The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) is offering another ground-breaking online learning opportunity. Forage Basics, the newest online course, will serve as a valuable new tool for livestock and forage producers. The program is the first course to provide targeted information about forage production and management in the Southeast.
Leanne Dillard, the project leader and an Alabama Extension forage specialist, said that more than 750,000 acres were harvested for hay in Alabama alone in 2020.
“Increased interest and demand from non-traditional farmers over the last 10 years led us to create Forage Basics,” Dillard said. “However, experienced producers will benefit from this course just as much as new producers will.”
Made possible in part by a grant from the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Group, Forage Basics puts everything from grazing management to pest control into producers’ hands. The 20-chapter course includes short videos as well as lists of important resources. The topics covered in the course include:
- budgets
- forage grasses
- forage legumes and forbs
- grazing management
- hay production, storage and feeding
- quality and nutritive value
- silage and baleage production, storage and feeding
- weed and insect management
To learn more about the course or to enroll click here.