Aloha! The MINI-Livestock Wala'au episodes aim to share updates to current CTAHR programs and other county programs related to Livestock in Hawai'i.
Thanks for listening! Check out our other social media platforms!
Aloha! The MINI-Livestock Wala'au episodes aim to share updates to current CTAHR programs and other county programs related to Livestock in Hawai'i.
Thanks for listening! Check out our other social media platforms!
Today's episode is brought to you by the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the livestock extension group.
Unknown:Aloha welcome everyone to livestock Walaau podcast aim to provide educational support information, guidance and outreach to livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your hosts, Mele Oshiro and Shannon sand. So today, we just like to share some updates with you, and what we're gonna call our little mini podcast. About COVID, I guess more so about some of the restrictions that have been lifted or changed, I guess that we have CTAHR COVID updates is kind of what we're calling
Shannon Sand:it. And one of the first things is, is that we can actually physically be in the same room together if we've been vaccinated.
Melelani Oshiro:But and also, so a couple of things that already did happen was June 1, some of the campuses were reopened to the public, in some of our statewide facilities, not all of them and some of the experiment stations. Of course, things may still be restricted in some of the areas. So if you are planning to visit, always call ahead, because there's been certain things or regulations that are going to still stay that way. For a little bit anyways. Yeah, so
Shannon Sand:well, and depending on numbers change, we don't know. Yeah, hopefully, it won't change by the time this little mini episode. Yes up. But I mean, you'd really never know. I feel like it's a thing nowadays. So expect some changes. Yeah.
Unknown:But you know, as the summer goes on, we'll see how things go.
Shannon Sand:July 6 2021, full in person services at all offices and buildings for normal business hours for CTAHR is expected again, like restrictions or changes could happen. But full service at all CTAHR departments units and statewide locations is expected to start so
Unknown:yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, just it just depends. But like, we always, like we said, just check before you come to office. Yeah, it's
Shannon Sand:always wise to call plus, yeah, with the agents and stuff. We're out in the fields a lot. So if you're trying to get a hold of a specific one, definitely call or send all hail are always
Unknown:best, including for things like some samples, because some of the labs do shut down for a little bit. The other thing is August 3, I think we are expected to have all the offices to be completely reopened. And, yeah, have more agents in the office and things so we'll just see. But those are kind of our updates that we've we have gotten from our head of our departments, and the college to, you know, kind of the dates that we are they're projecting for certain things. So something to look forward to. Yes, yes.
Shannon Sand:So my I think my biggest thing is, you know, our livestock extension group is kind of where our podcasts, I guess, started their funding from and where Shannon and I really got a lot of the beginning support from Yes, including from our department, our extension Dean as well. Yes. So we've learned so much in the process. Oh, my god, yeah, of creating this podcast, the behind the scenes stuff. I was like, I feel like we've done a lot in terms of mele has done a lot in terms of like website development, she's figured out all of that stuff. But we both learned a lot about editing and video editing, audio editing, online marketing, there's just been a lot we've, that's gone into this. And a lot in the, like, just the setup process. Yeah, of this alone.
Unknown:Yeah, it's been, it's been a big learning curve, but it's been good. And I think some of the positive things that came out of COVID was that we were able, not able, but also kind of, I guess, forced to be able to learn the technology and the other resources that are out there for outreach, when we couldn't be in person. So you know, one of the the goals of our podcast is that is to continue outreach and sharing information with everybody and Shannon, I'd started discussing this in the beginning of COVID. I think before we even started shut down. Yeah, we started talking about podcasts because she and I both listen to them. I have a long commute home to the office in corner so I used to listen to podcasts and yeah, so I think you know, and within that we learned a lot of other things that go along with it the editing of audio and stuff so
Shannon Sand:we did not know how much goes into the behind the scenes of this. Yeah, but I understand why like people can do it professionally. Who gets sponsorships? Yeah, like it's it's a lot but it was it's a it's been an amazing journey. Like the learning curve has been steep. But I feel like every time we do one of these we learn something new and it's just been exciting. We have so much fun doing these. Yeah.
Melelani Oshiro:And yeah, we've we've had the opportunity to have a few different people on producers and whatnot that we feel like it's a good opportunity for us to start to share their stories and then share their stories of what's going on. So learning from our neighbors is what I like to say. Because I think we all go through the same things and don't really realize it, you know, get out and talk to everybody. But yeah, so anyways, that's kind of where we are with podcast. We are just recorded episode number five.
