 |
Small Ruminant
Abstracts |
Maryland Sheep & Goat Producer Bi-monthly Newsletter
S. Schoenian
Sheep and Goat Specialist, University
of Maryland Extension, Western Maryland Research & Education
Center, Keedysville, MD 21756
The Maryland Sheep & Goat Producer is a bi-monthly newsletter for sheep and goat producers, 4-H youth and volunteers, and extension and industry professionals in the Mid-Atlantic region. Its purpose is to provide unbiased, research-based information on sheep and goat production and marketing and to highlight extension programs in Maryland and nearby states. Producers have the option of receiving the newsletter via the mail for a cost-recovery fee of $10 per year or being placed on an e-mail list to receive e-mail notification when a new issue of the newsletter has been posted to the web. The newsletter may be viewed online at any time by anyone browsing the web. Each newsletter is ten pages. Regular features in the newsletter include Focus on Research, Featured Web Sites, and Calendar of Events. Semi-regular features include Disease In-Depth, Marketing Tips, and Featured Breed. Many articles in the newsletter have been reprinted in other publications or expanded into standalone articles for the web. The newsletter is written, edited, and designed by Susan Schoenian, an Area Agent specializing in sheep and goat production in Western Maryland. Dr. Niki Whitley, Livestock Specialist at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is a regular contributor to the newsletter. The newsletter is created in WordPerfect. HTML and PDF versions of the newsletter are created and posted to the Maryland Small Ruminant Page web site (www.sheepandgoat.com/news/index.html). The HTML version of the newsletter contains hyperlinks and additional graphics and images. Previous issues of the newsletter are accessible at the newsletter’s home page. Since it is not known how many people view the newsletter online, it is difficult to estimate how many people read the newsletter. Approximately fifty (50) copies of the newsletter are mail to subscribers. There are approximately 250 people on the e-mail notification list. E-mail notification is also sent out internally to University of Maryland extension educators, specialists, and administrators. Additional copies of the newsletter have been distributed at 4-H meetings, conferences, and places of business.
This abstract was presented as a poster at the Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) in Buffalo, NY in July 2005. The newsletter received the national award from NACAA.