The beef industry is a large part of Harrison County and many of the clients that I have through Extension have some type of cattle operation on their farm.  With that being said many producers ask about having beef classes throughout the winter months. In the past we have always done about two courses throughout the winter on beef related issues. This past winter, I decided to hold a Winter Beef Series that included 4 different classes held every Monday evening for 4 weeks. These classes were on topics such as beef nutrition and minerals, the cattle market, the beef IRM program as well as the new BQCA program.  

Throughout this series I had Dr. Jeff Lehmkuhler, Dr. Les Anderson, and Dr. Kenny Burdine come to Harrison County to discuss the above topics.  At each of the sessions we averaged 60+ producers in attendance and the feedback was exceptional.  100% of the producers in attendance want to continue a series like this with updated topics every year. 92% of the producers learned something new to take back to their operation and 90% of the participants attended every session.  This was a great program that I plan to keep going for the next several winters and hope that the response continues to grow.