| UNIVERSITY
OF IDAHO OFFERS INTENSIVE W.I.R.E. TRAINING TO IDAHO RANCHERS By Marlene Fritz, Communications Specialist |
| BOISE, Idaho-From November through January,
University of Idaho extension educators and agricultural economists will offer six-day
trainings in integrated ranch management to Idaho ranchers at four southern Idaho
locations. The Western Integrated Resource Education, or WIRE, trainings take producers through an intensive process of examining current and potential ranch operations from physical, financial and human standpoints. Participants establish strategic goals, inventory resources, explore possible enterprises, develop enterprise plans, and estimate the flow of resources needed to put those plans into effect. Developed in Wyoming, WIRE training has been delivered since 1992 to more than 600 producers in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Canada and Australia. Representatives of 22 Idaho livestock operations completed the program last year. "We already know how to be good farmers and ranchers," says University of Idaho extension educator Joel Packham in Bear Lake County. "In today's volatile markets, we need to become better managers of people, resources and risk." This year, Idaho's WIRE training has been scheduled for Nov. 10-11, Nov. 17-18 and Nov. 24-25 in Malta; Nov. 16-17, Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 7-8 in Downey; Nov. 18-19, Dec. 2-3 and Dec. 9-10 in Montpelier, and Jan. 12-13, Jan. 19-20 and Jan. 26-27 in Challis. The Idaho WIRE trainings will be team-taught by extension agricultural economist Wilson Gray and county extension educators Joel Packham, Rauhn Panting, Steve Harrison, Richard Garrard, Jim Hawkins and Chad Cheyney. Participants are encouraged to attend as pairs or teams from each ranch. Fees, which include evening meals, are $250 per individual and lower--$200-per pair. To register, call Richard Garrard at 678-9461 in
Cassia County, Packham at 945-2265 in southeastern Idaho and Jim Hawkins at 879-2344 in
Custer County. |