Last Friday, March 3, The Aiken Soil and Water Conservation District held a Pasture Management Workshop in Aiken, SC. Support for the workshop was provided by The SC New & Beginning Farmer Program and The Richland Soil and Water Conservation District. Twenty-seven participants from across the state of South Carolina and even one from North Carolina traveled to the Aiken Agricultural Services Center to attend the workshop. The first part of the day consisted of classroom style presentations from Josh Martin, Aiken Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist; Gordon Mikell, NRCS Conservation Agronomist; Dr. John Andrae, Clemson Extension Forage Specialist; Travis Mitchell, Clemson Extension Livestock and Forages Agent; Brittany Peacock, Aiken Clemson Extension Livestock and Forages Agent; and Jill Epley, NRCS Grazing Land Specialist. They covered topics like soil health in pasture lands, NRCS programs, selecting high quality forages, grazing management, and weed control. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Program Coordinators, Chris Workman, Drew Williams, and Brooke Myres took the group outside to demonstrate the rainfall simulator. After a tasty lunch the group traveled out to ASWCD Commissioner, Neely Page's pastures at A & W Farms. While in the field Jill Epley instructed participants on using the pasture condition scoring sheets and using grazing sticks to assess pasture forage. To wrap the workshop up Neely Page demonstrated and answered questions about the No-Till Grain Drill used to plant his pastures. Each participant received a binder loaded with healthy pasture related materials, a Forage Crop Pocket Guide, the book Southern Forages: Modern Concepts for Forage Crop Management, and a grazing stick to use when assessing their pastures.
To Join the South Carolina Forage and Grazing Lands Coalition visit: https://www.facebook.com/SCFGLC/
To view presentations by our presenters click the links below:
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