Unknown:But that won't be coming out until August. Another update that we have, we should actually have episode number four coming out this month. Yeah. Right after this. You
Shannon Sand:want to give him a little teaser? Tell him what it's about. Episode number four
Unknown:is going to be we actually had three people. Yeah, three guests. Join us for them when and we are we will be talking with our Managing Director of the White Kettlemans Council Nicole Galassi Lonnie Petrie of Chapala ranch and Jerry Moniz of keiki ranch and talking about our DNL DLNR lease transfers and some of the land lease issues that these producers deal with here in Hawaii and what's been going on in the legislative sessions this past
Shannon Sand:year. But that's so it was a learning experience. It was really Yeah,
Unknown:I very good information sitting with them. And yeah, and just, you know, our stories, hearing their stories and some of the things that they're having to deal with so and another update our livestock extension group, lead Mark Thorne, and co hosted with Nicole of HCC, the PA Haanas, which, if you were on them, we're doing them once a month, we stopped for a little bit in the beginning of I think our last one was in February of this year. So maybe March, maybe March, we had a full year's Yeah, so. So we did a little survey seems like everybody's still enjoying them. That was there. Yeah, so appreciate your feedback on that. We do want to continue the poll on us. But it looks like it's going to be moved to more of a quarterly schedule. I don't have an exact start date. But we will have that. And if you are on the polygon as previously, and how to registration, you will get that information as well. Or you can email us at Walaau at hawaii.edu. And we will put your name in there so that you make sure you get the information if you'd like. Yep. And I guess one of I guess we'll go
Shannon Sand:into can kind of talk about some of the things you've been doing. Yeah, he's been busy, busy gal,
Unknown:I think we've all been really busy just trying to find ways to continue our outreach and move our programs along. So outside of me being the livestock agent. Another thing that I do for the state is I'm the beef quality assurance coordinator. And that was we were supposed to actually have a program last fall or last spring, but it got postponed, of course. So we were trying to get it in person this year, but it still wasn't able to get done. So we did just decide to go virtual with the the beef, the beef QA certification. So for those that don't know, becuase, the beef quality assurance program is run through NCBA. It's a free, it's a voluntary program that beef producers can go through. But when you participate in the program, it helps to show your consumers that you're just committed to being a responsible cattle producer, and which is one of the main principles of becuase program. And they they follow a lot of the hassle principles. So it's a Hatter's hazard analysis, critical control points, right. So similar to what a lot of food processors and whatnot use. So you just be able to identify those different points in your production that you can mitigate, to make sure that it doesn't impact your final end product, you know, simple things like maintaining your gates and hooks and things so that when animals are running through your chutes, they don't get bruised, they don't get injured, all those, you know, little things that you probably already are doing, you know, as beef producers, and it's just you know, another way to continue your commitment to, you know, being committed to being responsible producer, you know, and they have shown that the research behind the program has seen an increase in, I should say, a decrease in meat defects that come through the slaughter facilities nationwide. So this program is national is a national program that's run through NCBA. And they do a audit every five years. So they have seen that there has been a great decrease in the meat defects. So that's from Yeah, so the betway folks that are became a certified producers. Yeah, they're seeing that improvement. So anyways, it's a, it's a great program, it's free. You can do a certification online, depending on the different industry segments that you're in, whether it's called calf or stocker or whatnot. Or you can sign up when we do an in person certification, which we hope we can do another one this year, and get certified as in person certification. So it's a great opportunity to network with other people that are in there and just learn other things that you know, hands on. Hopefully we'll be able to have in person but anyways, yeah, so if you want to know more about the QA program, send me an email you can send it to myself, you know, and LeBron at hawaii.edu. are Wala'au at hawaii.edu? Either way, man Shannon has been, you know, we've been busy doing all kinds of online stuff. Yeah, we did a big online three Well, is it no more than three series four series online marketing? webinar five serie?
