New 5-Minute Agriculture Topic Video on Cover Crops

Check out the newest video in the 5-Minute Ag Topic Video Series, found on the Paulding County YouTube Channel. This video, centered on cover crops, features Water Quality Extension Associate, Rachel Cochran, and Agriculture & Natural Resources Extension Educator, Sarah Noggle, both from our Paulding County Extension Office. To learn more about benefits that cover crops can provide, as well as tools for selecting the best ones to fit your goals, click the embedded video above!

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Information Meeting

Thanks to Tim McDermott, Ohio 4-H is pleased to offer Backyard Poultry Biosecurity

  • With concerns are around HPAI and poultry rising, especially as we approach the fair season, good biosecurity practices are very important! Learn about health risks and biosecurity practices specific to poultry projects with Dr. Tim McDermott! Youth and adults are welcome to join us on April 5th from 5:30-7:00 pm on Zoom (Zoom link and details below).

Join Zoom Meeting

https://osu.zoom.us/j/97510455262?pwd=K0tmUjM3eDF6S25RNXlMNTBzR2pkUT09

Meeting ID: 975 1045 5262

Password: 730686

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Farm Business Analysis Technician Position Open!

The Farm Business Analysis Program from Ohio State University has an opening for a Farm Business Analysis Technician.  This position will be located in northwest Ohio.  The host County is Defiance, but our technicians do their work virtually, on farms, at programs, or at training, so generally being located in northwest Ohio is what we are looking for. Continue reading

Paulding FCS is hosting a Grant Writing Workshop

Casey Bishop, FCS, Paulding County

The Beginner’s Guide to Grant Writing Course will be offered in Paulding County by Ohio State University Extension Community Development Educators, Melissa Rupp, and Kyle White. In this two-day program, you’ll learn what to do before you write a grant, organizational mission and structure, components of a grant proposal, finding and connecting with funders, and writing and finalizing an actual proposal for review.

Attendees should come prepared with a grant project idea which they will detail further during the course. This course is open to individuals, organizations, non-profit, or anyone with a general interest. Attendees must attend both sessions, Apri l 5th, 2022, and May 3rd, 2022, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This program will be held in the Youth Leadership Building at 501 Fairground Drive, Paulding, Ohio 45879. Registration is mandatory and limited to the first twelve (12) individuals. The deadline to register is March 25th, 2022. For pricing or to register online go to: go.osu.edu/PauldingGrant

For additional information on any FCS programs, contact Casey Bishop (Paulding County Extension Educator, Family, and Consumer Sciences) at bishop.807@osu.edu or call 419-399-8225.

March Edition of Farm Office Live

This month’s Farm Office Live will be held on March 16th, from 7 – 8:30 pm, and again on March 18th from 10 – 11:30 am. The Farm Office Team provides the latest outlook and updates on ag law, farm management, ag economics, farm business analysis, and other issues dealt with in your farm office.  Targeted to farmers and agribusiness stakeholders, our specialists digest the latest news and information and present it in an easy-to-understand format. To sign up for the webinar (and if you can’t attend the recording link) go to go.osu.edu/farmofficelive.

March topics will include

  • Updates on FSA programs
  • Federal Tax Law Update/Medicaid Planning Review
  • Financial Efficiency Review for Grain Farms
  • Fertilizer Update/Crop Budgets
  • Grain Marketing Outlook

Bumblebee Short Course for Community Scientists

Six free, weekly webinars will focus on bumblebee biodiversity, ecology, and conservation. All sessions are on Fridays from 1 PM (Eastern Time) to 2:30 PM (Eastern Time) from March 18th to April 22nd.

Register here. (http://go.osu.edu/bumble)

Our course webpage with resources and recordings: https://u.osu.edu/thebumblebeeshortcourse/

  • March 18 — Bumble Bee Biology, Part 1Jamie Strange: The Ohio State University
  • March 25 — Bumble Bee  Biology, Part 2Jamie Strange: The Ohio State University,  A Brief Overview of Federally Endangered Bumble BeesTamara Smith: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • April 1 — Bumble Bee Identification (note dual offerings and a later start for Western ID)Attend one or both sessions, Bumble Bees from Eastern or Western North America,
    • 1:00 – 2:30 EDT Identification of Bumble Bees from Eastern North America, Karen Goodell: The Ohio State University
    • 3:00 – 4:30 EDT Identification of Bumble Bees from Western North America, Lincoln Best: Oregon State University
  • April 8 — Bumble Bee BotanyRandy Mitchell: The University of Akron
  • April 15 — Threats and Opportunities for ConservationHollis Woodard: University of California, Riverside
  • April 22 — You Can Make a Difference for Bumble Bees: Programs to Document Bumble Bees in Yards, Parks, Gardens, and Natural Areas AND What Plants They Use, Sam Droege: Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, USGS, Jenan El-Hifnawi: USGS Bumble Bee Survey Coordinator

Sponsored by The Ohio State University Department of Entomology. This series is funded in part by a USDA/NIFA Integrated Pest Management Pollinator Health grant. Coordinated by Denise Ellsworth, OSU Department of Entomology All sessions will be recorded and posted on our course website and on YouTube http://go.osu.edu/bumbles

Hope you can join us this month to learn about our flying teddy bears!

