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Washington State University Extension

Clallam’s Livestock Specialist, Supporting Youth Development & Small Farmers in Our Region

Large or small, there is a Livestock project for everyone. Now at Washington State University (WSU) Clallam County Extension we have a full-time Livestock Specialist, Dan McCarty. Dan’s role is to support and reinforce safe, successful livestock experiences for 4-H youth and small farmers in our region. Livestock projects focus on the care and feeding of animals intended to produce food, fiber, or for working animals. 

Dan McCarty grew up on his family’s cow, calf, and sheep farm where, as a 4-H youth he raised hogs to sell for profit. He is now Clallam County’s first, and the states only, Livestock Specialist. His decades of experience in 4-H and raising animals are an incredible resource for our youth, homesteaders, and really anyone with, or aspiring to have, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and/or poultry.  

The Livestock Specialist position was created to support our tri-county area which frankly lacked such expertise. Dan’s work is split between the Small Farm Program and 4-H Youth Development. Unfortunately, Clallam’s 4-H Programs declined dramatically during the pandemic, so now the focus is revitalization of 4-H, both the animal and home arts program areas. In a short time, Dan has already made impressive steps forward in rebuilding the animal program. 

Joining a 4-H Livestock Club is a commitment to a monthly meeting to learn and grow through a variety of educational experiences amongst peers. Classes are organized by species, dairy and beef cows share one class, sheep and goats share another, hogs have their own class, and poultry, etc. Animals are only brought to class on occasion, not every month, so do not sweat the animal transport. Classes include learning about animal selection, nutrition, diseases, health, vaccines, general expertise regarding the species & to help them learn how to show. All the learning culminates at the county fair and in some cases, the state fair.  

Being part of the 4-H Livestock Club includes experiencing farm life. The club has field trips to area farms, this offers kids the hands-on experience of seeing a variety of types and sizes of farms. The goal of the field trips is for the kids to grow in their scope of understanding regarding animal care, the business of raising animals and what working farms look and feel like. These field trips also build community amongst those interested in livestock. Dan has taken kids to the Bekevvar farm, the Dungeness Valley Creamery and Sequim Valley Ranch. 

Dan shared that he loves to work with youth and instill livestock skills as they translate directly to life skills. “Record keeping and public speaking, these are two particularly important life skills that I make sure the kids practice. The kids also learn about teamwork, and raising animals teaches them responsibility, deadlines, and consequences for not meeting them. They learn to track the expenses of raising their animals and that is reviewed once the animal has sold. The youth then look at strategies to offset expenses. There are many life skills built into participating in 4-H.”  

A recent shining success of Dan’s is a trip to the National Dairy Expo in Wisconsin with 2 youth from Washington, one was from Clallam County and the other from Clark County. These 4-H youth applied, were interviewed, and then accepted to go. Dan went with them as a chaperone while they had a variety of exceptional learning opportunities and hands-on experiences that were uniquely on the national level of dairy farming.  

Along with the life skills that come from 4-H, Dan also shared his firsthand experience of building lifelong friendships. He says he continues to be quite close to kids he showed animals with in 4-H and has seen how friendships flourish in clubs.  

The Regional Small Farms Program is Dan McCarty’s other work hat. In this program he supports adults who are small-scale producers or hobbyists raising livestock. Dan shares his knowledge through workshops, home visits and classes. Check out his upcoming course on Winter Nutrition and Feeding Livestock . Dan is keen to answer your questions about livestock, including pasture management and improvement. He is well seasoned in answering these questions and can offer a host of resources and strategies. 

Currently he is facilitating a series of workshops in collaboration with Oregon State University called ‘The Meat School.’ The course is a series of experts speaking about small-scale meat topics such as marketing, production, packaging, pricing, adapting to the changing climate, costs related to production and more. This course is a wonderful place to network with other PNW livestock farmers. Learn more here https://workspace.oregonstate.edu/course/western-meat-school 

In the works is an in-person workshop, in collaboration with the American Breeders Service, that will focus on artificial insemination. Look for more information about upcoming workshops on the Regional Small Farms events page and on our WSU Clallam Extension social media. Stay up to date by subscribing to our monthly newsletter full of upcoming events. 

If you have questions regarding livestock, please feel free to contact Dan at the Office: 360-417-2398 or on his cell: 360-460-6683, dan.mccarty@wsu.edu 

 

Media Contacts

Lisa Bridge, Communications,