Preferred Information and Delivery Methods for Weed Management Extension in Virginia

The goal of weed science extension efforts are to encourage and accelerate adoption of diverse, effective, and economical management tactics. To be most successful and efficient, extension personnel need to be aware of growers’ preferred information sources, delivery format, and areas of focus for future research. To this end, surveys were distributed at crop and forage extension meetings in Virginia. The results from 249 responses indicate that both crop and forage producers have similar influences as well as preferences for both programming and future research. Agribusiness personnel (e.g. co-ops, suppliers, vendors, crop consultants, sales reps) had the greatest influence on herbicide-purchasing decisions and the primary source of information for weed management decisions, and thus should be a target audience of extension. Respondents said that economic assessments, weed control data, and yield data are most likely to influence changes in management and that they would prefer to get that information through traditional extension formats (presentations, publications, and on-farm demonstrations). Generally, respondents also indicated that they wanted extension to focus on evaluating new herbicides for weed control and crop safety in the future over alternative non-herbicidal weed control methods. Therefore, extension is likely to be more successful by including herbicides in the integrated weed management approach rather than solely non-chemical approaches.