Allen County Ag Outlook and Agronomy Day

By Clint Schroeder

Join OSU Extension at the Allen County Fairgrounds, in Lima, Ohio, on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, starting at 9:00 a.m. for the Allen County Ag Outlook and Agronomy Day. The morning session will focus on commodity market outlook and ag policy. In the afternoon you will find answers to your agronomy questions, obtain pesticide applicator and fertilizer recertification credits, and CCA education hours as you prepare for the next growing season. The program will wrap up at 3:30 p.m.

Please RSVP by January 31, 2022 by contacting OSU Extension Allen County at 419-879-9108 or email Clint Schroeder at schroeder.307@osu.edu. The event will be held in the Youth Activities Building on the Allen County Fairgrounds, 2750 Harding Highway, Lima, OH 45804.

Doors open at 8:30 a.m; event starts at 9 a.m. Pre-registration by 1/31/2022 is required and the $15 admission can be paid at the door. Registration fee covers coffee and rolls, lunch, information packet, and education credits.

The 2022 PLC and ARC Decision

By: Gary Schnitkey, Nick Paulson, and Krista Swanson – Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics – University of Illinois and Carl Zulauf – Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics – Ohio State University

Farmers will again have until March 15 to make commodity title program selections. Given the current high prices, commodity title payments are not expected from any program option for the 2022 marketing year. If a change in conditions resulted in payments, those would be received in October 2023, after the close of the 2022 marketing year. Farmers wishing to purchase the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) crop insurance policy must select Price Loss Coverage (PLC) as the commodity title choice. Based on current price projections, Agriculture Risk Coverage at the county level (ARC-CO) will maximize the chance of payment for soybeans, although that chance will be small. The probability of payments is roughly the same for corn and soybeans.

Decision Overview

Farmers have three program options when making their election decisions.

  • Price Loss Coverage (PLC) is a crop-specific fixed price support program that triggers payments if the marketing year average (MYA) price falls below the commodity’s effective reference price. Payments are made on 85% of historical base acres.
  • Agricultural Risk Coverage at the county level (ARC-CO) is a crop-specific county revenue program. ARC-CO triggers payments if actual revenue (MYA price times county yield) falls below 86% of the benchmark revenue (product of benchmark price and trend-adjusted historical yield for the county). Payments are made on 85% of historical base acres.
  • Agricultural Risk Coverage at the individual level (ARC-IC) is a farm-level revenue support program. Like ARC-CO, payments are triggered if actual revenue falls below 86% of the benchmark. If an FSA farm unit is enrolled in ARC-IC, information for all commodities planted in 2022 are combined together in a weighted average to determine benchmark and actual revenues. If a farmer enrolls multiple FSA farms in the same state, all farm units are combined in determining the averages for actual and benchmark revenues. Payments are made on 65% of historical base acres.

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Planning for the Future of Your Farm

Attend our popular “Planning for the Future of Your Farm” workshops this winter and let our team of farm management and legal experts help you build your farm transition plan. Join OSU’s farm management educator David Marrison and legal educators Peggy Kirk Hall and Robert Moore for three in-person workshops and an online workshop in 2022.  Dates and locations for the day-long workshops are:

  • Greene County–February 10, 2022
  • Wayne County–February 25, 2022
  • Wood County–March 4, 2022

The online Zoom webinar will be two hours each night on January 31 and February 7, 21 and 28.

Check back on the Farm Office site under “events” or at go.osu.edu/farmsuccession for registration information.

Adding Value to Beef Cuts and Growing Your Business

This 1-day workshop, being held on January 15 in the Animal Sciences Building on the OSU Campus, is designed for beef producers and culinary businesses who are looking to grow their business. This training was inspired by findings from the Catalyzing Food Entrepreneurship research project, partially funded by the Ohio State University’s Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation. The research found that there is a gap in entrepreneurial trainings for small-scale food producers who want to scale up and access new markets. This training was designed as a pilot to fill that gap in Ohio.

To register today, contact Elizabeth Schuster at schuster.229@osu.edu

Farmer and Farmland Owner Income Tax Webinar

By Clint Schroeder

This Thursday, December 9th, OSU Extension will be hosting a Farmer and Farmland Owner Income Tax Webinar from 6:30-8:30PM. The cost for this program is $35 and registration can be completed at go.osu.edu/farmertaxwebinar  The featured presenters will be Michael Langemeier from Purdue University as well as David Marrison and Barry Ward from OSU Extension.

The Allen County Extension Office will also have copies of the 2021 Farmer’s Tax Guide available for pick up after December 15th.

