Learn about rare livestock at show
Reservations and registrations are now being taken by Garfield Farm Museum for its annual Rare Breed Livestock and Poultry Show to be held May 18.
There is a special class on May 17 on Chicken Selection by Don Schrider of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
The class will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the show will be open from 11 a.m. 4 p.m. the following day.
Reservations for the seminar are required and the $20 fee will include materials and lunch. Contact (630) 584-8485 or e-mail info@garfieldfarm.org.
Owners of rare breeds of livestock and poultry are invited to exhibit their animals at the May 18 show.
As fewer Americans farm and those that do raise only breeds that make the most money that the mass market demands, hundreds of breeds of animals are facing extinction. The bright spot for these endangered breeds is the new awareness of where or how food originates.
From local production, organics, sustainable farming, community supported agriculture farms, the Slow Food movement, and even interest in home textile production, members of the public are willing to pay for quality and diversity that is generally lacking in chain stores. As a result, individual producers find characteristics and traits in these rare farm animals that they develop for their market niche.
Different types of sheep produce different types of wool just as different types of hogs will produce different flavors of meat with different levels of fat content.
Hardiness, mothering abilities and disease resistance are just some of the many traits the breeds have that meet specific economic, environmental, production, or traditional cultural needs.
To apply to the show, contact the museum at (630) 584-8485. Potential exhibitors also are invited to submit topics for 20-minute lectures to be held during the show. Sheep shearing by Loren Marceau will also be available for a fee.
Garfield Farm Museum is a 370-acre historically intact, former 1840s Illinois prairie farm and teamster inn that is being restored by volunteers and donors from 38 states and 2,800 households as a 1840s working farm museum.
It has hosted the Rare Breeds Livestock Show and Sale since 1987 and has a conservation flock of Black Java chickens in addition to its Narragansett turkeys, Pilgrim geese, Merino sheep, Milking Devon oxen and the last known pair of old type Berkshire hogs. Garfield Farm Museum is located five miles west of Geneva, off Route 38 on Garfield Road.
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, founded in 1977, is a non-profit membership organization working to protect more than 150 breeds of cattle, goats, horses, sheep, pigs, rabbits and poultry from extinction.
It is the pioneer organization in the U.S. working to conserve heritage breeds and genetic diversity in livestock. For more information contact: The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, PO Box 477, Pittsboro, NC 27312, (919) 542-5704, www.albc-usa.org.