| Abstrakt: |
Alfalfa research in the Southeast has steadily increased over the past ten years. Researchers have a renewed interest in this perennial legume as new varieties have been released that are better suited to the challenging climate and use in the Southeast. Extensive effort has been put forth in establishing programs promoting the use of alfalfa as a viable high-quality forage option in the south. In 2018, the "Alfalfa in the South" workshop series was designed to provide in-depth extension education, circulate new research findings, and engage in discussions with producers as related to the use of alfalfa in the southeast. The series consisted of 4 one-day workshops, organized by University of Georgia Extension in conjunction with America's Alfalfa, and included Extension specialists, faculty, and graduate students from both the University of Georgia and Auburn University. Topics were broken into five classroom learning modules: 1) site selection and establishment, 2) improving animal performance with alfalfa, 3) managing alfalfa for persistence, 4) alfalfa breeding programs, and 5) graduate student research updates. Each workshop concluded with an on-farm demonstration where attendees engaged in discussion with producers utilizing alfalfa in their operation. Postworkshop evaluation results determined that, on a scale of 1 to 5, where "1" was "no change" and "5" indicated "greatly improved," producers rated their change in interest using alfalfa as a 4.73 and their confidence in using alfalfa management skills as 4.36. Additionally, the producer discussion and field tour section rated the highest, 4.67 (1 being "poor" and 5 being "excellent"); however, all topics rated 4.12 or higher, indicating that attendees found this workshop to be very good to excellent. Of the 60 participants, 68% indicated that they would make some major changes and 32% plan to try to make minor management changes following the workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
