Beef 201

University of Idaho’s beef team is accepting applications for another multi-day workshop tailored toward helping the region’s beginning ranchers succeed.

Beef 201: Beginning Rancher Development is scheduled for May 19-21 in Moscow, funded with a three-year, $479,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. It follows beginning-rancher workshops hosted on campus through the grant last May and July.

“We’re trying to serve beginning farmers and ranchers in the Northwest to help them kick off their business as a rancher or just help them to expand or improve their profitability,” said Phil Bass, associate professor of meat science who serves as the grant’s principal investigator.

In response to participants’ feedback, the upcoming workshop will explore cattle breeding, health and genetics more in-depth than last year’s workshops. Ranchers who participated in one of the 2024 workshops are encouraged to attend this spring, as the content shouldn’t be duplicative. The name Beef 201 references the workshop being in its second year rather than the level of difficulty, which should be comparable with the initial two workshops in 2024.

Dr. Lauren Christensen, a licensed veterinarian and assistant professor specializing in mixed practice production medicine, will present for nearly a full day on livestock health. While last year’s workshops included intensive training in beef fabrication, that portion will be scaled back, encompassing basic identification of popular retail cuts.

“Beef fabrication has the tendency to draw the crowd in. They’re very curious, but it’s not really helping their business,” Bass said. “We need to back off on the meat so we can focus more on the raising of the cattle.”

The cost of the workshop is $20 and will include lunches, snacks and beverages. Participants also receive tools to use on their ranches, such as halters, sorting sticks and thermometers. Scholarships are available to help participants cover mileage, hotels and other travel costs.

The team planned to host a single multi-day workshop in May last year but opted to schedule a second one in July based on demand. Bass also anticipates hosting a second, multi-day workshop this summer, if demand necessitates it.

Participants in Beef 201 will have the opportunity to have soil and forage samples from their operations analyzed, and experts from the meat science team will be available to travel to their individual operations and make assessments. New ranchers may also be paired with experienced mentors in the industry.

Additional grant funding has been used to purchase teaching tools and props, such as a replica cow used to demonstrate fetal dystocia, which occurs when abnormal fetal size or positioning complicates delivery.

The grant is also funding several smaller same-day workshops throughout the Northwest.

Looking ahead, Bass hopes to use grant funding to hire a leading business management school for ranchers, Ranching for Profit, to host a two-day in May of 2026. Ranching for Profit would be offered on campus within the college’s forthcoming Meat Science and Innovation Center Honoring Ron Richard. The state-of-the-art abattoir is currently under construction.

U of I’s Beef 201 team also includes meat science Associate Professor Michael Colle, UI Extension educators Jessie Van Buren, Meranda Small, Audra Cochran and Brett Wilder.

Published in Catching Up with CALS