The New York Beef Producers Association and NY Beef Industry Council are expanding their daily activities and adding two one-day-only programs for producers at the August 8-10, 2017 Empire Farm Days at Rodman Lott and Son Farms, 2973 State Route 414, Seneca Falls, NY.

The new daily schedule includes:

• 9:30 am Designing A Cattle Handling System for Cattle and Handler Safety, Runnings Booth.
• 10:15 am So Who’s Cow is This? Identification Practices: Learn about the importance of animal identification through metal ear tags, RFID tags, and tattooing.
• 10:30 am-on NY Beef Producers Association BBQ: serving beef BBQ sandwich and complete lunches daily.
• 11:00 am Cattle Handling Demonstrations with Cornell Beef Specialist Dr. Mike Baker: See proper moving and handling of live cattle in cattle handling system with different types of chutes and head gates by Dr. Baker and equipment representatives. Note this time is a half-hour earlier than at past shows. Sponsors include Davon Sales, Layden Fence and Livestock, and Runnings.
• 12:00 pm Putting Profit in Your Pocket with Pre-Conditioning Practices: Learn how to get top dollar for your calves this fall and about products and ways to properly deworm, dehorn, and castrate feeder cattle.
• 1:00 pm Are Your Cattle Making the Grade? Feeder Calf Grading/Evaluating with New York Livestock Graders and Market News Reporters: see demonstrations of how feeder calves are graded and evaluated for marketing.
• 2:00 pm Does She Stay or Does She Go? Pregnancy Testing by Blood Samples: Learn how to properly draw blood to check for pregnancies as early as 28 days.

Two Empire Farm Days special one-day-only events are also set for beef producers:

• Wednesday, August 9 by invitation only: 8:00 am-2:00 pm Animal Wellbeing Workshops with New York Beef Council Executive Director Jean O’Toole. Producers must reserve space to participate by contacting the Council at 315-339-6922.
• Thursday, August 10,10:30 am: Beef Quality Assurance Training/ Recertification: classroom training, followed by chuteside training, lunch included. BQA helps beef producers develop consumer-oriented production systems that combine technology, common sense, and animal well-being practices. Pre-registration required by August 3 with Katherine Brosnan, NY Beef Council, kbrosnan@nybeef.org, 315-339-6922.

The NY Beef Council Beef Center tent at Lot 202 at Empire Farm Days includes live cattle breeds, the opportunity to talk with producers of the major beef breeds, and information on the BQA program and how Beef Checkoff Program dollars contributed by producers are used to increase demand for beef products through outreach to health professionals, food retailers and consumers.

Empire Farm Days show hours are 9 am-5 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 9 am-4 pm on Thursday. Parking is $10 per vehicle. Learn more at www.empirefarmdays.com, 877-697-7837.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

• New York Beef Producers Association Executive Secretary Brenda Bippert, 716-902-4305, nybeefproducers@aol.com
• New York Beef Industry Council Executive Director Jean O’Toole, 315-339-6922, cgillis@nybeef.org
• Empire Farm Days Manager Melanie Wickham, 877-697-7837, mwickham@empirefarmdays.com
• EFD Publicist Kara Lynn Dunn, 315-465-7578, karalynn@gisco.net

PHOTO CREDIT:

The New York Beef Industry Council is expanding its activities at Empire Farm Days on August 8-10, 2017. Photo: NYBPA/Brenda Bippert.