Hardin County – The 2024 Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series will conclude Thursday, February 22 at the Plaza Inn Restaurant in Mt. Victory. The session will start at 7:30 am with a complimentary buffet breakfast followed by a drone use in agriculture program at 8:00 am.

The February 22 event will feature a program on Drone Use in Agriculture by Henry County OSU Extension Educator Alan Leininger. Drones are becoming more common in agriculture than just for scouting crops for insects, weeds, and disease. More recently, they are increasingly being used for seeding cover crops and pesticide applications in fields throughout Ohio. What types of drones are available and what are the legal and licensing requirements to use these new tools on the farm will be questions answered by Leininger.

The Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series is jointly sponsored by OSU Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Hardin, Logan, and Union Counties, and in cooperation with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Breakfast is courtesy of the generous support from agricultural lenders and agricultural businesses. All events are open to the public and no advance registration is required. Continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers are available.

Hardin County – The Hardin County Sheep Improvement Association will hold their annual Lamb Banquet on Saturday, March 2 at St. John’s Evangelical Church in Kenton at 6:30 pm. Tickets for the banquet can be reserved from the Extension office by calling 419-674-2297 and paid for at the door the night of the banquet. Adult tickets are $20, Children (4-8 years old) $10, and 2023 Hardin County Junior Fair Sheep Exhibitors are free with a reservation given to the Extension office by February 23.

Banquet guests are asked to arrive early to participate in the silent auction, bidding for various items that were donated to provide funds for the scholarship program. A dinner will be prepared with various cuts of lamb for the banquet guests to enjoy. A presentation on the 2023 New Zealand Sheep and Agriculture Tour will be made by Hardin County OSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator Mark Badertscher.

The Hardin County Sheep Improvement Association is looking for 2024 Lamb & Wool Ambassador contestants and scholarship applicants. An ambassador applicant and his or her parent/guardian must be residents of Hardin County or a Hardin County School District prior to entering the contest; and live on a farm where sheep are produced or have a sheep project in the Hardin County Junior Fair to be eligible. Applicants must be 15 to 20 years of age as of January 1, 2024. Contestants must complete an entry form and prepare a three to five-minute talk on the “Role of Youth in the Sheep Industry,” “What does being a Lamb/Wool advocate mean to you?” or “What are the positive things that you know about the Lamb/Wool industry?”

The Hardin County Sheep Improvement Association is also offering two five-hundred-dollar scholarships to students entering/attending college for the 2024-2025 school year. An applicant and his or her parent/guardian must be residents of Hardin County or a Hardin County School District prior to entering college; and must have had a sheep project and shown at the Hardin County Fair. The applicant must be maintaining a 2.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

The application and rules for the Hardin County Lamb & Wool Ambassador and the scholarship application and rules can be found at hardin.osu.edu. Applications must be received online by February 24. For more information about the Lamb & Wool Ambassador program, contact either Melissa Gossard at 419-235-3412 or Kristen Ferguson at 567-204-9199. Questions about the Sheep Improvement Association scholarship should be directed to Bruce Oberlitner at 419-675-6272.

Hardin County – This winter’s mild weather and lack of snow might have several people thinking if it will soon be time to work in the garden. If your thoughts have been wondering about this and you have been looking through garden catalogs, you are not alone. Spring is around the corner and so is the OSU Extension spring garden seminar. “Designing Your Garden” is the planned program being offered by the Hardin County OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers this year. Get your seat reserved while you can. Plenty of topics are on the agenda for this event which will get your thoughts turned to gardening and away from the cold weather that has reminded us on occasion that it is still winter.

This year’s spring garden seminar will feature four expert speakers. ‘Grow and Use Herbs to Enhance Your Life’ will be the topic of speaker Ann E. Boyd. Culinary? Medicinal? Pollinators? Patio containers, raised beds, or full-scale historical gardens, there are many ways to bring herbs into your life. Recipes and reasons, growing tips and tricks, Ann will share useful information to help you fall in love with some of the oldest and most useful plants on the planet. She is the sole proprietor of My Own Backyard Herbs & Flowers – a private garden, studio, and greenhouse in Findlay, Ohio started in 1988. Studying herbs since the age of 19, she welcomes the opportunity to share her experience.

