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Writer's pictureDr. Vander Plaats

CATA Revisited

We had a great time at the California Ag Teachers Association Summer Conference at Cal Poly this past week!



On Sunday, I presented one of my workshops that is available virtually as well - Introduction to School Farm Management. The group of teachers had a wide variety of experience, an eclectic mix of species, & a collection of unique challenges that they each deal with on their own school farms. In this workshop, we covered...

  1. Why every school farm needs a relationship with a veterinarian - prevent problems before they're problems, work on treatment protocols & standard operating procedures, get emergency care & more

  2. Biosecurity basics - how to limit disease entering school farms & how to limit exposure to disease at fairs & shows

  3. Common diseases by species - cattle, sheep, goats & pigs each have their own disease processes

  4. Introduction to treatment protocols - your veterinarian can provide you written treatment instructions for common diseases, as well as training on how to identify them!

  5. Introduction to approved medication lists & common medication misuse scenarios - while we all love a stocked medicine cabinet, you don't need to buy a bottle of everything!

  6. Introduction to standard operating procedures - why have them, what should be included, & who should have access to them

  7. Quick notes on official animal identification, health certificates, nutrition, & necropsy

You can complete this same workshop virtually! Check it out here!


We also set up our first official booth at the CATA Farm Show! We had some of our videos playing & all our downloadable resources available for review. It was so great to be able to see some of my workshop participants from last year & this year, as well as some old friends & lots of new faces. So many people had positive comments & were excited to find a place in their coursework for some of our classroom resources or a spot on their farm for our management resources. While I'll be starting my back-to-school journey this week, we're still happy to hear from you about what other resources you wish you had!


We also did a little prize drawing for those that visited our booth & a year long video subscription was up for grabs! Congratulations to Jeremy Cates at VTEC High School, who also attended my workshop!!! Jeremy will have full access to all our lab & husbandry how to videos & I'm sure will take full advantage of that!


If you missed us here, don't worry! We'll be at National FFA Convention in Indianapolis this November at Booth 404. Stop by & check us out!


Hope to see you soon!


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