Despite low commodity prices, Ohio farmers can stay in the black in 2017 — but they’ll need to tighten their belts and slash expenses, says CFAES agricultural economist Barry Ward. He lists nine keys to a Happy New Year …
farm profitability
New free app good for nutrients, profits, water
Farmers using CFAES’s new free Ohio State PLOTS app “can fine-tune their nutrient management and maximize profits, all while minimizing environmental concerns.”
Big new ideas for Ohio’s small farms
“We have farmers of very large operations come to these presentations. People are looking for ways to increase profitability no matter their size or scale.” So says CFAES’s Mike Hogan, organizer of the Small Farm Center and its more than two dozen sessions set for next week’s Farm Science Review trade show. Learn more and see the center’s schedule of talks.
Watch: Pigweed? Or pigweed on steroids? Here’s how to know
Watch the CFAES video above for tips on telling your pigweeds apart: redroot pigweed vs. the now-invading Palmer amaranth, which some experts call “pigweed on steroids,” and not as a compliment. Accurate identification of pigweeds, you could say, is the first step to sending them squealing. Beating problem weeds is important because troublemakers like pigweeds can reduce how much food a farm produces, how much money the farmer makes, and the farm’s overall success and sustainability.
Conference to focus on building healthy soil
Adding organic matter leads to healthier soil, which in turn improves a farm’s profitability and the quality of the water that runs off from it. That’s a key message of CFAES’s annual Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference. It’s today and tomorrow in northwest Ohio. Read more …
Fish for dinner? How to keep it local, sustainable
The Ohio Aquaculture Association’s 2016 annual conference, featuring talks by a whole school of experts from CFAES, is Jan. 29-30 in Columbus. Of note: An overall focus on helping Ohio fish farms be (or stay) (or be even more) profitable and economically sustainable. And a keynote talk by former CFAES aquaculture specialist and OAA supporter Laura Tiu, who’s now at the University of Florida. Learn more here and here.
‘It was fun watching that wheel go backward’
Interested in adding a solar power system to your farm, how to pay for it and how it will pay you back? Read Catie Noyes’ story in Farm and Dairy about CFAES’s recent workshop in Wooster …
Cover crops: Guide on how to grow them
Even more about cover crops: CFAES experts helped write the latest Midwest Cover Crops Guide, and you can read about it, including how you can get a copy, here.
Cover crops: Cleaner water, healthier soil
More about cover crops: “Farmers who add cover crops to their fields not only can help improve Ohio’s water quality, they can also cut input costs and improve their soil’s health,” said a 2014 CFAES press release.
How Ohio farmers are saving, gaining with solar
Reporter Todd Hill writes about Ohio farmers’ growing use of solar power in the April 12 Mansfield News Journal. He talks to, among others, Eric Romich, leader of CFAES’s Energize Ohio program, and Crawford County farmer Rick Niese, who has 200 solar panels on one of his barns.
“As of now, we’ve never received a power charge since we’ve put these in, so everything is apparently doing what it’s supposed to,” Niese said in the story. “If we had to do it again, we would do it. I’ve talked to people who said, even if there was no help out there with the government, they would still do it.” Give it a read.