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- Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame Inductees announced
- Ohio Congressional delegation involved in Farm Bill progress
- It’s half a ton, it’s on the loose and it wants to run. Stay calm?
- Legal tips for all purpose vehicle use
- May 2013 County Farm Bureau Round-up
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Lamb checkoff increase
Funds collected under the Lamb Checkoff Program are used for promotion, information, research and advertising of American lamb. The board’s expenditures for administration are limited to 10 percent or less of total revenues.
Drought causing beef prices to skyrocket
Wholesale prices of choice-grade beef have hit several record highs this week, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Market News Service. Prices are rising for a handful of reasons. A long-running drought in top beef-producing states, such as Texas, combined with a Corn Belt drought last summer, have cut hay and corn production.
Pesticide ‘drift’ cause of sudden tree devastation
The Ohio Department of Agriculture calls the phenomenon “drift.” Agency officials investigate about 40 complaints of unintentional agricultural poisonings each year.
USDA-certified sheep farm tucked away in Jefferson County
From the feed to the table, Barton's Barbados sheep have everything organic. This means they eat organic hay and eventually need to be butchered at a location with organic credentials.
Farm waste may demand return of biofuels
The process aims to transform agriculture waste, most of which would normally be discarded, into a renewable source of fuel.
Proposed farm bills would cut billions from current spending levels
Savings from both plans would come in large part from reducing funding for the supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which provides food credits for the poor — and phasing out the controversial automatic subsidies that go to producers of certain crops such as corn and cotton.
As you’re planting, remember FSA deadlines
You’ve only got until June 3 to enroll in Acre for this year. You catch a break with DCP and have until Aug. 2 to enroll in DCP (and yes, that’s after the deadline for reporting your crops).
Nutrient management workshop
Legal issues regarding manure hauling, as well as issues surrounding equipment inspections and highway safety, will be discussed by Ohio State University experts and others during a joint workshop and meeting of the Midwest Professional Nutrient Applicators Association June 11 in Findlay.
Food stamps and ice cream shaping farm bill in Congress
Fewer people would get food stamps -- and ice cream and cheese might cost more. As disparate as these morsels appear, they are related.
A New Kind Of Agriculture Replaces Intuition With Precision
The key is precision farming: the convergence of digital technology that allows farmers to apply just the right amount of fertilizer and water on their fields. Humans have practiced a rather crude form of agriculture for millennia: we douse fields to give them as much water and fertilizer as we think they need. Yet field conditions may differ drastically within a few feet.
Farm Bill Fight Over SNAP Cuts Previewed in Markup
Just as with last year’s attempt at a farm program reauthorization, some conservatives say the bill’s proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, amounting to $20.5 billion over 10 years, do not go far enough, while many Democrats say they are too much.
Legislators’ fix for Ohio deer season is rejected
The change would have added two days of open gun and bow hunting in early January, followed by three days of muzzleloader-only hunting. Members of the Ohio Wildlife Council, which approves Ohio Department of Natural Resources changes, bucked the measure in a 4-3 vote.
Rain may increase algae in Lake Erie
Jeffrey Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant Program, shared the data during an Ohio Senate Finance Subcommittee hearing yesterday. He said it doesn’t guarantee that a record algae bloom will spread across the lake as it did during the summer of 2011.
OSU gets new trustee
Porteus, 56, replaces Brian Hicks on the OSU board.
He is a board member of Nationwide and served as president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation from 2008 to 2011.
Livestock rules threatened by HSUS
Careful reading of the press release gives the real purpose of HSUS which is: "refining our dietary choices by switching to products that meet higher welfare standards; reducing our consumption of animal products; and replacing animal products in the diet with plant-based options."
Agriculture Phrases that Frustrate Me
Why are we getting so stuck on terminology, and who is “better” than the “other”. And, why are we so worried about everyone who does things differently? If we look at differences under the same narrow focus, does that mean that corn farmers cannot get along with peanut farmers? What about fruit and vegetable farmers? They are different…why are they not arguing over methods of raising produce?
Farm Equipment That Runs on Oats
Stephen Leslie, an artist and former Benedictine monk, guided two Norwegian Fjords down the field. The walking moldboard plow, a 300-pound curving steel blade, cut through the soil and sent it curling over itself in dark, crumbly waves. H
House Panel OKs Farm Bill With Food Stamp Cuts
The cuts are part of massive legislation that costs almost $100 billion annually over five years and would set policy for farm subsidies, rural programs and the food aid. The Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the bill Tuesday, and the full Senate is expected to start work on the bill next week. House action is expected this summer. Current programs expire Sept. 30.
Learning about farm animal behavio
Emergency personnel from as far away as Henry County and Cincinnati were at the Eastern Agricultural Research Station (EARS) near Caldwell on Tuesday, May 14, participating in Animal Agriculture 203, a basic hands-on training of farm animal behavior.
Ohio Ag Council announces 2013 Hall of Fame inductees
The Ohio Agricultural Council (OAC) will induct Shirley Dunlap Bowser of Williamsport, Louis M. “Mick” Colvin of West Salem, Bernard J. Scott of Tontogeny, and Doug White of Manchester, into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame during a special breakfast ceremony held in the Rhodes Youth Center at the Ohio Expo Center.
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Unveils Vision for U.S. Organic Agriculture
Vilsack announced a number of changes and new initiatives to support the continued growth of organic agriculture, including that the USDA's Risk Management Agency's (RMA) federal crop insurance program will increase coverage options for organic producers this year and provide even more options in 2014, including a contract price addendum as well as new premium price elections for organic crops.
Ohio's farm counties mystified as feds leave them off the map
Ohio, for example, has 88 counties. Most methods of counting, including those used by the state, the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies, come up with 48 of them as rural. The CFPB, however, is only counting 20.
U.S. Senate panel approves farm bill that expands crop insurance
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved a farm bill on Tuesday, costing $500 billion over a decade, that would expand the scope of the federally subsidized crop insurance program and modestly trim spending on food stamps for the poor.
Farm bill with cuts to food stamps splits Democrats
The House Agriculture Committee will consider a farm bill Wednesday that contains a $20.5 billion cut over 10 years to the food stamp program, drawing objections from committee member James McGovern, Democrat of Worcester.
Tn. Governor vetoes 'ag gag' measure over constitutional issues
He also agreed with state Attorney General Robert Cooper’s assessment that the bill is constitutionally suspect. But the governor also called on state lawmakers to revisit the issue. He expressed sympathy for farmers who say they fear “large-scale attacks on their livelihoods” from secret recordings.