“Working Lands” Forage Field Days Planned

Information Provided By Garth Ruff, Henry County ANR Educator

Join OSU Extension, Ohio Forage and Grassland Council, and your local Soil and Water Conservations Districts to learn about the Working Lands Program on August 20th at 4:00 p.m. at Sonnenberg Farms in Holgate at the corner of County Roud 12 and State Route 18. Topics to be covered include soil fertility, seed bed preparation, forage species selection, seeding methods, and more.

For those unfamiliar with the program, earlier this spring the Ohio Department of Agriculture announced a new conservation program entitled the “Ohio Working Lands Buffer Program” to establish year-round vegetative cover on eligible cropland in the Western Lake Erie Basin Watershed.

Land owners can receive annual payments for maintaining and harvesting hay and forage on land that acts as a buffer on cropland to provide another line of defense to filter surface water. Only cropland acres where sediment and nutrients have the potential to be transported from the field and enter environmentally sensitive areas are eligible for the program.