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of Southwest OhioIssue 10 December 2012 $1.00

StandardWilmingtonNews JournalPermit No. 10Wilmington,

Ohio Post Office

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

4 Farmers backschool for grant

5 Christmason the farm

6 Will D.C. renewbiofuel incentive

7 OSU biogaswork continues

8 New, SmallFarm Colleges

14 Vet to makehouse, farm calls

16 Miller’s treefarm in 20th year

17 New farm bill toaffect farmers

18 Farm-to-schoolconference set

19 Amish Cook

1B Ladies rule onDeGroat farm

CORN GROWERSHAIL EPA RULING

EEtthhaannooll pprroodduuccttiioonn wwiillllccoonnttiinnuuee ffuullll sstteeaamm

By GARY BROCKand Wire [email protected]

WASHINGTON — A bushel of cornmay bring $6, but it may actually beworth its weight in gold over the nextyear.

And that bushel of corn’s value roseeven higher in late November when theU.S. Environmental Protection AgencyThanksgiving week declined to relax itsrequirement on the use of corn ethanolin gasoline, rejecting the request fromseveral states and organizations relatedto a steep decline this year in America’scorn production.

And while that is good news forOhio’s corn growers, it may not be suchgood news for the livestock industry,restaurants chains and probably con-sumers - anyone, in fact, that depend oncorn for food.

Continued on page 4A

By CHELSEA [email protected]

What will we be eating ina decade if there are nofarmers to replace the

current farmers once they retire?For nearly 70 years, the number ofU.S. farms has been declining,while the average age of farmershas been rising — it’s now 57years old, according to the most

recent U.S. Department of Agricul-ture statistics.

The fastest growing group offarm operators is those 65 yearsand over, while the number in theage group entering the farmingprofession is dwindling, accordingto USDA statistics. In 2002, therewere 674,968 farm operators 65years and older. By 2007, the num-ber had risen to 823,435 farm oper-ators, a significant increase in thisoldest group of farmers. On theother hand, in 2002, there were851,091 farm operators under 45years old. That number dropped inthe next five years to 732,322.

Eighty-one percent of farmowners under 45 years of age alsowork off the farm, according to theUSDA. New farms tend to besmaller and have younger opera-tors who also work off the farm. Ina closer look, the 2007 Census ofAgriculture shows a significant dif-ference in the numbers of farmersat opposite ends of the age spec-trum. In 2007, there were 54,147farm operators under the age of 25,in comparison to 289,999 operators75 years and over.

“There are not many new farm-ers - the replacements are childrenof current farmers,” said DavidDugan, the OSU extension educa-tor for Ag and Natural Resources.

One such replacement is ErikScott of Georgetown, who was re-cently named Ohio’s OutstandingYoung Farmer by the Ohio FarmBureau Federation. The Outstand-ing Young Farmer contest is de-signed to help young farmers

The next generation?As numbers fall,concerns rise forthe future of thefamily farm


By GARY [email protected]

With just a few weeksto go before the end of theyear, Ohio’s farmers canbreathe a sign of relief that2012 will soon be over andtheir attention can turn to2013.

In fairness to 2012,most farmers are now say-ing that, while the ex-tended drought this pastsummer was bad, and hada serious impact on manycrops at harvest time - itwas not as bad as somefeared and could havebeen far worse.

What now has farmersconcerned is the uncer-tainty of the future. Whatlies ahead in 2013 forOhio’s farmers?

Right now, as of the endof November, a lot ofthings that affect our farm-ers remain cloudy.

- First, there is the fed-eral Farm Bill. It hasn’tbeen passed, and if thereisn’t a resolution to thestalemate in Washington,all bets are off in 2013.That is because withoutthe legislation in place,

many regulations eitherend or revert back to ear-lier laws.

This will effect farmersand agriculture producersthroughout the UnitedStates and right here inOhio.

According to our“Acres” article in this edi-tion, the bill includes anarray of policies that influ-ence the price of agricul-tural commodities, ensurethe availability of food,temper the cost of farmingand provide for agricul-tural research and conser-vation. The 2008 farm billexpired on Sept. 30, butmany of its provisions willretain funding or continueto pay out until the end ofthe harvesting season in2013.

But the major worry isthe safety net that manyfarmers receive eitheryearly or when needed -farm subsidies. Will someor all of those subsidiesexpire in 2013 if there isno Farm Bill approved?

- What will happen in2013 with the corn indus-try and the ongoing needfor corn in the productionof ethanol? Just beforeThanksgiving, the U.S.EPA rejected a requestfrom a coalition of statesand special interest groupsto roll the ethanol standardback because of the cornshortage this year.

The EPA said no dice -the standard is the stan-dard. What that means isthat millions of tons ofcorn will still be needed in2013 for the production ofethanol. What isn’t knownis what impact that willhave on corn prices andthe prices of so many otherproducts that use corn asits base. Supplies of cornwill be scarce after theethanol producers take

their share. Will livestockowners take a major hit in2013 in the cost of feed?

- Then there is the pos-sibility of new U.S. De-partment of Agriculturerules regarding health andfood safety standards. Willthose change next year?Will there be increasedpressure on more restau-rant and supermarketschains to tell suppliers thatthe animals used for meatthey receive must have re-ceived more humane treat-ment than presentstandards require?

On top of this is thenew biodiesel tax incentivelegislation. Will it be re-newed? And the list goeson.

As we prepare to wel-come in 2013, there areplenty of questions fromOhio farmers about whatkind of year ‘13 will be.Will it be a great year oran unlucky one as the “13”implies? Time will tell.

(Gary Brock is Editorof ACRES of SouthwestOhio.)

