I began my internship with Ohio Farm Bureau last Monday as a State Fair Intern. This summer my team and I are in charge of creating and implementing displays and activities for the Land & Living Building at the Ohio State Fair. The building is compromised of four zones, food, technology, environment, and animal. We are excited to get to work visioning and designing for each zone.
This week however, to get our ideas rolling, we went on a farm tour trip around Ohio. The trip allowed us to experience all that Ohio has to offer and to learn from the people themselves, how they’d like their message to be conveyed.
This first day we visited Katherine Harrison of Franklin County. Katherine is a one woman farm who relies on the help of interns and volunteers to feed kids and lambs, collect eggs, and help corral all of her goats and sheep. She is very proud of raising good quality meat and eggs for which she sells at her local farmer’s market and to hala customers. Katherine also offers goat yoga in the fall, and sells skulls and bones at oddity conventions.
The next farm we went to was a sow operation in Muskingum County, Bell Farms. There Matt Bell gave us tour of the farrowing barns, weaning barns, and gestation area. He talked about the latest sanitation, culling, and chemical sterilization practices they are currently using in the swine industry. Matt spoke of the importance of breeding good quality sows in order to produce the best quality hogs for pork. He also shared his outlook on the future of agriculture and why it is so important to have young agriculturist ready and willing to advocate for this way of life.
On Thursday, we started out our day in Highland County at Nathan Brown’s. Nathan, a first generation farmer told us his journey into agriculture and why it is important to him that farmers are a good steward of the land. He has a grain operation that accompanies his small beef operation. Nathan uses no till practices, and is a huge advocate of cover crops. While we were at his farm he showed us his fields which were sewn with canola, clover, wheat, and cereal rye. He dug up places to show soil structure and the benefits of putting cover crops on land. This visit allowed us to start envisioning ideas for the crops/water display.
After Nathan’s we visited Lane Osswald in Preble County. Lane, another grain farmer who uses no till practices gave us great insight on how over plowing can cause erosion and run-off. He took us out in fields to allow us to see the real examples at play in his farming area. After speaking with Lane, we all began to notice just where low spots and run-off had impacted fields we past on our drive.
On Friday morning we visited Rose Hartschuh’s dairy farm and agricultural education destination, in Crawford County. Rose gave us a tour of their field trip area, and discussed how they have a unique opportunity to teach young kids not only about dairy, but about ag as a whole. Next, she gave us a tour around the dairy operation; milking parlor, calf barn, and heifer lot to name a few. The neatest thing to see was the robotic milkers which collect and store data to improve not only milking, but to keep the farm running efficiency. Finally, Rose took us around the fields to talk about their crop farming practices, and to highlight the importance of water quality in the Lake Erie Basin area.
The last visit of the trip was to Bill Patterson’s in Geauga County. The Patterson’s Fruit Farm and Fall Fun Fest are two of the biggest attractions in the area. The fruit farm allows people to come and pick their own fruit while learning about where their food comes from and how it is raised. Bill explained that as a big agritourism spot they have a huge job of educating those who were not expecting it. This means constant talk with customers and discussion with everyone who walks into the market. It was awesome to see how ag education can come from the commercial level and from a place that offers fun and excitement for the whole family.
My first week at Ohio Farm Bureau was great, and I can’t wait to starting designing and visioning displays for the Land & Living exhibit!