learn how to slaughter and process broiler chickens by hand in small batches on the farm. Participants will also see and discuss mobile chicken coup options
Teachers:
Doug Havemann, Army Veteran, Co – Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
Kevin Ellis, NCAT, Poultry Specialist
Skills Taught:
- How to harvest chicken
- How to process chicken
- Farm tool safety
- Perform post harvest handling
- Food safety and sanitation
- Post harvest packaging
- Federal and State regulation requirements for small farm processing
- Discuss and see mobile chicken coups.
Participants will learn the basic concepts of designing a pipe fence, arc welding, cutting torch, setting corner posts, setting line posts, cutting saddles, welding pipe rails, designing building and installing a pipe gate.
Teachers:
Doug Havemann, Army Veteran, Co – Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
Joe Medina, Navy Veteran, Retired Welder and Small Farm Owner
Skills Taught:
- Farm Safety
- Farm planning
- Material requirements and calculations
- Tractor and Auger safety
- Infrastructure Planning
- Repairing Infrastructure Components
- Livestock pasture management requirements
- Industry best practices
REGISTER HERE
This course will be all worms! Learn how worms can determine your soil health and how to cultivate them. We will also be demonstrating how to build and easy worm bin with minimum inputs.
Instructors: F.A.R.M. & Texas Worm Ranch
Skills Taught
- Build/ install infrastructure
- Build soil health & productivity (e.g., make compost, plant and manage cover and catch drops, integrate crop and livestock production, install crop rotations, add organic amendments if and as required)
- Monitor ecological impact of all production activities
- Implement conservation practices & measures (e.g., buffer strips, water quality management projects, wildlife habitat improvement, strip cropping)
- Cultivate soil
Now that you have multiplied your worm collection, use the castings for compost tea. Compost tea is a great way to love your plants naturally. Compost Tea is a Liquid Gold fertilizer for flowers, vegetables and houseplants. … Very simply, it is a liquid, nutritionally rich, well-balanced, organic supplement made by steeping aged compost in water.
Skills Taught:
- Benefits of compost tea
- How to improve crop growth with compost tea
- Nutrient retention and availability of soil
- Build stronger soil structures with compost tea
Following discussion, we will demonstrate how to build a compost tea brewer!
REGISTER HERE
Join Mesquite Field Farm for a tour of a USDA beef processing facility and learn about beef labelling and requirements.
Skills Taught:
- USDA Processing Facility Tour
- Product label requirements and development
- Developing a cut list
- Beef cattle processing requirements
- Developing relationships with your processor
- Product labels and marketing
Join Mesquite Field Farm for mobile chicken tractor building workshop
Participants will
- Learn the Suscovich design of mobile chicken tractors
- Learn how to build a mobile chicken tractor
- Construct 4 Suscovich style mobile chicken tractors
Lunch is provided by Pioneer BBQ
RSVP by October 18, 2018
REGISTER HERE
In order to improve our pastures and the quality of our livestock we need to understand alternative technologies that may reduce our spending thereby improving our bottom line.
Rotational grazing of livestock and poultry improve our soil while fodder systems offer an additional methodology to supplemental feed our livestock and poultry during times of decreased native forage or weather extremes.
In this day and age one method of retaining profits on the farm is to reduce expenses or cost avoidance. One of the large expenses on a farm is the cost of supplemental feed. Additionally, supplemental feeds such as cubes do not provide all of the nutrition we are looking to provide our animals. One method of reducing our supplemental feed costs is to produce fodder. Fodder in this case is sprouted grains. These grains when sprouted for 7 to 10 days are actually a grass and no longer a seed. This fodder produces a well rounded feed full of nutrients, micro-nutrients, and energy for our animals. This class will provide instruction on types of seed that can be sprouted, a small scale fodder system example, and a medium scale fodder system example. If you are a “do it yourself-er” and wish to grow your own feed then this class is for you.
Instructors:
- Doug Havemann, Army Veteran, Co – Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
Skills Taught:
- Basic construction
- Basic fabrication
- Farm tool safety
- Build and install infrastructure
- Material supply calculations
- Infrastructure damage prevention
- Farm safety
- Farm infrastructure development planning
- Crop planning
- Supplemental Feed Nutrition
Click here to download the flyer – Regenerative Pasture Fodder HOL – MFF
REGISTER HERE
As we all move to improve our soil quality we have found that conventional no-till methods work however, we have the ability to improve this process by reducing chemical usage and introducing cover crops into our processes.
This class will provide a discussion of the benefits of cover crops, which crops to plant, when to plant them, and a planting demonstration.
Instructors:
- Doug Havemann, Army Veteran, Co – Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
- Melissa Havemann, Co-Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
Skills Taught:
- Farm tool safety
- Crop planning
- Seed Supply calculations
- Material supply calculations
- Farm Tractor Usage
- Farm implement usage (no-till drill)
- Seed Characteristics
- USDA planting zones and cover crop recommendations
- Seed suppliers and recommendations
- Crop Planting techniques
Cover Crop Planning and Planting Flyer
REGISTER HERE
As we move toward the development of our market gardens to meet our customer needs it is important that we prepare our soil, prepare our planting spaces, plant the appropriate crops, plant companion crops to reduce insect stress and maximize our garden space for successive plantings and profit.
This class will provide a discussion of the benefits of cover crops, which crops to plant, when to plant them, and a planting demonstration.
Instructors:
- Koen Stokes – Horticulturist, Veg’d Out Urban Farms
- Doug Havemann, Army Veteran, Co-Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
- Melissa Havemann, Co-Owner, Mesquite Field Farm
Skills Taught:
- Farm tool safety
- Crop planning
- Seed supply calculations
- Compost development
- Soil amendment requirements
- Farm implement usage (small scale planters)
- Soil preparation
- Planting bed preparation
- Watering methods
REGISTER HERE
Starting a farm isn’t a decision to take lightly. Join Texas AgrAbility & BattleGround to Breaking Ground to discuss some points to consider when starting a farm. We also invite you to join the conversation with owners of Mesquite Field Farm, Doug and Melissa Havemann to discuss what factors helped them to make the decision to start their farm.
When: Dec 19, 2019 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://agrilifeextension.zoom.us/meeting/register/ab2aa1919d7506037510d14dfea9e911
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
About this event
Please wear appropriate attire for the weather predicted for that weekend. It is required that you wear close toed canvas or leather footwear (boots preferred). No shorts will be allowed. Your clothing should be made from durable materials, like wool, leather, or heavy tightly woven cotton. A fabric baseball cap should also be worn to protect the top of your head from sparks. We will provide welding hoods, welding gloves, welding blanket, and welding sleeves for your use while actively welding. If you have your own welding helmet, gloves, and /or jacket you may bring it with you.