Livestock Programs
The Kerr Center’s original beef cattle program has diversified
over the years to include sustainable livestock operations encompassing
several different species, including beef cattle, meat goats, and poultry.
Heritage-breed Pineywoods Cattle form the core of the Center’s
beef cattle herd. This breed, descended from the first Spanish cattle
in the New World, is tough and hardy, able to tolerate heat and humidity
and thrive on pasture.
More recently, the Kerr Center has also begun raising meat
goats, with
an emphasis on forage-based production. This program includes the popular
meat goat forage buck test, in which goat bucks from around the region
compete to see which can gain the most weight on pasture with the least
trouble from parasites.
 Pastured poultry is the latest addition to the Kerr Center’s livestock
programs. New in 2009, the pastured poultry project features heritage-breed
Rhode Island Reds. The pastured poultry project’s egg production
enterprise rotates over the same ground as vegetable plots, integrating
livestock and horticultural operations in a new move toward whole-system
sustainability.
“Rotation” and “pasture” are watchwords of sustainable
management for the Kerr Center’s livestock programs, which work
to develop animals that thrive with minimal inputs in the vegetation
and wildly varied weathers of eastern Oklahoma.
Heritage livestock breeds play an important role in that effort, with
close links between the Stewardship Ranch’s livestock projects
and the breed preservation work at the Overstreet-Kerr
Historical Farm.
For instance, both Overstreet and the Stewardship Ranch host herds of
Pineywoods Cattle, but the Overstreet herd is focused on polled (hornless)
genetics, while the Stewardship Ranch emphasizes pasture-based beef production.
Similarly, Rhode Island Red chickens make their home at both places,
but the Overstreet flock has a single comb, while the Stewardship Ranch’s
birds display the rose comb trait.
Contact:
Mary Penick
Learn more about:
Kerr Center programs:
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