Filter the Kool-Aid before you Drink It!

 

Ohio Dairy Producer Lunch and Learn Series

The OSU Extension Dairy Team will be offering a series of webinars this winter to provide producers with timely updates on risk management strategies, milk market outlook, farm safety, and maximizing manure value. The webinars will take place at 1 pm on the following Fridays:

  • March 4: Keeping Yourself and Employees Safe on the Farm: Dairy farms can be a dangerous place, thus keeping our families and employees safe is critical. Taylor Dill and Jamie Hampton will be talking about assessing safety risks on your farm and developing a plan to help keep everyone on your farm safe.
  • March 18: Utilizing Your Farm’s Manure to Maximize Farm Profit: Manure can be an income or an expense, depending on how it is managed. Maximizing manure nutrient retention can help make it an income, especially with current fertilizer prices. Learn more about the current fertilizer situation and ways to better utilize manure from Glen Arnold, Chris Zoller, Eric Richer, Haley Zynda, and Chris Shoup.

To register for the webinar series, visit https://go.osu.edu/2022osudairyprogram. If you have questions about these educational programs, please contact Jason Hartschuh at Hartschuh.11@osu.edu.

Additionally, you can find the recorded session by contacting the dairy team.

  • February 11: Dairy Risk Management: The first two risk management tools many producers utilize are the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) and the Dairy Revenue Protection programs. Dianne Shoemaker will be covering changes that have been made to the DMC program, including the supplemental coverage which allows for an increase in milk production coverage. Jason Hartschuh will be covering the Dairy Revenue Protection program which can be used to set a floor under your milk price.
  • February 18: Milk Production, Demand, and Price Outlook for 2022: Dr. Chris Wolf, the dairy economist at Cornell University, will be providing us updates on current dairy markets. Milk prices have been continuing to climb – what are the driving factors and how long will milk prices stay up? Even with higher milk prices, margins may stay tight.

Using Citizen Science to Improve Cover Crop Performance in the Great Lakes Region

Collaborators: Etienne Herrick, University of Michigan; Tim Boring, Michigan Agriculture Advancement

Funding: USDA NIFA Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan’s Rackham Program in Public Scholarship

CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE

In the Great Lakes region, overwintering cover crops can provide numerous agroecological benefits, such as soil conservation and nutrient cycling, weed and pest control, and climate resilience. However, these benefits largely depend on the successful growth of cover crops, which can be highly variable across farms due to a range of environmental factors and management practices (e.g., soil type, planting strategies) that influence cover crop establishment and growth in distinct conditions. This project will use a citizen science approach to improve understanding of cover crop performance across variable conditions and, in turn, help farmers better achieve the benefits they can provide. Specifically, we will partner with Great Lakes farmers to identify: i) the extent of variation in cover crop growth across the region, and ii) which environmental and management factors best explain this variation.

By sharing information about their farms and management practices in a short online survey, and conducting a brief field sampling protocol to estimate cover crop growth, farmers will serve as key collaborators in a data-driven effort to improve cover crop outcomes. Results from this project will inform context-specific recommendations for optimal cover crop management across different farming conditions. This community-based research links academic and practitioner knowledge to advance food system sustainability and resilience.

We are seeking participants for spring 2022! If you are currently growing overwintering cover crops in the Great Lakes region and would like to participate, please complete this quick survey or contact herricke@umich.edu.

ARC-County: What’s my County’s 2022 Guarantee Revenue – Deadline to sign Up at FSA is March 15

By:  Wm. Bruce Clevenger, OSU Extension

The Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs were authorized by the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills. Both programs are risk management tools. The ARC-CO (county) program provides income support tied to historical base acres, not current production, of covered commodities. ARC-CO payments are issued when the actual county crop revenue of a covered commodity is less than the ARC-CO guarantee for the covered commodity.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) publishes county-level data online that provides the details used in the ARC-CO calculations. The 2022 Program Year-specific data contains the ARC-CO Benchmark Yields and Revenues using county-level yields and Market Year Average prices from 2016-2020. The data is organized by state and county name from Autauga County, Alabama to Weston County, Wyoming.

To access the data, visit the link and make two additional clicks:

https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/arcplc_program/arcplc-program-data/index

Click 2022 Program Year Specific Data

Click 2022 ARC-County Benchmark Yields and Revenues (Excel format)

A 2022 ARC-CO payment is made when the actual 2022 county crop revenue is less than the Guarantee Revenue for the covered commodity. The Guarantee Revenue is 86% of the county Benchmark Revenue, based on the Olympic average county yields and Olympic average Market Year Average (MYA) price for five prior years.

