World-renowned educator and animal behavior expert Temple Grandin will be the featured speaker at the annual Sandhills Beef Cattle Conference, July 7 in Monahans at the Ward County Event Center.

The event, sponsored by The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, will also feature real-world cattle demonstrations as well as educational talks and discussions. 

“I am ecstatic about the group of speakers we have lined up for this event, and we’re tremendously excited to bring someone as influential and well-known as Dr. Grandin to Far West Texas,” said Dena Floyd, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Winkler and Loving counties. “Our goal is to bring relevant agricultural programming to our Far West Texas agricultural producers. With the speakers we have lined up for this event, we expect to have many attendees, including from outside of West Texas.”

Other expert speakers include Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, AgriLife Extension agricultural law specialist, Amarillo; Ky Pohler, Department of Animal Science reproductive physiologist, Bryan-College Station; Ron Gill,  AgriLife Extension beef cattle specialist, Bryan-College Station; and Bruce Carpenter, AgriLife Extension livestock specialist, Ft. Stockton.

“Tiffany Lashmet will be providing her agricultural law expertise on ranch succession and will cover upcoming policy changes that will affect that,” Floyd said. “Dr. Ky Pohler will cover his game-changing chute-side pregnancy test, and we’ll have a round table of our experts and local entrepreneurs discussing topics like the emergence of small-town processing plants.”

Program schedule

The workshop is $40 with advance registration or $50 at the door. The first portion of the event will be in the Ward County Events Center, 1525 E. Monahans Parkway . After lunch, the event will shift to Ward County Arena, 3203 S. Stockton Ave., where Grandin, Carpenter and Gill will be speaking as well as presenting a live cattle-handling demonstration inside the arena.

The all-day event will start with a chuckwagon breakfast at 7:30 a.m.and the program beginning at 8:30 a.m. A chuckwagon lunch will feautre Akaushi beef from a local provider and potatoes. Both lunch and breakfast are included in the cost. 

For more information visit the Sandhills Beef Cattle Conference facebook page. Sponsorship opportunities are available for the event; contact Floyd at [email protected] for more information.