Shannon Sand:Yeah, yeah, we did like a big online direct marketing Webinar series in conjunction with former another former livestock extension agent. And it went over really well. I thought it was really great. We had a nice panel of people on and I think we recorded most of those we have I think those are up, aren't they? They should be up on our livestock extension. Way to page up are you YouTube page? Yeah, so I think those are up there, which is great. And it's just been busy, I feel like I've done, I never learned so much about how to do online content. As I have this last year, I've always I've been involved in a lot of regional stuff. And so because I am the only extension agent in the area of ag finance and business risk management, that kind of things at this point in time, we do have a state specialist that deals with some of those areas, which is great. We both been participating in some regional groups that also have extension agents, because of, you know, resource constraints and things like that, that we've all been dealing with in all of the states and all of the counties. So we've gotten together and done a few different like online programs that are available. And we'll include links of those in the show notes in the description box. So the first one I've done is negotiation and egg. And that's in conjunction with several other states, including University of Wyoming, Utah State, I want to say Arizona, and California. And so basically what that is, is it goes through scenarios on how to negotiate in agriculture, whether that's a lease, or even if it's equipment, or how to talk to family, which I feel like can be one of the most difficult. So we have a lot of family farms here. And it's also a thing on the mainland, but that communication within families, that's a big deal. And it can be a thing to negotiate with your family. As someone who is like a third generation farm kid negotiating with your family, it's really important to like figure out how to communicate and talk to them about the things that are important, whether that's, you know, a state and transition planning, or we're looking at buying this new tractor, this is why we want it, you know, things like that. So kind of how to navigate some of that. And then we've also done a really cool series, which is called Ag in uncertain times, which I really enjoyed. I've helped to do both of them. He'll hear my voice on the negotiation and ag one more on the Ag in uncertain times. But I helped put it together. And we did simulcasting of live streaming. So that was exciting, because I got to learn how to do that. That's pretty cool. We'll have to use that. And one day maybe have a live broadcast. Oh, fun. And so we have several different topics. So we did one on basically, the weather in the western region was the most recent one that we did. But prior to that the one that I helped coordinate actually helped coordinate a few different ones. But the one I really enjoyed the most probably was the farm to I always get it the the the USDA food box, that's what I'm going to call it the food at food box program. And so I tried to get a couple of producers from Hawaii, but it's really early when we shoot it and film it. And it's like 7am. So it was kind of difficult, coordination wise. But we got some people, several different producers throughout the West. And we also had, who is currently the head of the USDA food box program, the director for that. So that was really exciting because he got to hear direct feedback. And there have been some difficulties within Hawaii, which it's nice to hear that those other states also had some of those same things happen in terms of shipments and where they source things from and how they get out to the people. So it was really, really interesting seeing. And it was great, because the director got to hear direct feedback from producers nice what happened. And like because they you know, it was at the end of the third round and prior to the fourth round. And so all these producers were involved in the first two and then the third round, I don't know what happened there. But it just it changed. That's what I'll say. And so it was really good because he got to hear feedback on what ended up kind of happening from the producer standpoint. And so I really enjoyed that. I thought it was really, really good. And then we also have done some others on the effects of COVID on the food industry in the western region. And we actually had an economist from Hawaii, that was a participant in the panelists. So that was really good, because you got to hear, you know, the Western and Hawaii and Pacific, like what's happened here, how that's affected us. And so that's I thought that was really interesting and those are available and we'll include the link to the website where you guys can listen to those or watch those if you want so And then we have some other exciting news coming up here. We've
Melelani Oshiro:got a visitor. Yeah, that will be coming over to do some sabbatical research on our project, I should say, and fall. Yeah, sure. So he will be joining us on a podcast. And he he works a lot with risk management, I guess you'd say not a lot. But that's kind of Rihanna. Aeronautics is an area of expertise. Yeah. So he will be joining us later part of the year. And hopefully, we'll have more workshops with him that we'll be able to do. So if our fall field day for the livestock extent your group does happen, and he'll be able to do a presentation there as well. That's also where we kind of hope to be able to have like another be QA certification done and have more hands on things there. So yeah, we gave you a sneak peek of our next episode already. So another fun thing we thought we'd share with you was some National Livestock days in July, outside of our normal holidays, which is coming up Fourth of July Independence Day. July 6, is another National Livestock day or national freight lovers right here. July 30, is our cow appreciation they so appreciate all those cows where you steak lovers out there. Yeah, go have a good ribeye or something on July 13, and the fourth National Livestock day to share in July July 21. National Hot Dog Day. Enjoy some hot dogs or steaks or fried chicken and whatnot. On those days. Appreciate all our livestock and our livestock producers. Walk thanks for joining us for our little mini livestock Wala'au episode.
Shannon Sand:Yeah, make sure to join our Facebook page, the livestock extension group if you haven't already, and be sure to visit the U H. CTAHR. Extension website and our YouTube channel listed in the show notes.
Unknown:For additional information about this and other topics or comments, send us an email at volleyball@hawaii.edu Thanks for listening to the livestock Wala'au Mini podcast. So number one heck yeah.
Shannon Sand:Before we go show some love for your favorite podcasts. That's us by the way by leaving us a review on Apple podcasts and anywhere you download this podcast then stay tuned for next month's podcast.
Unknown:We'll see you guys later Mahalo to next time.