Presenter Joe Alger’s passion is ‘Inclusive Gardening’. Seminar participants will be able to take a look at how he has created gardens to get children with special needs as well as typical children interested in gardening at school and in the community; a hobby that can become a lifetime interest. Joe earned his master’s degree in education from Bowling Green State University. He has been an avid gardener for many years and has taught children with special needs in several counties.

‘Small Space Gardening’ is something that John King is known for in the gardening community. John’s talk will be about vegetable gardening in small spaces, focusing on growbags and the Square Foot gardening method. He will include a discussion on the soil medium, benefits, and downfalls of the different types of containers used to grow vegetables and the ones that he has found to be the best producers in a small space. John King has been vegetable gardening for over 30 years in several states. He is currently the president of the Hancock County Master Gardener Volunteers.

Merry Tapp’s area of expertise includes ‘Seed Saving’, which will be the final topic of the day. She will present tips and tricks for gathering, cleaning, and saving seeds of perennials, annuals, vegetables, and woodies so you can utilize them in the seasons to come. Merry Tapp has been a Master Gardener Volunteer in Morrow County. She teaches many MGV classes for the program and for the public. She has a degree in Horticulture from The Ohio State University.

This year’s event “Designing Your Garden” will be held March 7 at the Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative Community Room, 1210 W Lima Street in Kenton. The seminar is open to the public, no matter how much gardening experience you have. The cost is $50, which includes a continental breakfast, box lunch, handouts, and door prizes. A reduced fee of $40 is offered for both interns and active OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers.

Doors will open on the day of the event at 8:30 am, the program starts at 9:00 am and ends at 3:30 pm. Parking will be across the road behind Hardin Hills Health Center. Shuttles will take you to the Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative building as there are limited parking spaces for persons with mobility issues and speakers at the location. The registration deadline is February 29 with a limited class size. For more information about this event, call Kim Thomas 419-674-8012.

Hardin County – The 2024 Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series will continue Thursday, February 8 at the Plaza Inn Restaurant in Mt. Victory. The session will start at 7:30 am with a complimentary buffet breakfast followed by an agriculture weather and climate program at 8:00 am. The final session will be held on February 22.

The February 8 program will feature Aaron Wilson, OSU Assistant Professor and Agricultural Weather and Climate Field Specialist. His presentation will focus on being climate smart and farming with weather extremes. Topics of discussion include recent weather patterns and how they have affected crop production practices in Ohio. He will discuss ways farmers are managing shorter field working windows and things they can do to help lessen the impact of weather and take advantage of extended growing seasons. Areas of interest include what impacts might increasing temperatures and intense precipitation events have on water, manure, and pest management in Ohio.

The February 22 event will feature a program on Drone Use in Agriculture by Henry County OSU Extension Educator Alan Leininger. Drones are becoming more common in agriculture than just for scouting crops for insects, weeds, and disease. More recently, they are increasingly being used for seeding cover crops and pesticide applications in fields throughout Ohio. What types of drones are available and what are the legal and licensing requirements to use these new tools on the farm?

The Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series is jointly sponsored by OSU Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Hardin, Logan, and Union Counties, and in cooperation with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Breakfast is courtesy of the generous support from agricultural lenders and agricultural businesses. All events are open to the public and no advance registration is required. Continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers are available.

Hardin County – Join Hardin County OSU Extension for a Beef Quality Assurance certification training scheduled for Monday, February 19 from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Extension office located at 1021 W Lima Street in Kenton. Beef Quality Assurance training is for beef cattle producers, needing to certify or recertify to sell cattle at auctions and other markets. Many of the major beef processors, auctions, and other markets began requiring producers to have a BQA certificate at the beginning of 2019. Beef Quality Assurance certification is for a period of three years and was previously held in Kenton in December 2018, February 2021, May 2022, and February 2023. Several local producers need to recertify in addition to any cattle producers who need to gain BQA certification for the first time.

Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) does more than just help beef producers capture more value from their market cattle. BQA also reflects a positive public image and instills consumer confidence in the beef industry. When producers implement the best management practices of a BQA program, they assure their market steers, heifers, cows, and bulls are the best they can be. Today, the stakes are even higher because of increased public attention on animal welfare. BQA is valuable to all beef and dairy producers because it demonstrates commitment to food safety and quality; safeguards the public image of the beef industry; upholds consumer confidence in valuable beef products; and improves the sale value of marketed beef cattle.

