Green(house) scene: Cutting-edge CFAES facility nears completion

CFAES’ new Controlled Environment Agriculture Research Complex (CEARC) is 75% complete. It’s expected to open in fall. And while that’s good news for CFAES and the scientists who’ll be working there, it’s even better news for Ohio’s big-and-getting-bigger greenhouse industry.

Continue reading Green(house) scene: Cutting-edge CFAES facility nears completion

Take your raised garden beds even higher

If your soil is dodgy, if your space is tight, raised beds offer a great way to grow—for lettuce, peppers, and other vegetables, to be sure, and also for herbs and flowers. You can get how-to tips from CFAES experts on what to grow and how to do it in A Complete Approach to Raised Bed Gardening (28 pp., $7.50), available from OSU Extension Publications.

How to build a weather-resilient farm

Climate change is happening. It’s happening here. It’s happening now.

That’s the message that Aaron Wilson, climate specialist with CFAES’ OSU Extension outreach arm, is sharing with Ohio farmers. He talks to them about how they can make their farms more resilient to weather extremes—to the warmer-than-average temperatures, unusually heavy rains, flooding, and more that Ohio is seeing from climate change.

“It’s not a future issue,” he says. “The time to prepare is right now.”

Continue reading How to build a weather-resilient farm

CFAES sustainability news, Feb. 28, 2022

White House science office to hold first-ever event on countering ‘climate delayism’

Washington Post, Feb. 24, 2022; featuring Kerry Ard, CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR)

Farmers in Senegal learn to respect a scruffy shrub that gets no respect

 NPR, Feb. 20, 2022; spin-off from research by Richard Dick, SENR

Get all the latest on conservation tillage

Wondering how climate change may affect agriculture, food quality, and public health? Want to learn how tile drainage impacts river flashiness? Or what kinds of insects are beneficial for sustainable agriculture? The answers to these questions and more will be discussed during the annual Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference (CTC), held March 8–9 in Ada, Ohio. The conference is presented by CFAES and other supporters.

Read the full story. (Photo: Reduced tillage corn, Getty Images.)

Keep your backyard chickens healthy

Got backyard chickens? Want to do all you can to keep them healthy? Check out “Top 10 Diseases of Backyard Poultry,” a workshop by OSU Extension educator Tim McDermott, DVM, during the upcoming Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) conference. McDermott will help you identify and prevent the most common diseases of backyard poultry.

Continue reading Keep your backyard chickens healthy

Register soon for OEFFA conference

Registration is open for the annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, which organizers call the region’s premier sustainable food and farm conference.

The conference includes CFAES as one of its sponsors, and some of its many speakers will be from CFAES. It’s set for Feb. 12 online and Feb. 17–19 in Dayton.

Learn more about attending the OEFFA conference.