Area beef producers should make plans to attend the first annual Three-State Beef Conference that will be held on January 14, 15 and 16, 2014 with locations in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Topics and speakers for the conference are as follows: “Cover Crops for Grazing”, Dr. Rob Kallenbach, Forage Specialist, University of Missouri Extension; “Drylotting and Cow Management”, Dr. Rick Rasby, Extension Beef Specialist, University of Nebraska; “Pasture Rental: Balancing Economics and Relationships”, local agriculture business extension specialists. The first session of the conference will be held in Creston, Iowa at Southwestern Community College on Tuesday, January 14 with registration at 5:30 p.m. and the program beginning at 6:00 p.m. The Missouri session will be held on Wednesday, January 15 in Albany at the MU Hundley-Whaley Learning Discovery Center. It also begins with registration at 5:30 p.m. and the program following at 6:00 p.m. On January 16, there will be two different sessions held in Nebraska. The first session will be held at the UNL Ag Research & Development Center (ARDC) in Ithaca, Nebraska. Registration for the Ithaca location will begin at 10:30 a.m. and the meeting will start at 11:00 a.m. Later that day, an evening session will be held at the Gage County UNL Extension Center in Beatrice, Nebraska with registration at 5:30 p.m. and the program to follow at 6:00 p.m.

The Three-State Beef Conference (formerly the Four-State Beef Conference) is designed to give beef cattle producers and others in the beef industry in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska a regular update on current cow-calf and stocker topics. The conference provides a forum of specialists from three of the United States’ leading beef cattle land grant universities as well as other industry experts. We request that attendees pre-register by Friday, January 10, 2014. Calling or e-mailing with your reservation helps with meal plans and also helps keep costs down. The registration fee is $20 per person and it includes a meal and copy of the conference proceedings. If you need accommodations because of a disability, have emergency medical information to share, or need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform us by December 31, 2013. For more information contact your local university extension office or visit our website at http://extension.iastate.edu/feci/3StBeef/.