It was pretty well agreed that there was no way the winter blizzard that buried the Twin Cities and the Windy City and the Indy City was going to cause much of a problem for attendance at the 29th Annual Conservation Tillage Conference in Ada this week. As one expert put it, "Most of these guys need their CCA credits too bad not to be here." As expected a crowd of 917 farmers and agronomists showed up for the excellent agronomically-oriented agenda Tuesday and Wednesday. We…

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Malabar Farm is pretty damn photogenic any time, but for Christmas it can’t be beat. With snow headed our way, the park will be a postcard on Christmas Day this year. Even back in mid-November the staff and a crew of volunteers, who make state’s only farm park go, had the Big House at Malabar State Farm Park looking like Christmas was near and the Bromfield family was ready to put their presents under the tree. A big decorated Christmas tree stood between the railings of the…

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The Derecho storm system blew through our farm at 80 mph a few weeks ago and we are still cleaning up the after effects. Two trunks from a cheery tree 85 feet tall, each about 3 feet in diameter, lie like a pair of down telephone poles in the upper pasture. They took out the fence at a brace post. The fence is less than a year old and this is the second time a tree has fallen on it. Thankfully, it missed the new gate by a foot or so. There is a red oak across the north trail in our woods…

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Our neighbor came to the door recently to let us know a landowners group is being formed locally to negotiate leases for gas and oil well fracking -- should the opportunity present itself. I thought the shale formations of eastern Ohio had thinned out by the time they reached Fairfield County, but I have come to learn the Utica shale is present in our area and even further west. Recent reports indicate the drillers are finding plenty of gas in horizontal wells drilled into the Utica…

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Last July Moshem Amiran came to Maria Stein to show farmers and civic leaders his patented technique for processing livestock manure into organic fertilizer. Last week representatives of Amiran Technologies based in Oak Creek, Wis., returned to Maria Stein to unveil their plans for a 25,000 square foot plant to process manure from local farms. The company plans to break ground in April or May for what they are calling the Ag Conversions Ohio Grand Lake Watershed facility. When fully running…

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Farmers just about filled the new metal building at Dave Brandt’s farm near Lancaster  for a Soil Health and Cover Crops Workshop this week. There the apostles of Soil Organic Matter held forth preaching the value of no-till, cover crops, micro-organisms, year-round roots, earth worms, biotic glues and biodiversity. Demonstrations of water holding capacity for soils from various crop production systems drove home the concepts. At one point Ray Archleta, agronomist for the Natural…

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I spent last night in Celina working on assignment for the August issue. The meeting I was attending finished late and I got a room at the America’s Best Hotel along the shores of Grand Lake St. Marys. Before going to bed I discussed the lake’s algae problems with the motel’s owner Muhammad Khokhar. He has owned the establishment as well as the Holiday Inn Express across the road since 2007. Business a year ago was not good because of the lake’s toxic algae problems…

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Ann Mills, USDA deputy undersecretary for natural resources and environment, made a whirlwind visit to Ohio Oct. 21. Mills stopped first to speak to the Farmland Preservation Summit, organized by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, before heading for a tour of Grand Lake St. Marys.  I caught up with her and an entourage of conservation leaders along the way at Steve Robinson’s Farm north of Marysville. Robinson has about 200 acres enrolled in the Scioto CREP. Under a warm October…

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The Conservation Farm Family Award ceremony at Farm Science Review included a special feature this year with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. State conservationist Terry Cosby took to the podium to thank the agency’s staff as well as Soil and Water District employees for 75 years of dedicated service. Cosby noted that the accomplishments of the agency relied on strong ties between local district staff and farmers. He also congratulated…

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Pictures were taken by Ken Chamberllain, OSU Extension. Major damage was done to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster Thursday when a tornado tore a path of destruction through the campus of the facility. The center’s Research Services building, which houses the administrators, was the first to be hit as the storm touched down just after crossing the east side of State Route 83. Bill Ravlin, associate director of OARDC, was about to leave his office after…

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