Production

Tri-State Green Industry Conference Registration is Open

Thursday, February 5th, 2026

Sharonville Convention Center
11355 Chester Rd
Cincinnati, OH  45246

Don’t miss this premier Tri-State Green Industry Educational Event

  • Ten education tracks with sessions on horticulture, tree care, lawn care, and more
  • Networking opportunities
  • Trade show
  • Professional credits for ISA and pesticide applicators in OH, IN, and KY

More details at go.osu.edu/gic_info

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Early Bird Registration (until the end of the day, January 10th) $150.00
Late Registration (January 11th-17th) $200.00
On-Site Registration (at the door, February 5th; Lunch not included) $200.00
Educator Registration (email Amy at coors.15@osu.edu for discount code) $90.00
Student Registration

(email Amy at coors.15@osu.edu for no lunch discount code)

$90.00 with lunch

$50.00 no lunch

Register at go.osu.edu/gic2026

For bulk registration (over 5 attendees), email Amy at coors.15@osu.edu.

Support a legacy conference: Become a sponsor!

Consider increasing your company’s visibility and helping this cornerstone industry event thrive. Opportunities start as low as $250!

Learn more at go.osu.edu/gic_sponsor

Trade Show Vendors

Join the trade show and get in front of hundreds of regional attendees from the nursery, greenhouse, arboriculture, retail, landscape maintenance, construction, and design industries.

Visit our Trade Show Vendor Information page for more details on what’s available.

Deadline for trade show registration is December 8, 2025.

The Tri-State Green Industry Conference is a collaborative educational effort between the following organizations, arboreta, and botanical gardens, as well as Green Industry leaders:

  • Ohio State University Extension
  • Purdue University Extension
  • University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension
  • Cincinnati State Technical and Community College
  • University of Cincinnati
  • University of Wisconsin
  • The Boone County Arboretum
  • Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
  • Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum
  • Natorp’s
  • Eason Horticultural Resources, Inc.
  • Gressley’s Horticulture Consultation Service

Questions? Email Amy at coors.15@osu.edu

Soil Health Webinar Series 2026 – Save the Dates

Join the 2026 OSU Extension Soil Health Webinar Series and empower your farm with science-backed, practical strategies! Each monthly webinar delivers expert-led insights—from real-world cover crop management and soil testing to boosting yield, resilience, and profitability in Ohio’s fields. Aimed squarely at farmers, these sessions feature Extension educators, researchers, and producers sharing proven approaches you can start using immediately. Plus, Certified Crop Advisors can earn continuing education credits by tuning in live, and past recordings are conveniently accessible anytime. It’s your direct connection to the latest research and on-farm experience—designed to help your soil and bottom line thrive.

The webinars will be held from 8:00 to 9:00 AM on:

  • January 15, 2026
  • February 12, 2026
  • March 19, 2026
  • April 9, 2026

Speaker details and specific topics will be announced in December, so stay tuned!

We encourage you to share this with your network and post the attached flyer on your county website to help spread the word.

Please feel free to contact Manbir Rakkar (rakkar.4@osu.edu) or Asmita Murumkar (murumkar.1@osu.edu)  if you have any questions.

Don’t miss the chance to join these informative sessions and enhance your soil health knowledge!

No-Cost Swine RFID Tags for Sows and Exhibition Swine

 

Contact: aphispress@usda.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 21, 2025—The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announces a new initiative to provide no-cost RFID (radio frequency identification) eartags for swine beginning fall 2025. These tags will be available for sow and exhibition swine producers. Once available, producers and State animal health officials will be able to order tags on the Merck Animal Health website at www.840swinetags.com.

In July 2025, APHIS awarded a contract to Merck Animal Health to supply up to $20 million in tags to sow and exhibition swine industry segments over the next 5 years. Modeled after the no-cost RFID cattle tag program, this effort will supply no-cost RFID tags to swine producers to boost national swine disease traceability, which is vital to supporting the safety and marketability of the U.S. swine herd. Although animal disease traceability does not prevent disease, an efficient and accurate traceability system reduces the response time involved in a disease investigation, limiting the number of farms and animals affected. This, in turn, reduces the economic impact on owners and affected communities.

Unique to this program is a direct-from-manufacturer to swine premises distribution model. Merck will receive, process, and ship orders directly to producers and State animal health officials, removing APHIS as intermediaries and expediting getting tags into producers’ hands and pigs’ ears. To order these tags, producers must have a valid premises identification number, provide shipping and contact information, and provide the number of sows onsite (for commercial sow farms) or the number of show pigs on the premises (for exhibition swine). State animal health officials will also be able to order no-cost RFID tags based on the number of sows in their State.

These RFID tags will need to be applied with a compatible tag applicator, which is not supplied through this program.

For more information about this program, including the ordering process, requirements, and number of tags that can be ordered based on sow/exhibition swine numbers, check out the web page at www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/swine/swine-identification.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

aphis.usda.gov

All About Goats Webinars

Are you interested in learning more about goat production? Join the Ohio State University Extension Small Ruminant Team for the 2025 All About Goats! Webinar. This webinar series is going to answer producers’ burning questions concerning their own herd and help new producers become knowledgeable herdsman. Whether you raise goats for dairy, fiber, or meat production or as pets, this webinar is for you! All youth livestock exhibitors are encouraged to attend.

The topics and dates for this series are as follows:
September 22- Goat Health and Care
October 6- Farm Business and Management
October 20- Goat Processing
November 3- Livestock Marketing
November 17- Hay and Grain Production
December 1- Coyote Management
December 15- Open Forum: Ask Me Anything

The webinar is hosted via Zoom from 7-8 p.m. EST.

Registration is required and can be completed by visiting go.osu.edu/allaboutgoats25

If you have any questions, please get in touch with Pressley at 419-447-9722 or buurma.20@osu.edu

Are you raising a backyard flock? This survey is for you!

Since March 2024, 70 cases of avian influenza A(H5) (H5 bird flu) have occurred in humans in the United States, mostly among workers exposed to infected dairy cows and commercial poultry farms. However, cases have also occurred among people exposed to birds kept in non-commercial, backyard flocks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) are interested in learning more about backyard flock owners and their flocks to improve H5 bird flu prevention messaging. The anonymous survey asks about:

  • Characteristics of backyard flock owners, their families, and their flocks.
  • Knowledge of H5 bird flu and signs and symptoms of H5 bird flu in birds and humans.
  • Perceived risk of and concern about H5 bird flu to their backyard flock and themselves/families.
  • Attitudes towards reporting sick or dead birds and protective measures like vaccination of their flock.
  • Practices they use to protect their flock and themselves from H5 bird flu.

CDC will use the survey results to help make sure that backyard flock owners have the information they need to protect themselves from H5 bird flu. Questions about this survey can be sent to h5flustudy@cdc.gov.

For questions about steps backyard flock owners can take to protect themselves from H5 bird flu, please visit odh.ohio.gov/hpai or contact your local health department.

For questions about protecting your flock, please visit the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA)’s HPAI Poultry webpage or contact ODA at 614-728-6220.

QR code to the survey:

URL link to the survey:

https://redcap.link/backyardflock