Organic

Ohio State Organic Grains Conference January 9-10, 2025

| Clifton Martin

Registration is open for the 3rd annual Ohio State Organic Grains Conference, January 9-10, 2025, at the Kalahari Resorts & Conventions in Sandusky, Ohio. The conference offers programming for experienced organic growers, growers transitioning to or considering organic, and consultants or educators who support these growers.

Link to Registration Page

Featured speakers for 2025 include Erin Silva, University of Wisconsin-Madison State Extension Specialist in Organic and Sustainable Cropping Systems; Damon DeSutter of DeSutter Farms in Attica, Ind., Osler Ortez, Ohio State Corn and Emerging Crops Specialist; Sophie Rivest-Auger, organic field crop advisor for Centre for Expertise and Transfer in Organic and Local Agriculture, Quebec; and David Marrison, Ohio State Farm Management Field Specialist. Additional farmer, researchers, and educators from Ohio and beyond will round out the two full days of agronomic and farm management sessions. Topics for this year include interseeding cover crops in organic corn, flame cultivation, the use of biological products in organic production, setting up weed control equipment for success, nitrogen credits from cover crops and manure, farm succession planning and a market end-users panel.

Take advantage of Early Bird pricing and register now. The cost of $140 per person includes two days of programming, meals throughout the event, and opportunities to network with organic farmers in the region as well as speakers and trade show vendors.

This event is planned by Ohio State University Extension and Ohio State’s Organic Food & Farming Education and Research (OFFER) program. Continuing education credits will be available for Certified Crop Advisors (CCAs). For more information, visit go.osu.edu/OrganicGrains.

2024 Ohio State Organic Grains Conference

| https://agcrops.osu.edu/events/2024-ohio-state-organic-grains-conference

The 2nd annual Ohio State Organic Grains Conference will be January 4-5, 2024 at the Maumee Bay Lodge and Conference Center in Oregon, Ohio. This event is brought to you by Ohio State University Extension and the OFFER program.

Featured presenters for this year will include Klaas Martens of Lakeview Organic Grain in New York, Steve Culman from Washington State University (formerly Ohio State), Léa Vereecke from Rodale Institute, and Eugene Law from USDA-Agricultural Research Services. We’ll again feature a trade show with venders who offer relevent goods and services; a farmer roundtable lunch; and farmer panels on topics like weed control strategies, technology, and biological products. Our 2024 line-up includes Ohio State educators and researchers with an interest in organic production, including corn and emerging crop specialist Osler Ortez; associate professor in soils and agronomy Ryan Haden; farm management field specialist Eric Richer, and manure nutrient management field specialist Glen Arnold, plus research updates on kernza and crop-livestock integration.

Attend a day early and be part of the Organic Farmer Researcher Network dinner and brainstorming session. We invite farmers, researchers, and educators to gather together on the evening of January 3 for a meal and small group work to develop specific research projects. Use this opportunity to gather feedback and ideas for an individual trial you are planning for your farm, gather partners for a multi-farm project, or help lead university research proposals. A limited number of $100 travel stipends are available to defray additional travel costs for this pre-conference event.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

2023 Ohio Organic Grain Conference

| C.O.R.N. NEWSLETTER // 2022-37 // 2023 OHIO ORGANIC GRAIN CONFERENCE

Have you been thinking about ways to take your farm a different direction or uniquely add value to your grain operation? One of many ways to do this is by transitioning your grain farm to USDA-certified organic production. To address this production system, OSU Extension will be holding the Ohio Organic Grains Conference on January 4-5, 2023, in Archbold, Ohio.

Full article and information at 2023 Ohio Organic Grain Conference | Agronomic Crops Network (osu.edu)

Perspectives

| Clifton Martin

Two interesting reports came across my desk today.  To some, they may represent opposing viewpoints, but both represent very active parts of our agricultural systems.  I am publishing this to share the information and to help create awareness of all aspects of agriculture that surround us.

 

  http://fruitgrowersnews.com/news/organic-industry-continues-double-digit-growth/

From Fruit Growers News, “Organic industry continues double-digit growth” at http://fruitgrowersnews.com/news/organic-industry-continues-double-digit-growth/ .  They report 21,000 certified organic operations in the United States and an increase of 12 percent in one year.  There  is a new web service called “Organic Integrity Database” (http://apps.ams.usda.gov/integrity/) which is a modernized system for tracking certified organic operations.  If you like to look at the data behind the numbers, try it out.

 

 

GMOhttp://oaba.net/aws/OABA/pt/sd/news_article/120942/_PARENT/layout_details/false

From the Ohio Agribusiness Association, we are informed of a report from the International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications that ‘Two billion hectares of Biotech/GM crops were planted from 1996 to 2015‘.  This marks the first 20 years of commercial biotech crop use.  They also provide top 10 facts about the industry.