Latest News!
Before I start: We here at MAPA would like to give a grand Maine greeting and welcome to our new Veterinary Scientist at Orono, Dr. Anne Lichtenwalner, DVM. She can be reached at alicht@umext.maine.edu She said she has yet to experience a Maine winter...let's hope her first one isn't like what we experienced this season...or she'll move back West!
For the first year MAPA joined with the Northeast Livestock Expo at the Windsor Fair and we held our Spring Education Seminar above the Fairgrounds Office. We chose this location a little late to get the seminar into the showbook, but it was promoted on the website. Enough people turned up and the venue was such a perfect fit for our organization that we will probably hold our future spring education seminars during the Livestock Expo. It was a great opportunity for small producers. This year's topic was Marketing Poultry in Maine.
MAPA is extremely grateful to every presenter: Terry Harriman from Hannaford, Chris from Wing's Hill Restaurant in Belgrade, Bob Spear from Spear's Farm Stand, Alvin Theriault from Theriault Flies in Stacyville, and White Water Farm Store in New Sharon. There was a lot of information to digest, but we all left hopeful that we small farmers could find our niches to fill with the products we raise.
Look for a new feature to benefit our members!!!
By filling out this Questionaire you will be able to report predation of your poultry directly to John Forbes of the USDA/Wildlife Services.
Please let Dave know what you think about this benefit.
You can contact him by looking up the contact info for Dave Caivano on the Membership page.
Joining the Maine Alternative Poultry Association gives you a voice in the concerns and issues facing Maine’s poultry growers. We work to see that poultry husbandry remains viable in the state as well as to encourage youth to learn about poultry through our Youth Programs.
Benefits to joining MAPA include our monthly newsletter, which is full of up-to-date information on husbandry and world poultry news. Members can list swap and sell items both in the newsletter and on the website, and all members have the option to have their farms linked to our site.
You can download a copy of our membership form on our membership page.
The Maine Alternative Poultry Association holds its annual meeting each January during the Maine Agricultural Trades Show at the Augusta Civic Center. We follow the annual meeting with an afternoon of presentations on various poultry topics.
We invited Dr. Jacqueline Jacob from the University of Minnesota to speak at our 2007 program. She spoke to a full house about parasites and feeding rations. Her expertise was well recieved---everyone came away with more knowledge!
Bill Blaiklock came to our January 2007 Education Program to talk about the newly formed COOPP cooperative of Maine poultry producers. He presented information about the cooperative's efforts to open a state inspected slaughterhouse and invited attendees to join the organization.
Below are some images from our 2007 Spring Education Seminar held at Highmoor Farm in Monmouth. We invited Dr. Mike Darre from the University of Connecticut to present a two-day education program. Day one was a Turkey short course and day two was a Poultry short course. It was an amazing event, we learned a semesters worth of material in two days!
