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Tri-State Precision Ag Webinar Recording Now Available

If you could not attend the Tri-State Precision Ag Webinar on June 23, 2020 you can now view the entire webinar online at go.osu.edu/TriStatePrecisionAg.

Topics and speakers included:

Hype from Reality
Dr. John Fulton, Associate Professor, The Ohio State University

Get the Most out of Ag Tech with On-Farm Research
Dr. Elizabeth Hawkins, Field Specialist, The Ohio State University

Yield Monitor Calibration
Ricardo Costa, Extension Educator, Michigan State University

Aerial Imagery Options
Crystal Van Pelt, Extension Educator, Purdue University

Water Quality Extension Associate Services in NW Ohio

By: Rachel Cochran, Brigitte Moneymaker, Jordan Beck, Nick Eckel, Matthew Romanko, Boden Fisher, OSU Extension

Our Goal

Our goal is to engage farmers and their trusted advisors in new production strategies, technologies, and best management practices to improve fertilizer use efficiency and farm profitability while promoting soil health and reducing nutrient and sediment losses within the western Lake Erie basin.

Through education, outreach, and demonstrations highlighting the benefits of practices we hope to encourage widespread practice adoption and sustained practice implementation.

What We Need Help With

  • Learning about the unique challenges that face area farmers.
  • Finding partners interested in adopting new technologies and conservation practices and understanding their potential water quality, soil health and agronomic benefits.
  • Identifying potential sites for on-farm applied research trials and case studies.

Continue reading Water Quality Extension Associate Services in NW Ohio →

Two Honorees to be Inducted into Allen County Agriculture Hall of Fame

Two honorees, Lloyd Smith and Sam Blythe, will be inducted by Lima Allen County Chamber of Commerce into the Allen County Agricultural Hall of Fame presented by Nutrien Lima, during an evening banquet July 16th at the City Club in Lima. Smith was a vocational agriculture instructor and farm lender in the Delphos community and Blythe was a full-time farmer in the Spencerville community. Both honorees are deceased and are being honored posthumously. This event is open to any interested person with reservations being accepted through July 10th.

The Allen County Agriculture Hall of Fame is celebrating its eighth induction class. According to the Chamber’s agri-business committee chair Beth Seibert, “our goal with the Hall of Fame is to annually recognize local agriculturalists that have been instrumental to the success and excellence of agriculture in Allen County, either as a farmer or in an agriculturally related field. Both of our 2020 inductees truly reflect the award’s purpose of honoring and giving public recognition to those who have brought distinction to themselves, have made outstanding contributions to their professions, and whose community involvement has served as a stimulus to others.” Continue reading Two Honorees to be Inducted into Allen County Agriculture Hall of Fame →

Looking for soybean fields with late season waterhemp

By Mark Loux OSU Extension

OSU weed scientists and ag engineers are looking for soybean fields that have populations of waterhemp or Palmer amaranth surviving into July and August (after all control with herbicides has been attempted).  We have a project involving the use of a drone to identify these weeds in mid to late season when they are evident above the soybean canopy.  We need fields with more than just a few surviving plants.  Populations consisting of a few good patches up though a disaster are fine.  Contact Mark Loux – loux.1@osu.edu, 614-395-2440.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Ohio Department of Agriculture to Provide Online Pesticide Re-certification Opportunities

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (June 29, 2020) – During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), is partnering with the Ohio State University Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) to temporarily provide online recertification for pesticide applicators and fertilizer certificate holders whose licenses expired in spring of 2020. The online recertification will be available Monday, July 6. For commercial applicators, it will be available August 10. For more information or to register for the online recertification, visit pested.osu.edu/onlinerecert.

The online option allows private applicators and fertilizer certificate holders due for training by March 31, 2020 and commercial applicators due for training by September 30, 2020 to meet their continuing education requirements. The cost for online training is $35 for private applicators and $10 for fertilizer certification. The price per credit hour for commercial applicators is $15. If you don’t know your license number, please call ODA at 614-728-6987, choose option 1. Continue reading Ohio Department of Agriculture to Provide Online Pesticide Re-certification Opportunities →

Application of Manure to Double Crop Soybeans

By Glen Arnold OSU Extension

Wheat fields will be harvested in Ohio soon and some farmers will plant double-crop soybeans. In recent years there has been more interest from livestock producers in applying manure to newly planted soybeans to provide moisture to help get the crop to emerge.

