A meat goat producers meeting is scheduled for May 26, 2007 at the Tennessee State University Agricultural Research Facility on the Nashville main campus to provide information to managers that may be interested in participating in a new USDA-CSREES Small Farms Project aimed at stimulating record keeping for economically important production traits in meat goat herds. Animal performance records will help herd managers make informed animal selection/culling decisions to enhance overall doe herd productivity and better understand the economics of their operations. This project is open to any management scheme (seedstock or commercial) and any breed type (purebred or crossbred). Under this project, the genetic evaluation protocol used in the TSU research herd over the last few years will be applied to participating herds for birth-to-weaning performance. Target states include Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. However, herds in other states are certainly welcomed to participate. The American Meat Goat Association, Tennessee Goat Producers Association, and Goat and Sheep Producers of Alabama are current partners in this effort.

In addition to a short formal project meeting, attendees can tour the TSU research herd. As part of the on-going breed evaluation project, the research herd holds 250-head of straight bred Boer, Kiko, and Spanish breeding stock. Other activities are being planned. The Tennessee Goat Producers Association is scheduling a membership meeting that day as part of this gathering.

Refer to the association website:
(www.tngoatproducers.org)
for TGPA meeting updates.

For more information about the research project or to register for the meeting and farm visit, please contact Dr. Richard Browning, Jr., atrbrowning@tnstate.edu, or 615-963-5837.

Richard Browning, Jr., Ph.D.
Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Research
Tennessee State University
3500 John A. Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561