Training enhances herd profitability through better management. Ohio State University Extension, in cooperation with the Ohio Beef Council, the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association, and Ohio’s cattle auction markets, is working to offer Ohio’s cattle producers several opportunities to become Beef Quality Assurance Certified. Certification can also take place online at https://www.bqa.org. Register for this Kenton training at https://go.osu.edu/HardinBQA or call 419-674-2297. Registration is required and space is limited for this local no cost in-person training that is good for both initial BQA certification or recertification.

Hardin County – The 2024 Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series will continue Thursday, January 25 at the Plaza Inn Restaurant in Mt. Victory. The session will start at 7:30 am with a complimentary buffet breakfast followed by a grain marketing outlook program at 8:00 am. Other sessions will be held on February 8 and 22.

The January 25 program will feature Kendra Dauer, Risk Management Consultant with StoneX in Bowling Green who will present a program on the 2024 Grain Marketing Outlook. Dauer will discuss the world market situation for corn, soybean, and wheat including world events, demand, supply, planting intentions, and other factors that might influence the grain markets in 2024. Other local information that might affect grain markets here in Ohio will be a topic of discussion as well.

February 8 Aaron Wilson, OSU Assistant Professor and Agricultural Weather and Climate Field Specialist’s presentation will focus on being climate smart and farming with weather extremes. Topics of discussion include recent weather patterns and how they have affected crop production practices in Ohio. He will discuss ways farmers are managing shorter field working windows and things they can do to help lessen the impact of weather and take advantage of extended growing seasons. Areas of interest include what impacts might increasing temperatures and intense precipitation events have on water, manure, and pest management in Ohio.

The February 22 event will feature a program on Drone Use in Agriculture by Henry County OSU Extension Educator Alan Leininger. Drones are becoming more common in agriculture than just for scouting crops for insects, weeds, and disease. More recently, they are increasingly being used for seeding cover crops and pesticide applications in fields throughout Ohio. What types of drones are available and what are the legal and licensing requirements to use these new tools on the farm?

The Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series is jointly sponsored by OSU Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Hardin, Logan, and Union Counties, and in cooperation with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Breakfast is courtesy of the generous support from agricultural lenders and agricultural businesses. All events are open to the public and no advance registration is required. Continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers are available.

Hardin County – A three-hour fertilizer certification program will be held in Kenton for any private or commercial applicator who needs to obtain fertilizer certification for the first time. This training will be held at the Hardin County OSU Extension office, 1021 W Lima Street, Kenton, Ohio on Tuesday, February 13. The class will begin at 1:00 pm and end at 4:00 pm. There is a $30 class fee payable to OSU Extension for this training.

Please arrive early so that materials can be distributed, and the program can start on time. This training will meet the fertilizer certification requirements for those with or without a pesticide license. Pre-registration is required by calling the Hardin County OSU Extension office at 419-674-2297 or register online at https://go.osu.edu/HardinPAT-FACT no later than a week before the training.

Agricultural fertilizer applicator certification is required in Ohio for farmers who apply fertilizer to more than 50 acres of agricultural production grown primarily for sale. This requirement was signed into law in June 2014, and also requires certification for commercial agricultural fertilizer applicators. Farmers who have their fertilizer applied by co-ops or custom applicators are not required to be certified if they do not side-dress their own corn.

Applicators who are a Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) or Certified Livestock Manager (CLM) are not required to attend the training. Fertilizer is defined for the regulation as any substance containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, or other plant nutrient in a dry or liquid formulation. All application types such as broadcast, side dress, sub-surface, knifing and other are included in the certification requirement. Lime and limestone are not included as fertilizer for the certification and farmers who only use starter fertilizer in their planter boxes are exempted.

The agriculture fertilizer certification is not required for manure applications as these are currently regulated, unless farmers are applying livestock or poultry manure from a Concentrated Animal Feeding Facility (CAFF). In this case, they would need to have either the CLM or Ohio Fertilizer Certification.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture is the agency issuing the certification for agriculture fertilizer applications. Once an applicator completes the fertilizer training, the ODA will bill them $30 for their fertilizer certificate unless the applicator currently holds a pesticide applicator license.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture website has information regarding the regulation at https://agri.ohio.gov/divisions/plant-health/fertilizers. For more information about other training sessions or general materials for the agriculture fertilizer certification, visit https://nutrienteducation.osu.edu or contact Mark Badertscher, Hardin County OSU Extension at badertscher.4@osu.edu.