Success StoryOnline Beef Agent Updates Have Strong Participation



Online Beef Agent Updates Have Strong Participation

Author: Jeffrey Lehmkuhler

Planning Unit: Animal and Food Sciences

Major Program: Beef

Outcome: Initial Outcome

The Beef IRM team continues to strive to keep county Agriculture & Natural Resource agents current on beef management knowledge to better serve their clientele.  During the past year, Zoom was utilized to provide online training for agents on beef-related topics.  These updates were provided in the fall and spring during the months of September-December and April-June.  During the fall, a total of seven updates were provided.  The total number of participants for these seven fall updates was 172 based on Zoom usage report.  Given the reduced office time due to COVID-19, we increased frequency of updates during the spring session.  Agents were polled asking about frequency and it was suggested the consensus was to offer updates weekly.  A total of 10 updates were held during the three-month period.  A total of 529 participants joined the updates.   Overall, providing agents with an online opportunity to increase their knowledge on beef cattle production and management has continued to have satisfactory participation.  We feel this is an effective mechanism to provide timely information to assist agents answer questions they may receive on beef production.