Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Eighteen participants representing 9 institutions attended the SERA 36 2008 Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX. The first primary outcome of the meeting was that the existing leadership agreed to maintain their roles for another year in order to maintain the development of the SERA. Primarily, discussion revolved around outlining action items in order to continue multistate research and extension programs. Therefore two objectives were identified: 1) developing all-encompassing, multi-state beef cattle and forage reports. Each state could contribute reports deemed of higher importance and impact to the entire group. These reports should be written in terms that producers should easily comprehend; and 2) developing compilation of existing and future beef reports into a multi state format. These reports could be finalized into internet, cd-rom, and hard copy formats. The leadership of SERA 36 was tasked with organizing these objectives.

There are seven primary objectives of the SERA 36. Because the SERA 36 was not formally approved until October 1, 2007, and the annual meeting did not take place until February 2, 2008, SERA 36 is still in its infancy, however, progress has been made with regard to the established objectives. I. Develop a SERA for the exchange of information between Extension Specialists and Researchers for the development of cooperative programs across Southern State Boundaries. This objective has been obtained as the group achieved one year approval October 1, 2007. The SERA 36 met officially February 3, 2008, in conjunction with the Southern Section Animal Science Meeting, Dallas, Texas. II. Develop a regional approach to solving beef cattle and forages researchable issues and Extension programming. In order to support this objective, one meeting including four of the participating states (LA, MS, AL, FL) conducted a nutrition short course using distance education technology. In fact, one night of the short course generated 92 sites with at least 500 viewers in attendance. More of these programs will be planned and, as well, more states are discussing planning their own video conference programs. Geography certainly impacts beef production systems, thus although having all SERA participating states involved in one program, the sub region approach actually makes more sense because these areas are more typical of each other with regards to production systems. III. Develop interactive relationships between land grant missions in research, teaching, and extension with beef cattle commodity groups. Presently, SERA 36 has only discussed means of interacting with our beef commodity groups. Discussions have been brought up with regard to more aptly attending regional National Cattlemens Beef Association meeting. The premise for this objective is by working with beef specific commodity groups, we will be more aware of industry challenges along with developing funding sources. IV. Identify and prioritize needs for beef cattle and forage extension programs in the southeast. All extension and researchers already should be aware of regional needs. Our impetus for developing university impact reports is to meet this objective. If all universities are reporting their clientele needs and how they worked to research or provide outreach, a SERA 36 regional impact report for beef research and extension will be an excellent means for meeting this objective. V. Identifying cooperative research and extension programs in the southeast utilizing our abundant natural resources. The SERA 36 has not identified means to meet this objective other than the ongoing multistate distance education series. VI. Share common resources for beef cattle and forage extension programming. In order to meet this objective, one plan is to combine each universitys research and extension report. Our goal is to combine these materials in a cd, website and hard-copy format. By combining this data into an organized, readily-accessible format, this objective will be met. VII. Develop strategies for funding priority research and extension programs: The SERA 36 has not identified means to meet this objective.

As this is a new SERA only six months into its 5-year project period, no publications are reported.