The Florida Cattle Enhancement Board provides funding that is crucial to the development of forages for the Florida cattle industry. We caught up with Dr. Marcelo Wallau, Forage Extension Specialist with the University of Florida to learn more.
“So the Florida Cattle Enhancement Board has been crucial for the development of my forage extension and research programs here and to my continued working at the University of Florida through the tenure process of course. So I have been successful in securing funds, recurring funds with the cattlemen through this program and it has been crucial for the work I do. Throughout the years I had several different projects but one of the most consistent ones is related to variety testing. Many of our producers want to know what varieties we have available and this variety testing program also connects with the forage breeding program,” said Wallau.
“So we are making available forage varieties, new forage varieties that the breeding group Dr. Rios are releasing and also working with the industry to test those forage. So we keep on doing and testing those materials to see how productive, how resilient they are and also providing plenty material for our producers. So this is a very, very important project for me within this big picture of the Florida Cattle Enhancement Board,” said Wallau.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.