Water Quality

Upcoming Western Lake Erie Basin Conservation Practices Public Input Meeting

Join OSU Extension’s Water Quality Associates on Tuesday, February 22nd from 10-11AM for a public input meeting regarding on-farm conservation practices. This webinar is aimed toward farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin who farm or live near our target watersheds, found on the attached flier. This virtual webinar will allow OSU’s Water Quality team to hear directly from farmers and landowners to guide local watershed planning efforts and funding priorities. What conservation practices do you want to learn more about? Are there practices that you think may work for your farm, but you don’t know where to start? Are there practices you are interested in if additional funding or support becomes available? Join us for an informal discussion to talk about these topics.

Register for this webinar at www.go.osu.edu/inputmeeting, or contact a Water Quality Extension Associate to give your input if you can’t attend the meeting. More details can be found on the event flyer HERE. Contact Paulding County’s WQEA Rachel Cochran, cochran.474@osu.edu, (567) 344-5016, with any questions.

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

Certified Livestock Managers Continuing Education Opportunity

The Ohio Pork Council, The Ohio State University Extension and The Ohio Department of Agriculture are hosting two Certified Livestock Managers Webinars in December. Individuals can obtain 2.0 CLM CE Credits for attending each webinar. Programming for each webinar is as follows:

December 2: 2.0 CE Credits

  • Biosecurity Breaches – Andreia Arruda, DVM, OSU Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
  • Livestock Mortality Composting Update – Dr. Steve Moeller, OSU Swine Extension Specialist
  • Worker Safety – Dr. Dee Jepsen, OSU Ag Safety and Health Leader

Continue reading Certified Livestock Managers Continuing Education Opportunity →

CLEAR30 the first USDA program to offer 30-year Signup

FSA will open signup this summer for CLEAR30, a new pilot program that offers farmers and landowners an opportunity to enroll in a 30-year Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract. This pilot is available to farmers and landowners with expiring water-quality practice CRP contracts in the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay regions. The program signup period is July 6 to Aug. 21, 2020.

The pilot is available in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Eligible producers must have expiring Clean Lakes, Estuaries and Rivers (CLEAR) initiative contracts, including continuous CRP Cropland contracts with water-quality practices or marginal pasturelands CRP contracts devoted to riparian buffers, wildlife habitat buffers or wetland buffers. Continue reading CLEAR30 the first USDA program to offer 30-year Signup →

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 →

Winter Application of Manure – Remember Setbacks

By:  Glen Arnold OSU Extension Field Specialist

Winter manureSome Ohio livestock producers will be looking to apply manure to farm fields frozen enough to support application equipment.  Permitted farms are not allowed to apply manure in the winter unless it is an extreme emergency, and then movement to other suitable storage is usually the selected alternative. Thus, this article is for non-permitted livestock operations.

In the Grand Lake St Marys watershed, the winter manure application ban from December 15th to March 1st is still in effect.  Thus, no manure application would normally be allowed from now until March 1st.

In the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) watershed, the surface application of manure to frozen and snow-covered soils require there to be a growing crop in the field.  This could be a pasture, alfalfa, clover, ryegrass or a rape crop.  There must be enough vegetation visible to provide a 90% cover of residue and growing vegetation.  Radishes and oats would not qualify as a growing crop as both are typically winter killed.  Manure can be applied to fields without growing crops if the manure is incorporated at the time of application or incorporated within 24 hours of application. Continue reading Winter Application of Manure – Remember Setbacks →