In February and March 2021, the District 1 Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents hosted a Master Haymaker Program. This program covered a wide variety of topics that all focused on forages. The program was held every Monday night for seven weeks virtually - due to COVID restrictions. Even though it was virtual, that did not hinder the attendance at all. There were over 100 individuals who were registered for the program, and an average of 80-90 participants per night. The participation was outstanding during the duration of this program, with multiple questions being asked and great discussion. The topics that were covered included:

• WEED CONTROL FOR FORAGES
• HOW TO MAKE HIGH QUALITY HAY
• WARM & COOL SEASON FORAGES
• SOIL & SOIL FERTILITY
• MARKETING HIGH QUALITY HAY
• MACHINERY FOR HAY PRODUCTION
• BALEAGE PRODUCTION

The way that the program was structured, if a participant attended all seven classes, they would receive a personalized farm sign. If they were not able to attend the class, they had the opportunity to watch a recorded video of it and still meet that seven class requirement. There were numerous participants who did indeed complete all seven classes. 

Robertson County had 4 (2 male and 2 female) participants who registered for the program and 3 (1 male and 2 females) who attended every class. One participant had recently required a family farm and wanted to learn more about hay production. She came into the office and talked about what she had learned the night before and was sharing it with others in her family who farm as well. The other two participants came into the office to take soil samples - which they never had before. They told my staff assistant that because of this program, they wanted to see what their farms needed and was encouraged by multiple specialists to do so. Those individuals will be able to use what they learned over the course of those seven weeks, to make huge improvements in the forages on their farms. Each of them indicated how great of a program it was and how much they had learned from it. Programs such as this is a huge step in the right direction for forage production in Robertson County.