Hello,
The Conservation Tillage Conference (CTC) is the largest agriculture meeting in northwestern Ohio. Historically over 800 individuals will attend each day of this two-day conference. This year’s event will be March 3 and 4 on the campus of Ohio Northern University in Ada. Have you taken a look at what it has to offer in our own backyard? There will be two full days with over 60 speakers and about 30 vendors. The focus on the program is conservation including no-till, cover crops, and soil health. However, the latest management practices for each major crop and new developments in precision agriculture are included in the program. See the attached news release and brochure for information about how you can be one of the attendees to attend this year’s conference.
This past Tuesday was the final Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program at the Plaza Inn. If you missed the program on “Implementing H2Ohio’, you will want to read the news release to find out what ODA Engineer Mark Seger presented. After you do that, take a look at the flyer for the H2Ohio meeting that will be held at Ohio Northern University on Friday, February 28 at 9:30 am in the McIntosh Center. This meeting will be held to explain the application process for H2Ohio funds and answer questions about the program’s conservation practices. H2Ohio funding is available to farmers in the Maumee River Watershed through Governor DeWine’s H2Ohio Initiative. A total of $30 million has been allocated to agriculture and these funds are available throughout Hardin County, no matter if your farm drains into the Lake Erie Watershed or not. The Ohio Department of Agriculture will host this series of meetings through local Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The Ohio Agriculture Conservation Initiative will outline the new Farmer Certification Program and how it will work with H2Ohio. These meetings have been well attended all over northwest Ohio.
February 18 Conservation Tillage Club News Release
Are you interested in attending a livestock banquet but don’t know when they are being held? See the attached news release about the Winter Livestock Banquets for a summary of dates, times, and locations. I have also included news releases I wrote about the upcoming Hardin County Beef Banquet being held March 7 and the Hardin County Pork Banquet being held March 14 which contains information about how you can get tickets to attend these events. Other programs coming up in our region include a 3-Hour Fertilizer Certification Training in Celina on March 11 if you missed the one in Richwood and still need to get certified for the first time. The West Central Region 2019 eFields Meeting will be held in Piqua on March 16 to find out the results of the on-farm research conducted by OSU Extension in 2019. Check out the attached flyers for more information.
Livestock Banquet Season News Release
Fertilizer Applicator Certification Training Flyer
eFields West Central Region Flyer
Other upcoming events going on around the state that you may be interested in include the 2020 Ohio Woodland, Water & Wildlife Conference being held March 4 in Mansfield and the 2020 Overholt Drainage School being held March 9-12 in Lancaster. See the attached brochures and registration flyer if you are interested. Other local events being held in Hardin County include the Horse Banquet Saturday, February 22 starting at 6:30 pm at the Kenton Moose Lodge; OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers meeting Monday, February 24 starting at 7:00 pm at the Extension office; Poultry Banquet Saturday, February 29 starting at 6:00 pm at the Kenton Christian Missionary Alliance Church; Farm Bureau meeting Wednesday, March 4 starting at 6:30 pm at Ag Credit; Fairboard meeting Wednesday, March 4 starting at 7:00 pm at the fair office; and Ag Council breakfast meeting Friday, March 6 starting at 7:30 am at the Kenton McDonalds; and the Lamb Banquet, Saturday, March 7 starting at 6:30 pm at St. John’s Evangelical Church in Kenton. Below are some articles from the CORN Newsletter that you may be interested in reading. That’s all for now.
Ohio Woodland Water Wildlife Conference Brochure
Overholt Drainage School Brochure
Overholt Drainage School Flyer
Mark
2019 eFields Report Available – Elizabeth Hawkins, John Fulton
The 2019 eFields Research Report is now available online or in a hardcopy version. 2019 was a challenging year for many farmers including the eFields team but despite the challenges, the team was able to grow. The 2019 report covers 88 on-farm, field scale trials conducted in 30 Ohio counties. and provides information on a variety of topics including new studies. Here is a list of some of the 2019 study topics and pages you can read about their results:
Nitrogen 4Rs: pages 48-63
Fungicide and Insecticide: pages 38-39, 104-109
Cover Crops: pages 156-158 and 202
Forages: pages 154-185
Ag Tech: pages 186-197
Crop Production Budgets: pages 26-31
Ohio Planting Progress: page 22
2018 Farm Bill: page 32
Find out more including how to download the eFields book at https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2020-02/2019-efields-report-available.
Wetter Conditions Remain Favored into Spring – Jim Noel
The outlook for February calls for near normal temperatures after the warm start with normal to above normal rainfall. That was the only change in the outlook. February looks wetter than a few weeks ago. Rainfall the next two weeks will average 1-4 inches across the state. Normal for two weeks is about 1.5 inches. You can see the consensus 16-day rainfall outlook at: https://www.weather.gov/images/ohrfc/dynamic/NAEFS16.apcp.mean.total.png The spring outlook is for a chilly start but a warmer than normal finish. Above normal rainfall is in the outlook until at least May. However, it does not look as wet as 2019 at this time. The trends in the climate models indicate a switch to hotter and drier weather as we go through summer. You can keep up-to-date on all the NOAA climate outlooks at: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/
Yield Survey Results Released – Elizabeth Hawkins, Aaron Wilson, Alexander Lindsey, Laura Lindsey, John Fulton
2019 was a growing season that will stick in our memories for years to come. Near record spring rains across west central and northwest Ohio (seventh and third wettest on record respectively), fell on already saturated ground, contributing to unprecedented delays in planting progress. Planting for both corn and soybean crops was the slowest on record and we pushed the boundaries with planting dates extending later into the season. These conditions also led to a record 1,564,611 unplanted acres at the end of the season. Find out what information was reported about the 2019 crop year at https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2020-03/yield-survey-results-released.
Farm Bill Decision Deadline Fast Approaching – Chris Zoller, Mary Griffith, Ben Brown
Enrollment in the 2018 Farm Bill programs (PLC, ARC-CO, and ARC-IC) ends on March 16th. If you do not enroll by this date you will default to the election you made in the previous Farm Bill and receive NO PAYMENTS for the 2019 program year. This same election holds true for 2020. As a reminder, PLC is a price protection/income loss option that covers declines in crop prices and the ARC-CO program is an income support option based on county-level benchmark revenues and guarantees compared to actual revenues. For those with prevent planted acres, the ARC-IC program may be worth consideration. ARC-IC issues payments when individual crop revenue is less than the guarantee and uses individual yields, rather than the county yields. Read more at https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2020-04/farm-bill-decision-deadline-fast-approaching.
Take Action – Mark Loux
The USB Take Action initiative and university weed scientists have developed a free webinar series covering various weed and herbicide management issues. The webinar occurs every Thursday at 11 am EST through March 26. Each webinar will have two weed scientists giving presentations about 15 minutes long, and there is opportunity for viewers to ask questions via the web portal. Click on https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2020-04/take-action to find out the weekly weed control webinar series that can either be watched live or as a recording when you are available to view.
Mark A. Badertscher
Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator
OSU Extension Hardin County
1021 W. Lima Street, Suite 103, Kenton, OH 43326
419-767-6037
hardin.osu.edu
