IMPROVING FORAGE PRODUCTION PRACTICES OF CATTLE PRODUCERS
Extension Education
Sarah Dyer
County Extension Agent
University of Georgia
Trenton
Abstract
In fall 2019 I was selected to be a part of the grant “Unless You Test, It’s Just a Guess” led by state specialists. This opened the door for me as a first-year agent to “cold-call” cattle producers in my community that I had not yet reached in my role. I visited their operation and conducted a free hay sample. While conducting these samples, I learned many Dade farmers were not properly managing their pastures and hayfields. This led me to the idea of providing this forage information with the end-goal of improving farmers’ operations. Although UGA Extension offers forage programs such as Grass Masters, I realized my folks in Dade need more focused information catering to the Dade environment, their level of forage knowledge, and to-the-point-how-to information. I developed the idea of a 12-month forage management series to meet these needs. This concept evolved into the D.A.D.E. Grass Class. The point of the series is to walk through, month by month, an entire year of forage management for pastures and hayfields. The goal is to provide timely, how-to information to farmers in advance to when they need to act on their pastures/hayfields. This is accomplished through monthly presentations by myself or fellow colleagues, and through to-the-point “cheat sheets” reflecting the main points of each presentation. In total, 43 registrants are enrolled in the 12-month program. Although the series caters to Dade county farmers, registrants are from neighboring counties as well. The series began in January 2020, and is currently in a virtual format due to COVID-19. Feedback I have received from producers in the series includes, “Thank you so much for doing something for us Dade farmers,” “We have been starving for this sort of information,” “This is the greatest idea, you know, the month-by-month concept, thank you.”
Poster has NOT been presented at any previous NACAA AM/PIC
This poster is being submitted only for display at AM/PIC. Poster is not to be judged, but the abstract will be published in the proceedings.
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Authors: S. F. Dyer
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Dyer, S. County Extension Agent, University of Georgia, Georgia, 30752