Month: August 2019

From Across the Field – On the Road Again 8/21/2019

With the fair being the focal point of the office the past couple of weeks, I think I made my annual post fair rebound as things are almost back to normal. I say almost as our office renovation is still in progress and I am writing to you this week from our conference room on the first floor of the Hahn Center.

At the fair there was plenty of discussion regarding USDA’s crop report. I think based on the findings of the various crop tours, yield locally will be highly variable with some late planted corn likely not reaching USDA’s projection of 169 bushels per acre. Continue reading From Across the Field – On the Road Again 8/21/2019 →

Solar Leasing Guide Available

By: Peggy Kirk Hall
Source: https://farmoffice.osu.edu/blog
Large “utility-scale” solar energy development is on the rise in Ohio.  In the past two years, the Ohio Power Siting Board has approved six large scale solar projects with generating capacities of 50MW or more, and three more projects are pending approval.   These “solar farms” require a large land base, and in Ohio that land base is predominantly farmland.   The nine solar energy facilities noted on this map will cover about 16,500 acres in Brown, Clermont, Hardin, Highland and Vinton counties.  About 12,300 of those acres were previously used for agriculture.

Continue reading Solar Leasing Guide Available →

Adding Value to Your Feeder Calves This Fall

By: Garth Ruff, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, Henry County

As summer slips past us yet again and with fall rapidly approaching it is time to discuss how to maximize the value of feeder calves that will be hitting the market in late September and October. If you have been following the cattle futures both fed cattle and feeders have been on a roller coaster here as of late. With that in mind there are some things we can do management wise to capitalize on this year’s calf crop. Continue reading Adding Value to Your Feeder Calves This Fall →

The Economic Importance of U.S. Animal Agriculture

By: Chris Hurt, Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University, farmdoc daily (9):158

Diversified grain and livestock farms were once the model of U.S. agriculture. Farms often had crop and animal enterprises to help capture their complementary nature such as spreading the use of family labor throughout the year and recycling animal waste as nutrients to the crop enterprise.

Today, farms are much more specialized in crops or animals, and many fewer are in both. Has this changed the relative economic importance of crop and animal agriculture in the U.S.? Continue reading The Economic Importance of U.S. Animal Agriculture →

Corn Earworm in Field Corn; Watch for Molds

By: Kelley Tilmon, Pierce Paul, Andy Michel, OSU Extension

There have been recent reports of high corn earworm populations in certain grain corn fields.  Corn earworm is a pest with many hosts including corn, tomatoes and certain legumes.  In Ohio it is typically considered a pest of sweet corn rather than field corn, but this past week substantial populations have been found in certain field corn sites.  Corn earworm moths are most attracted to fields in the early green silk stage as a place to lay their eggs.  These eggs hatch into the caterpillars that cause ear-feeding damage, open the ear to molds, and attract birds.  With a wide range of planting dates this year, different fields may be at greater risk at different times. Continue reading Corn Earworm in Field Corn; Watch for Molds →

Cucumber Downy Mildew Confirmed in Northeast Ohio

By: Sally Miller, OSU Extension

Following reports this week of downy mildew on cucurbits in Michigan, central Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana, we have our first confirmed report of downy mildew on cucumbers in northern Wayne County. This is very late for this area – we usually see downy mildew on cucumbers in early July in northern OH. Many growers have been spraying preventatively due to the seriousness of downy mildew on cucumbers and other cucurbits. All of the reports this week from MI, WI and PA were from cucumber, although the report from southwestern Indiana was from watermelon.

Cucurbit growers who have not transitioned from applying only protectant fungicides such as chlorothalanil or mancozeb to downy mildew fungicides should now do so.  The environmental conditions – cooler temperatures, high humidity, overcast skies and rain showers- expected in much of Ohio during this part of the season are conducive to downy mildew. Continue reading Cucumber Downy Mildew Confirmed in Northeast Ohio →

From Across the Field – Keep Moving 8/14/19

Today marks the end of the 2019 Henry County Fair. Congratulations is due to all of the exhibitors for their successes at this year’s fair. A highlight of the fair and proper ending for livestock exhibitors is today’s Jr. Fair Livestock Sale. The Jr. Fair Sale is the culmination of upwards of a year for some exhibitors and as little as six weeks of hard work and dedication. Speaking from personal experience the youth remember the support the receive over the years.

All in all, I think most everybody had a good fair week. What I enjoy most is the conversations had throughout the week. One conversation the particularly stood out this week occurred with year’s beef judge, a recently retired OSU Extension agriculture agent from southern Ohio. He shared some advice that the best we can do is to “keep moving.” While simple, I think that is advice that anyone, especially young people should take to heart. As it relates to the fair, I certainly appreciate those young folks that have “kept moving” throughout the week, working hard to best represent themselves and help others as well. Continue reading From Across the Field – Keep Moving 8/14/19 →

Assessing The Risk of Frost Injury to Late Planted Corn

By: Peter Thomison, OSU Extension

Lately I have received questions as to whether corn at various stages of development, especially the blister (R2) and dough stage (R3) stages, will mature before the 50% average frost date. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, as of August 18, 37 percent of Ohio’s corn acreage was in the dough stage (R4) compared to 70 percent for the five year average, and three percent of the corn acreage was in the dent stage (R5) compared to 21 percent for the five-year average. Many areas of the state corn are considerably behind the five-year average because of late planting. Late maturation of the corn crop had led to questions about the likelihood for frost damage and whether more fuel will be needed to dry corn.

Physiological maturity (R6), when kernels have obtained maximum dry weight and black layer has formed, typically occurs about 65 days after silking. At physiological maturity (kernel moisture approximately 30-35%), frosts have little or no effect on the yield potential of the corn crop. Continue reading Assessing The Risk of Frost Injury to Late Planted Corn →

Harvest Management of Sorghum Forages

By: Marc Sulc and Bill Weiss, OSU Extension

Many producers in Ohio have planted summer annual grasses this year to increase their low forage inventories. These include sudangrass, sorghum-sudangrass, forage sorghum, pearl millet, and teff grass. When should these grasses be harvested or grazed?

The general guidelines for harvesting or grazing these summer annual grasses as listed in the Ohio Agronomy Guide are shown in the table below. Continue reading Harvest Management of Sorghum Forages →

BQA: One Year Later

By: Garth Ruff, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, Henry County (originally published in The Ohio Cattleman summer issue)

Early last year I wrote an article titled Understanding Customer Relations in a Changing Beef Industry, which examined the factors that drove the demand for cattle producers to complete Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) training.

Now after a years’ time, with nearly 100 in-person trainings taught, and almost 7,250 Ohio cattle producers BQA certified in-person and another 2,100 online, where do things stand?

As a refresher, the push to have producers trained in BQA was at the request of Tyson, one of the major packers’ decision to only source fed cattle from cattle feeders certified in BQA by 2019. Tyson’s decision was largely due to the commitment of Wendy’s to do the same, at the demand of their customers. As we have seen in all segments of food production the consumer, now more than ever, wants to know how their food is produced. Often in the case of meat, consumers want to be assured that the animal was raised humanely and cared for under good production practices, the basic principles of any livestock quality assurance program. Continue reading BQA: One Year Later →