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188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges

Even though forage and grazing lands represent the largest land use in the United States, the number of forage faculty positions nationwide has decreased by 47% in the last 15 years, with only an estimated 2.3 forage research and Extension full-time equivalents (FTE) per state. This challenge has ma...

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Autor principal: Dillard, Sandra L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8499298/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skab235.183
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author Dillard, Sandra L
author_facet Dillard, Sandra L
author_sort Dillard, Sandra L
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description Even though forage and grazing lands represent the largest land use in the United States, the number of forage faculty positions nationwide has decreased by 47% in the last 15 years, with only an estimated 2.3 forage research and Extension full-time equivalents (FTE) per state. This challenge has made partnerships with county/regional agents and Extension faculty from other states an increasingly important component of a successful Extension program. Whereas virtual/online programs existed prior to 2020, people of all ages are currently more comfortable and adept with virtual technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, virtual meetings and hybrid meetings will likely become more routine, making it possible to disseminate knowledge to producers locally and across the state, region, and country concurrently. This approach will enable Extension educators to be more efficient in their knowledge transfer as illustrated by programs such as the Bermudagrass Hay Summit which has seen an almost six-fold increase in attendance from 2020 to 2021 because travel is not required. Lastly, there is a largely untapped opportunity in on-farm demonstrations and research. An example of how this can positively affect adoption of new technology is the regional program Alfalfa in the South. This program combines both on-farm and experiment station research. As a result of on-farm demonstrations, producer interest in adoption of alfalfa across Alabama and Georgia has increased in the last 3 years. There are many challenges to Extension programming in forages, but there are also ample opportunities to partner with other state Extension programs, as well as with producers to disseminate forage and pasture management effectively and efficiently to the forage and livestock sectors across the United States.
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spelling pubmed-84992982021-10-20 188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges Dillard, Sandra L J Anim Sci Oral Presentations Even though forage and grazing lands represent the largest land use in the United States, the number of forage faculty positions nationwide has decreased by 47% in the last 15 years, with only an estimated 2.3 forage research and Extension full-time equivalents (FTE) per state. This challenge has made partnerships with county/regional agents and Extension faculty from other states an increasingly important component of a successful Extension program. Whereas virtual/online programs existed prior to 2020, people of all ages are currently more comfortable and adept with virtual technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, virtual meetings and hybrid meetings will likely become more routine, making it possible to disseminate knowledge to producers locally and across the state, region, and country concurrently. This approach will enable Extension educators to be more efficient in their knowledge transfer as illustrated by programs such as the Bermudagrass Hay Summit which has seen an almost six-fold increase in attendance from 2020 to 2021 because travel is not required. Lastly, there is a largely untapped opportunity in on-farm demonstrations and research. An example of how this can positively affect adoption of new technology is the regional program Alfalfa in the South. This program combines both on-farm and experiment station research. As a result of on-farm demonstrations, producer interest in adoption of alfalfa across Alabama and Georgia has increased in the last 3 years. There are many challenges to Extension programming in forages, but there are also ample opportunities to partner with other state Extension programs, as well as with producers to disseminate forage and pasture management effectively and efficiently to the forage and livestock sectors across the United States. Oxford University Press 2021-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8499298/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skab235.183 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_modelThis article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
spellingShingle Oral Presentations
Dillard, Sandra L
188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges
title 188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges
title_full 188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges
title_fullStr 188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges
title_full_unstemmed 188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges
title_short 188 Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges
title_sort 188 extension programming in forages: opportunities and challenges
topic Oral Presentations
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8499298/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skab235.183
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