Woodland Boundaries: A Day in the Woods

Our final A DAY in the WOODS program for 2021 “Woodland Boundaries” will take place on December 10, at 10 am to 11:15 via Zoom Webinar.   This program will be presented by Mark Rickey, State Service Forester with ODNR-Division of Forestry, and Dave Apsley, Natural Resources Specialist with Ohio State University Extension. Join us on December 10 to:

  • Learn about the importance of woodland boundaries and why it is important to maintain them.
  • Get tips on how to seek and find evidence of their location.
  • Understand how you can mark and maintain your boundaries to make them more recognizable.
  • Learn the importance of boundary line trees and evidence, and how they should be treated
  • Know when it may make sense for you to reach out to a professional land surveyor for assistance.
  • Get access to a new series of videos on Woodland Boundaries that were produced to assist Ohio’s family woodland owners.

To register for this Zoom Webinar visit: http://go.osu.edu/ditw2021

Ohio Certified Crop Adviser Pre-Exam Preparation

The Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) Exam Training program, delivered by OSU Agronomic Crops Team members, will be available online and in-person to help you prepare for the 2022 CCA exams. An in-person two-day training class will be held on January 12 & 13 from 9 AM to 5 PM each day at the Shelby County Ag Building, 810-820 Fair Rd, Sidney, Ohio 45365. The content is a great basic agronomy course covering information to prepare for the local CCA exam. The cost for this program is $250/person. Registration includes the publications below, lunch both days, and other program materials. Class size is limited to 25, and registration closes on December 20, 2021.

Publications provided with the in-person option:

  • Ohio Agronomy Guide
  • Ohio, Indiana & Illinois Weed Control Guide
  • The Ohio Corn, Soybean, Wheat and Forages Field Guide
  • 2020 Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations
  • Modern Corn & Soybean Production

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Management decisions relative to high nitrogen fertilizer prices

By Gary Schnitkey, Nick Paulson, and Krista Swanson, University of Illinois, and Carl Zulauf, The Ohio State University

Nitrogen fertilizer prices continue to rise. The average anhydrous ammonia price now is over $1,100 per ton. Overall, these large price increases indicate that 2022 nitrogen application rates should be lowered, particularly for farmers who have been applying nitrogen above university recommended levels. Current corn and soybeans prices are at levels that result in the same relative profitability for both crops in northern and central Illinois.

Nitrogen fertilizer prices

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released their latest estimates of fertilizer prices in Illinois on October 21. The average price of anhydrous ammonia was $1,135 per ton, up by $278 per ton from the price reported two weeks previously. AMS began reporting fertilizer prices on a bi-weekly basis starting in September 2008. The $278 increase is the largest ever. The next largest absolute change was a $178 decline occurring in December 2008. Continue reading →

Water Quality Extension Associates Planning Winter Meetings and Spring Research Need YOU!

By Rachel Cochran OSU Extension

The six water quality extension associates located in Northwest Ohio are gearing up for winter programming and need input from you! If there is a topic or series of topics that you would find helpful regarding water quality, soil health, cover crops, manure management, etc., please reach out to the water quality associate in your area to let us know. In addition, it’s never too early to start thinking about potential field research projects for next year. We would love to work with you to help answer questions you may have about your operation. See the different trials we’ve been working on this year in the 2021 eFields publication, set to be released in mid-January, or reach out to an associate for questions. Continue reading →

Do’s and Don’ts of Local Beef

By Garth Ruff, Beef Cattle Field Specialist, OSU Extension

If you just glanced at the title of this column, you maybe surprised as to how the next few paragraphs unfold, however there are a couple of points that I want to make, and feel are warranted after seeing some misleading/untruthful advertisements for local/freezer beef here recently.

First off, I am a big supporter of local food production and direct marketing. When done properly in some production systems there are opportunities to capitalize on demand for locally produced food, serve as a direct link for consumer education, enhance economic sustainability of the farm enterprise, among other benefits.

I have taught dozens of programs on local foods and direct marketing in the last five or so years. In each of those programs I remind participants of these two things with regards to labeling and direct marketing;

  1. Do not misrepresent your product and
  2. Do not misrepresent or make false statements about the product of other producers.

Recently several friends of mine have shared with me several instances of both of the above scenarios. In one such instance a freezer beef producer’s (who shall not be named) attack on beef produced by other producers and the beef industry was egregious enough to get me wound up; and I try not to get too wound up about things seen on social media. Spreading falsehoods about the wholesomeness of beef is something as an industry we should not tolerate, and I hope that you as producers feel the same.

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