The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will host a conference for producers of grass-fed beef on June 24-25 at the Texas A&M Rosenthal Meat Center, 730 Olson Blvd., College Station.

This is the eighth conference focusing on the production of cattle and the beef marketed directly to consumers. Not only will grass-fed beef production be discussed, but speakers will also look at grain- and pasture-finished beef targeting local markets, said Ron Gill, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension beef cattle specialist in the Department of Animal Science in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“This past year saw a dramatic increase in interest in marketing beef directly to customers. It also highlighted some of the limitations to successfully getting that done.,” Gill said. “Limited processing facilities significantly hampered people’s ability to produce and sell locally produced beef. We will look into this constraint on production as well as opportunities ahead to ease that problem.

“We’re excited at each conference to see the growing interest among participants,” Gill said. “We have an outstanding lineup of speakers who will provide information about beef production from pasture to plate. We are particularly excited about this year’s producers’ panel, which will feature operations with unique approaches to production but, more importantly, marketing of beef produced at the ranch.”

The program can be attended in person or virtually this year.

“Although we have been eager to resume face-to-face programming, we realize many people may not be comfortable or able to attend in person, so we want to make it easy to participate in this year’s conference,” Gill said.

For the in-person event, the registration fee is $275 and for the virtual event, registration will be $200 prior to June 18, and $325 for in-person and $250 for virtual after. Advance registration should be completed at https://bit.ly/3oOMekH.

Meals will be provided for those attending in person.

On the agenda

The program will run from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on June 24 and 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 25.

Topics and speakers include:

— The U.S. Beef Industry and How You Can Find Your Place, Gill.
— Growing Forages for Grass-fed Beef, Jason Banta, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension beef cattle specialist, Overton.
— Your Check-off Dollar at Work, Texas Beef Council.
— Preventative Herd Health Management, Helen Phillips, DVM, Phillips Veterinary Hospital, Brenham.
— Defining Natural, Grass-fed and Organic Production Systems, Gill.
— Cattle Best Suited for Grass-fed Beef, Joe Paschal, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension livestock specialist, Corpus Christi.
— Managing and Allocating Forage in a Grass-Finishing Program, Bruce Carpenter, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension livestock specialist, Ft. Stockton.
— Animal Science Teaching, Research and Extension Beef Center, questions and conversations about grass-fed beef.
— A Grass-fed Prime Rib Dinner, Davey Griffin, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension meat specialist, Bryan-College Station.
— Open Discussion on Processing and Marketing Options for Grass-fed Beef.

“The highlight for me every year is the producer panel that discusses the process they have gone through to become successful at producing and marketing for a targeted clientele,” Gill said. “Overall, this program allows attendees to take home a lot of information and put it to work.”

For more information, contact Gill at rgill@tamu.edu or go to https://bit.ly/3oOMekH.