Training for sustainable year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management in the Southern Region

View the project final report

• 2012 annual report

Commodities

• Animals: goats

Practices

• Animal Production: grazing management, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, grazing - rotational, housing, stockpiled forages, stocking rate, watering systems, winter forage
• Education and Training: extension, farmer to farmer, workshop
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns

Pasture-based goat production is becoming one of the important enterprises for livestock farmers in Alabama and neighboring states. However, most livestock farmers have not adopted sustainable forage programs and depend on hay and supplementary feedstuff during times of reduced forage availability. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive training program to increase the productivity, quality, and production duration as well as to improve management of existing pastures for sustainable livestock production. Project objectives are: 1) to develop comprehensive training curricula for year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management in the Southern Region; 2) to train field-level extension and technical-assistance personnel and lead farmers in year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management for the Southern Region. Tuskegee University will lead the project and Tennessee State University, Alabama NRCS, and PadmaDal Memorial Foundation will be key partners. Three goat farmers will be partners on the project team. Major project activities will be to prepare training curricula and conduct training for the Southern Region's field-level extension and technical-assistance personnel. These personnel will be reached through the Cooperative Extension Program of land grant universities and USDA-NRCS offices. Development of several field-level trainers and ready-to-use curricular materials are the expected results which will be evaluated using a set of evaluation tools.

1) to develop comprehensive training curricula for year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management in the Southern Region;
2) to train field-level extension and technical-assistance personnel and lead farmers in year-round forage production and grazing/browsing management for the Southern Region.