Both swine and dairy manure can be used to add moisture to newly planted soybeans. It’s important that the soybeans were properly covered with soil when planted to keep a barrier between the salt and nitrogen in the manure and the germinating soybean seed. It’s also important that livestock producers know their soil phosphorus levels, and the phosphorus in the manure being applied, so soil phosphorus levels are kept an acceptable range. Continue reading Application of Manure to Double Crop Soybeans →

Ohio Pork Producers and Soil or Manure Samples

From the Ohio Pork Council

The Ohio Pork Council is pleased to announce its partnership with Brookside Laboratories to provide discounted soil and manure samples for all Ohio pig farmers. In an effort to help your operation, Brookside Laboratories has generously offered to provide soil samples for $3/sample and manure samples for $20/sample for all Ohio pig farmers.

After completing a required survey, you will be provided an email with further instructions, a unique identifying code and an order form to be submitted with your soil and manure samples. Special soil sample bags and manure containers will be provided though select integrators and county extension offices.
Continue reading Ohio Pork Producers and Soil or Manure Samples →

Tax Value of Farmland Expected to Drop

There’s a bit of good news for Ohio farmers to counter the bad news caused by COVID-19, as well as by last year’s historic rain. In counties scheduled for property value updates in 2020—about half of Ohio’s 88 counties—the average value of farmland enrolled in the Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) program should be about 40% lower than 2017–2019, or about $665 per acre.

That’s according to projections by researchers at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

The same projections say that in counties due for property value updates in 2021—another quarter of Ohio’s counties—average CAUV values should be about 25% less than 2018–2020, or about $760 per acre.

The declines should mean lower property taxes, on average, for most of the farmers in those counties.

The projections were published in a May report by postdoctoral researcher Robert Dinterman and Ani Katchova, associate professor and farm income enhancement chair, both of CFAES’ Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.

“Less money paid in property tax will help reduce farmers’ costs and allow them to keep a greater share of the revenues they bring in,” Dinterman said. Continue reading Tax Value of Farmland Expected to Drop →

Oats as a late summer forage crop

By Jason Hartschuh and Al Gahler OSU Extension

Fungicide application significantly reduced the presence of rust.

Oats is traditionally planted as the first crop in early April as a grain crop or an early season forage. One of the beauties of oats is its versatility in planting date. Oats can also be planted in the summer as an early fall forage for harvest or grazing.

Summer oats has a wide planting window but performs much better with an application of nitrogen and may benefit from a fungicide application to improve quality. During the summer of 2019 we conducted a study to examine the planting of oats from July 15th through early September to examine tonnage and forage quality. Through this trial we examined planting date, yield, forage quality and an application of foliar fungicide to control oats crown rust. Continue reading Oats as a late summer forage crop →

Scout Alfalfa NOW For Potato Leafhopper

By Christian Krupke and John Obermeyer Purdue University

Potato leafhopper populations were noticeably higher after last week’s tropical storm remnants blew through, and now the warmer temperature will drive further increases. Potato leafhoppers won’t mind this heat, and alfalfa pest managers should begin sampling their alfalfa shortly after cutting.

Potato leafhoppers are small, wedge-shaped, yellowish-green insects that remove plant sap with their piercing-sucking mouthparts. Leafhopper feeding will often cause the characteristic wedge-shaped yellow area at the leaf tip, which is referred to as “hopper burn.” Widespread feeding damage can cause a field to appear yellow throughout. Leafhopper damage reduces yield and forage quality due to a loss of protein. If left uncontrolled for several cuttings, potato leafhoppers can also significantly reduce stands.

Management of potato leafhopper was needed weeks before this hopper burn.

Continue reading Scout Alfalfa NOW For Potato Leafhopper →