Shoemaker to speak at dairy luncheon

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Our West Central Ohio Dairy Luncheon will be held Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the New Bremen Pizza Hut, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Dianne Shoemaker will be present to discuss “Making Cents of Your Milk Check.”

Shelby County Master Gardeners will be holding the first of their Spring Gardening Seminars tomorrow evening, Feb. 20, at the Amos Memorial Public Library, 230 E North St. in Sidney, beginning at 6:30 p.m. This month’s topic will be “What’s Happening in the Plant World? Garden Trends for 2018.” Discussion will focus on new ornamental and edible plants for 2018, low-maintenance plants for busy people, garden resources, and much more.

There will be hand-outs, refreshments, a question-and-answer time, and great door prizes. This seminar is open to the public at no charge, and there is no need to sign up ahead of time. Just show up, as your schedule allows! And, yes, there will be additional seminars in March and April …

Have you considered Organic Production for your farm? Yes, there are costs and challenges to making the three year transition on a crop or livestock farm, but one of the best ways to learn is from those who have been through the process. Champaign County Extension is holding a meeting this Wednesday, Feb. 21, to address this topic.

A panel of organic crop and livestock farmers will share their experiences of the ins and outs of transitioning and maintaining organic crops and livestock herds. The panelists include farmers raising corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, pasture, and beef cattle. This will be an informal setting where you can ask questions you have about organic production.

This meeting will be held at the Champaign County Community Center, south side of Urbana on USR 68. Dinner will be available at 6 p.m. and the program will begin at 6:30. There is no charge. Please RSVP by Feb. 19 to 937-484-1526 or by email to [email protected].

Given the risks, it’s important for farmers to have written plans specifying how often, when, and where they’re going to place manure or commercial fertilizer, and to keep records on each spreading. Peggy Hall, OSU Extension Specialist in Ag and Resource Law will address potential liability that farmers have when applying manure to their fields at the upcoming Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference.

This annual conference offers the latest research and techniques on conservation tillage, which involves leaving the remains of a harvested crop on a field to reduce erosion, as well as topics including soil quality, managing fertilizer applications, and precision agriculture. The Conservation Tillage Conference will be held at Ohio Northern University in Ada on March 6-7. Check out the schedule and registration information at ctc.osu.edu.

To help Ohio’s farm families achieve financial success in today’s challenging marketplace, the Ohio Farm Business Analysis Program has expanded its capacity to serve farmers across Ohio: Four additional Farm Business Analysis Technicians are ready to help farmers complete an analysis of their 2017 business year.

By working with the Ohio Farm Benchmarking Program, you will complete a financial analysis of your farming operation that will help you understand where your areas of profitability are in the business. We will give you tools to understand the numbers behind your analysis and will show you how to use them to further your success. Finally, you will be able to compare your farm business to similar businesses across Ohio to see how you stack up to the competition.

The cost to complete an analysis for the 2017 business year is $100. You can contact Sharon Harris in Miami county at [email protected] or 937-440-3945 for more information.

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By Deborah Reinhart Brown

Ag update

The writer can be reached at the OSU Extension office (937-498-7239) or by email at [email protected].

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