March 5, 2010

Contact: Betsy Hodge, Cornell Cooperative Extension St. Lawrence County, 315-379-9192

North Country Kidding/Lambing Workshops March 20 in Canton, Mexico, Oriskany, Plattsburgh, Watertown

Birthing kids as in baby goats and lambs can be daunting for first-time shepherds. A Kidding and Lambing workshop in Canton will be teleconferenced to Jefferson, Oneida, Oswego and Clinton counties on Saturday, March 20 from 10am to 12noon.

“New shepherds usually have questions such as ‘how do I know when my sheep or goat is going to give birth,’ ‘how can I prepare,’ ’what do I do when the babies arrive,’ and ‘how do I raise an orphan kid or lamb.’ To help the increasing numbers of first-time livestock producers in the North Country, we have organized a workshop to answer these and other questions,” says Kidding and Lambing Workshop Organizer and Instructor Betsy Hodge, livestock educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension St. Lawrence County.

Hodge will host the event live at the Cornell Cooperative Extension St. Lawrence County Extension Learning Farm in Canton and broadcast it to the Cornell Cooperative Extension offices in Mexico, Oriskany, Plattsburgh, and Watertown, NY. Participants at all sites will receive information handouts. Hodge says kids, the human kind, are welcome at the meeting.

Contact the local Cornell Cooperative Extension office to register:
• Canton, 315-379-9192 x227
• Mexico, 315-963-7286
• Oriskany, 315-736-3394
• Plattsburgh, 518-561-7450
• Watertown, 315-788-8450.

More information for North Country livestock producers can be found online at www.nnyagdev.org.  #