The 2023 UF/IFAS Forage Legume Conference was held on April 12, 2023, in Marianna, Florida at the Jackson County Extension Office. There were over 60 forage producers, extension specialists and county agents, and Industry Professionals that participated. The 3rd biennial (every other year) conference focused on the forage legumes adapted to the Southeast. There were five presentations, and a producer panel who shared their experience and expertise in utilizing forage legumes. This article provides access to video recordings of the live presentations and also a link to PDF (printer friendly) versions of the Power Point presentations that were shared at this educational event. So if you were not able to participate in person, or you just want to go back and review, you can view the slides and watch the video recordings of these educational presentations.
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Dr. Lynn Sollenberger, UF/IFAS Agronomy Department
1.Adoption of Forage Legumes in Florida
Dr. Lynn Sollenberger, UF/IFAS Agronomy Department, made a presentation to lead off the UF/IFAS Forage Legume Conference. His presentation focused on the level of adoption of forage legumes in Florida: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward. Dr. Sollenberger focused primarily on how aeschynomene, clovers, and rhizoma perennial peanut have been utilized in grazing systems.
Presentation: Adoption of Forage Legumes in Florida
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Dr. Joao Vendramini, UF/IFAS Forage Specialist
2 – Update on Sunn Hemp Management in Florida
Dr. Joao Vendramini, UF/IFAS Forage Specialist, shared the results of research trials conducted with Sunn Hemp at the Range Cattle Research and Education Center, Ona, Florida. He discussed the use of sunn hemp for use as a cover crop and as forage. He shared the cultivars they had compared, the nitrogen fixation and release, effects on soil nematodes, planting pearl millet/sunn hemp mixtures, and how the akaloids in sunn hemp affect forage quality.
Presentation: 2 Sunn Hemp Update
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Dr. Leanne Dillard, Alabama Extension Forage Specialist
3 Forage Legumes for Cover Crops
Dr. Leanne Dillard, Alabama Extension Forage Specialist, shared a presentation discussing the use of forage legumes as cover crops. Legumes provide ground cover, reduce soil erosion, increase forage nutritive value, provide increased animal performance, provide better growth distribution, lengthens the grazing season, increases available N in the system, and reduces some fertility needs.
Presentation: 3 Forage Legumes for Cover Crops
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Dr. Nicolas DiLorenzo, UF/IFAS Beef Nutrition Specialist
4 Using Forage Legumes in Growing Beef Cattle Diets
Dr. Nicolas DiLorenzo, UF/IFAS Beef Nutrition Specialist, shared a presentation on using forage legumes in growing beef cattle diets. He has focused on utilizing crop land to produce silage stored in large plastic bags. One issue is the protein content of the diet, so in this presentation Dr. DiLorenzo shared the results of a trial growing forage soybeans for silage following corn for silage. The yield for forage soybeans was much lower, but it provided an economical protein supplement for stocker cattle or heifer development.
Presentation: 4 Legumes for Growing Heifers
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Dr. Jose Dubeux, UF/IFAS Forage Management Specialist
5 Nitrogen Cycle in Grass-Legume Mixtures
Dr. Jose Dubeux, UF/IFAS Forage Management Specialist, discussed the Nitrogen Cycle in Grass-Legume Mixtures. In his presentation he shared why legumes are key to sustainable livestock grazing systems, because they add nitrogen for protein in the animals diet as well as for use by the grasses in mixed forage grazing system.
Presentation: 5 Nitrogen Cycling in Grass-Legume Mixtures
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2023 Sponsors
An event of this quality would not have been possible without the financial support of our sponsors. Thank you for the generous contributions.
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