Grazing conference

FAIRFIELD – Maine Grass Farmers Network Grazing Conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, at Kennebec Valley Community College. Registration information is available at www.umaine.edu/umext/mgfn.

Keynote speaker Jerry Brunetti will discuss the relationship of human health and pasture raised livestock products and there will be several workshops.

Birders needed

Project FeederWatch needs help to keep track of the birds at feeders Nov. 11 to April 6. Counts will help scientists monitor changes in feeder bird populations. New participants will receive a research kit with instructions, the FeederWacther’s handbook, a bird-identification poster, a calendar and a subscription to the newsletter of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. For more information or to sign up, visit http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/ or call 1-800-843-2473. A $15 fee makes the program possible.

Beef conference

WATERVILLE – Maine’s 19th annual Beef Conference, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Holiday Inn, will “Focus on Females.” Cow herds are in an expansion phase nationally as well as in Maine, with resulting interest in developing quality replacements in cow-calf operations. The program will cover herd health, heifer selection and development, identifying production efficiency and market cow options.

The conference is being organized by University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and the keynote speaker will be Mark Hilton, a professor of veterinary medicine at Purdue University and a contributor to several trade magazines.

Mike Baker, Extension beef cattle specialist at Cornell University, will present his research on slaughter cow feeding trials.

An agricultural trade show is also scheduled. For more information, contact Dee Potter, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 1-800-287-1421 or 834-3905.

Society society

AUGUSTA – The Mid-Maine Rose Society will meet Saturday, Dec. 9, at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant. Lunch will be held at 11:45 a.m. followed by a Christmas meeting at 1 p.m.

There will be a unisex gift exchange with a $5 limit. Members are asked to bring a gift for a nursing home resident.