Last year, a Junior Goat Skillathon was incorporated into the annual Western Maryland Goat Field Day & Sale. Twenty-eight youth from Maryland and West Virginia participated in the first-ever event.
Pre-registration is requested for this year's skillathon by this Friday, September 24. To pre-register, contact Susan Schoenian at (301) 432-2767 x343 or sschoen@umd.edu.
The goat skillathon is open to any youth between the ages of 8 and 18. Youth compete according to their age as of January 1, 2010: junior, 8-10; intermediate, 11-13; and senior, 14-18.
The goat skillathon will cover all aspects of goat production: meat, dairy, and fiber. This year's stations will include breeds, equipment, feed and forage, body parts, judging, "pot luck," and a written test.
A series of online quizzes has been developed to help youth study for livestock skillathon competitions. They can be accessed on the web at .../onlinequizzes.html.
Junior Goat Skillathon page
About
The Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test is sponsored by University of Maryland Extension and is conducted at the Western Maryland Research & Education Center in Keedysville, Maryland. While on test, the goats consume a pasture-based diet and are evaluated for growth, parasite resistance, and parasite resilience.
2016 Top Performer
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FORMS & INFO [PDF]
ACSRPC
The Test follows the recommendations of the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control (ACSRPC).
Contact us . . .
SUSAN SCHOENIAN
JEFF SEMLER
DAVID GORDON
MARY BETH BENNETT
PAM THOMAS
---------------------------
Dr. E. Nelson Escobar
Dr. Dahlia O'Brien
JEFF SEMLER
DAVID GORDON
MARY BETH BENNETT
PAM THOMAS
---------------------------
Dr. E. Nelson Escobar
Dr. Dahlia O'Brien
The goat test is promoted on
Goat performance testing
Blog archive
Meat goat links
- MD Small Ruminant Page
- Shepherd's Notebook blog
- Wild & Woolly newsletter
- National Kiko Registry
- Int'l Kiko Goat Assoc.
- Southeast Kiko Association
- Amer. Kiko Goat Assoc.
- Amer. Boer Goat Assoc.
- NA Savanna Association
- Myotonic Goat Registry
- Goats @ eXtension
- wormx.info (ACSRPC)
- Int'l Goat Association (IGA)
- American Goat Federation
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Equal Access Programs
The University of Maryland Extension programs are open to any person and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression.
image by Jeanne Dietz-Band
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"A central performance test is where animals from different herds are brought to one central location where performance is recorded. The rationale is that observed differences are more likely due to genetic differences, which will be passed onto offspring, rather than environmental differences, which will not be passed onto offspring. The goal of a central performance test is to identify genetic differences among animals."
Dr. Dan Waldron, Texas A&M University