Q: What is the value of knowing your county’s 2022 Guarantee Revenue?
A: A producer can then contemplate conditions that may occur in national price and their specific county yields that would trigger or not trigger a 2022 payment.

Q: What is the difference between ARC-CO and PLC?
A: ARC-CO is a revenue (price and yield) risk program; PLC is a price risk program.

Q: How much do we know about the 2022 crop yields and 2022 commodity prices to make ARC/PLC decisions?
A: County yields are as (un)predictable as the weather. Even trend yields, retrospectively, have significant past volatility. Market analysis and futures prices can be some indicators of price, but they are based on what the market knows and reacts to today. Risk management is not about predicting the future, it’s about being prepared.

The USDA-FSA programs are offered as risk management choices and not a guaranteed payment program. Crop prices, production systems, and other risk management tools should be considered as producers make the ARC/PLC election/enrollment by March 15.

Mid-Ohio Small Farm Conference – Sowing Seeds for Success

No need to feel alone in the field. Our new and small farm conferences provide connections that will last long after the event.

  • Do you own a few acres that you want to be productive but you’re not sure what to do?
  • Do you have a passion for farming and turning your piece of this wonderful earth into a food producing oasis?
  • Do you own land or forest that you’re not quite sure how to manage?
  • Do you raise or produce products that you would like to market and sell off your farm but you’re not sure how to make it successful?

If you’re asking yourself these questions, this conference is for you! Targeted to new and small farm owners, we cover topics like:

  • Horticulture
  • Produce Production
  • Natural Resources
  • Livestock
  • Specialty Crops
  • Farm Management
  • Marketing
  • Miscellaneous Topics

You’ll also have the opportunity to browse a trade show featuring the newest and most innovative ideas and services for your farming operation. Talk with the vendors and network with your peers. If you are a new or small farm owner, you don’t want to miss the 2022 Small Farm Conference – Sowing Seeds for Success on March 12th from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Mansfield OSU Campus in Ovalwood Hall.  The campus is just minutes from I-71 and US Rt 30.

Please visit: https://go.osu.edu/osufarmconference2022  for class and registration details or call OSU Extension Morrow County 419-947-1070.

Williams County Private Pesticide and Fertilizer Recertification Meeting on March 21

Do you have a Private Pesticide Applicator’s License and/or Fertilizer Certification expiring in 2022 and missed our Paulding County Re-certification? These opportunities are getting limited. If so, register for the Williams County re-certification session on March 21 at the Veterans Memorial Building.

Fertilizer recertification (Category 15) will be from 5 – 6 pm and pesticide recertification (CORE & Categories 1-6) from 6 – 9 pm. Pre-registration is required at go.osu.edu/williamspat or 419-636-5608. Registration cost is $10 for fertilizer recertification and $35 for pesticide recertification and includes educational materials and refreshments. This is separate from the ODA $30 license renewal fee. Can’t attend? Check out https://pested.osu.edu/Recert/maumeevalley for more recertification opportunities.

Tri-County Soil Health Workshop to be Held March 18

Join Fulton and Williams Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Hillsdale Conservation District for a Tri-County Soil Health Workshop on Friday, March 18 at the Kissell Community Building, 509 N. Main Street, West Unity, OH. Presenters will include Rick Clark, a 5th generation farmer and 2022 National No-Till Conference presenter, and Dr. Aaron Wilson, Atmospheric Research Scientist with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center and Climate Specialist with OSU Extension. The workshop will also feature a local farmer panel moderated by Rick Clark.

CCA credits include 3 Soil & Water Management CEUs and 1 Crop Management CEU. MAEAP Phase 1 and MI RUP Credits are also available. The workshop cost is $20, which includes lunch and refreshments. Registration is required by March 11 at either www.hillsdalecd.org or by submitting a completed registration form and payment to Williams SWCD, 11246 State Route 15, Montpelier, OH 43543.

Upcoming Webinar: Native Grasslands and Pollinator Habitat for Wildlife

By Dave Apsley, Natural Resources Specialist, Ohio State University Extension

Our first  A DAY in the WOODS program for 2022, “Native Grasslands and Pollinator Habitat for Wildlife”, will be offered via Zoom webinar at 3 pm on March 11.  A registration link and  more details can be found at: https://u.osu.edu/apsley.1/2022/02/22/native-grasslands-and-pollinator-habitat-for-wildlife-offered-via-zoom-webinar-on-march-11/

This program will introduce you to “Native Grasslands and Pollinator Habitat for Wildlife” which will be covered in more depth at our field-based July 22,  A DAY in the WOODS program.