EXTENSION EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM: reinventing extension as a resource--what does the future hold?

The mission of the Cooperative Extension Service, as a component of the land-grant university system, is to disseminate new knowledge and to foster its application and use. Opportunities and challenges facing animal agriculture in the United States have changed dramatically over the past few decades and require the use of new approaches and emerging technologies that are available to extension professionals. Increased federal competitive grant funding for extension, the creation of eXtension, the development of smartphone and related electronic technologies, and the rapidly increasing popularity of social media created new opportunities for extension educators to disseminate knowledge to a variety of audiences and engage these audiences in electronic discussions.

Pigeon peas as a supplement for lactating dairy cows fed corn silage-based diets.

Holstein rumen-cannulated cows [n=7; initial body weight (BW) 640.56±71.43 kg] were fed a corn silage basal diet with 1 of 3 concentrates (C=control; P10=10% pigeon peas; P20=20% pigeon peas).

Cow and calf performance on Coastal or Tifton 85 Bermudagrass pastures with aeschynomene creep-grazing paddocks.

Cow and calf performance was determined in a 2-yr, 2 x 2 factorial, grazing experiment using Coastal or Tifton 85 (T85) replicated Bermudagrass pastures (4 pastures each; each pasture 4.86 ha), without or with aeschynomene creep-grazing paddocks (n = 4, 0.202 ha each, planted in May of each year, 13.