Farm Bill Decision Tools Now Available

Information provided by:  Ben Brown, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice – Agricultural Risk Management

Producers have until March 15, 2020 to make a commodity program selection for the 2019 crop year. Producers will have the same program election for both 2019 and 2020, but may change their selection annually for 2021, 2022, and 2023. Similar to the 2014 Farm Bill, there are three options for federal commodity programs the 2018 Farm Bill:

  1. Agricultural Risk Coverage – County (ARC-CO)
  2. Agricultural Risk Coverage – Individual (ARC-IC)
  3. Price Loss Coverage* (PLC)
    *Producers may also have opportunity to participate in the Supplemental Coverage Option under the Federal Crop Insurance Program

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Assessing the 2019 Production Year

By:  Greg LaBarge, CPAg/CCA, Dee Jepsen, Ben Brown, Anne Dorrance, Sam Custer, Jason Hartschuh, CCA

The 2019 production year has presented many challenges. Ohio State University Extension wants to be responsive to needs of the agricultural community. A short survey aimed at farmers to identify both short- and long-term outreach and research needs of Ohio crop and livestock/forage producers based on the 2019 farm crisis year has been developed. Questions relate to crop production, livestock forage needs, emergency forage success, economic and human stress concerns. Since challenges and concerns varied across the state, this survey is designed to assess needs on a county, regional and statewide basis. The study will be used to determine Extension programming and future research needs.

Please consider sharing your experiences at  https://go.osu.edu/ag2019.

Field Drying and Harvest Losses in Corn

By:  Peter Thomison

According to the USDA/NASS (https://www.nass.usda.gov/) as of Sunday, Oct. 27th, 37 percent of Ohio’s corn was harvested for grain, compared to 62 percent for last year and 56 percent for the five-year average. Late corn plantings and sporadic rain in some areas are not helping with field drying. Some growers are delaying harvest until grain moisture drops further. Continue reading

FSA Reported Crop Acreage Update – Over 85,000 PP Acres in Wms. Co.

By:  Stephanie Karhoff

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released updated 2019 acreage data on October 10 disclosing the number of prevented planting acres reported to the Farm Service Agency (FSA).  Ohio had 1,563,240 total reported prevented planting acres.

In Williams County specifically, there were 85,011 total prevented planting acres (3rd highest county). Of these, 40,644 acres were soybeans, and 44,367 were corn.

PP Acres by County as of 10/1/2019

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What’s in your Grain Dust? – OSU Extension Seeking Bins to Sample

Information provided by Dr. S Dee Jepsen, State Leader of the OSU Extension Agricultural Safety & Health Program

As many farmers know, grain dust contains more than meets the eye. Moreover, the dust you inhale may also contain microbes, insects, and additional plant fodder. All of which are affected by temperature and humidity fluctuations. It is important to better understand what is in your grain dust, since many biological contaminants have been linked to health conditions like asthma and chronic bronchitis. That is why the OSU Extension Agricultural Safety & Health Program wants to sample your grain dust during a loud out period. See below for study details:
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Ohio CAUV Values Projected to Decline Through 2020

This post orginally appeared in the Ohio Ag Manager Newsletter

The Current Agricultural Use Valuation (CAUV) program allows farmland devoted exclusively to commercial agriculture to be taxed based on their value in agriculture, rather than the full market value, resulting in a substantially lower tax bill for the farmer.

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2018 Ohio Farm Custom Rates

Copies of the 2018 Ohio Farm Custom Rates Survey have been a hot commodity in the office the past two weeks. If you are not familiar with the Ohio Farm Custom Rates Survey, it is a publication released by OSU Extension’s Farm Office that reports average (or mean), range, median, minimum, and maximum custom rates. The 2018 survey is based on a statewide survey of 352 farmers, landowners, custom operators, and farm managers. These rates, except where noted, include the implement and tractor if required, all variable machinery costs such as fuel, oil, lube, twine, etc., and the labor for the operation. You can access a PDF version of the 2018 Ohio Farm Custom Rates by clicking here. To explore more farm mangement tools, go to the Farm Office website by going to farmoffice.osu.edu.

 

Managing Phosphorus for Yield and Reduced Edge of Field Losses

By:  Greg LaBarge, CPAg/CCA

A new factsheet highlights eight steps to reducing edge of field P losses while maintain soils for increase crop production. The Phosphorus Nutrient Management for Yield and Reduced P Loss at Edge of Field-AGF-509 (https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/agf-509) highlight practices that can be used to reduce edge of field losses of P. There are eight field specific steps to considered. Continue reading