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2A December 2012 ACRES of Southwest Ohio

Contact ACRES of Southwest Ohio:761 S. Nelson Ave. | Wilmington, OH 45177 | (937) 382-2574

ACRES of Southwest Ohio is published monthly by Ohio Community Media, LLC and is available through theGeorgetown News-Democrat, Hillsboro Times-Gazette, RipleyBee, Washington CH Record-Herald, West Union People’s

Defender and Wilmington News Journal. All Rights Reserved.Reproduction of any material from this issue in whole or in partis prohibited. ACRES of Southwest Ohio is available for pur-chase at each of the newspaper offices for $1/copy or contact us

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Please Buy Locally & Recycle.

of Southwest OhioDecember 2012

Publisher — Pamela StrickerEditor — Gary Brock

Layout — Jayla Wallingford

SalesAdams County(937) 544-2391

Lee Huffman, [email protected]

Brown County(937) 378-6161

Steve Triplett, [email protected]

Clinton County(937) 382-2574

Sharon Kersey, Ad [email protected]

Fayette County(740) 335-3611

Sherri Sattler, Ad [email protected]

Highland County(937) 393-3456

Mickey Parrott, Ad [email protected]

SubscriptionsBrenda Earley, Circulation Director

(937) 393-3456 [email protected]

Will ‘13 be lucky or unluckyfor Ohio farmers

GGaarryy BBrroocckkis Editor-In-Chief of Acres.

FARMING’SFUTURE, From page 1A

strengthen their businessskills, develop marketingopportunities and receiverecognition for their ac-complishments. Contest-ants are judged on thegrowth of their farmbusinesses and involve-ment in Farm Bureau andtheir community.

Scott, 27, farms withhis parents, growingcorn, soybeans, tobacco,hay and pasture. Theyalso raise beef cattle andoperate a farm marketthat sells all natural beef,according to The NewsDemocrat.

“The younger genera-tion is having a toughtime going into farming,”Scott said. “Some of thatcan be blamed on theolder generation if theydidn’t do estate planning.”

With no estate plan-ning to provide for thetransfer of a farm fromone generation to thenext, a farm may end upout on the open market.A research farm inScott’s area recently soldin the vicinity of $3,800to $3,900 an acre, bring-ing the total purchaseprice to $1.2 million.With banks requiring 20percent down, that’snearly a quarter of a mil-lion dollars a buyerwould have to have upfront to make the pur-chase. And that’s if thebuyer qualifies - some-

thing difficult to accom-plish for someone justtrying to get started.

“It’s extremely hard tobuy farms,” said Scott.“There are so many largeoperations competing forthe farms that they bringan outlandish price. Ifyou don’t have a chunkof money laying aside,you can’t make the downpayment, and mostyoung people lack thecredit history to get aloan.

“That’s the hardestpart - one person I knowtried to buy his family’sfarm, but he didn’t qual-ify for the loan. Therewent the hope of keepingthe farm in the family.It’s really a let-downwhen that happens, afterthe grandparents or par-ents work so hard to payfor the farm and developit, and then the childrenhave to see it go out ofthe family. They need toleave the farm in a trustor an LLC (limited liabil-ity corporation).”

Fortunately for Scott,his maternal grandpar-ents had the foresight toset up a plan to keeptheir family’s farmland inthe capable hands of hisparents, Frankie Stith-Scott and Fred Scott, andtheir descendants. Thefamily has its own corpo-ration, Walnut Farms,Inc., that owns the realestate. Scott, his parentsand his sister are theshareholders. The corpo-ration’s by-laws evenprotect the farm from be-coming part of a divorcesettlement in the future

as the shares cannot beowned by anyone who isnot a blood relative of hisparents, according toScott.

The farm is furtherprotected from being lostthrough the risks in-volved in its operation.Walnut Farms does notoperate the farm, butScott and his father oper-ate the farm under acompletely separate part-nership. The partnershipowns all the equipmentand livestock. In additionto the farm market forbeef, they are also in theprocess of making theirown brand.

“It’s one thing to buya farm,” Scott explained.“It’s another to buy itand operate it. If an es-tate plan is done cor-rectly, and you have away to get started with afarm, then you have tohave a way to operate it.To operate a farm takes ahuge amount of capital.A lot of people dive inwithout consideration of

market swings anddroughts. They plan for atypical year, but whenthat doesn’t happen, theyhave to make a decisionto either pay back the op-erating loan or maketheir mortgage payment.”

“People that have thepotential of taking overfarms are seeing moreopportunities elsewherefor an occupation,” saidBecky Minton, PeeblesHigh School agricultureeducator and FFA advi-sor. “When you considerthe time, money andstress involved withfarming, it makes sensethat the younger genera-tion is taking differentpaths for employment.

What is being done toincrease the interest foryounger farmers to stayin the farming business?Agricultural classes areoffered at many highschools in Ohio, but theproblem is that, fromthose groups of students,few of them are already“farm kids” and manyare going into other as-pects of agriculture,niche farming or are tak-ing a completely differ-ent path in general,according to Minton.Students have beentaught that unless there isa settled farm to be takenover, it is a very risky en-deavor and for good rea-son, she said.

“The problem I have,is what about theyounger generationwhose parents don’tfarm?” questioned Scott.“It ‘s very, very tough forthem to get started in

farming, but I won’t sayit can’t be done. Firstthey would have to learnthe practices and generalknowledge they wouldneed to be successful.”

Scott said he is stilllearning from his par-ents, and the experiencethey have is priceless.His father has spent hislifetime farming andworks at the local equip-ment dealership. Hismother is an agriculturalfinance major from TheOhio State Universityand has worked sincegraduation as a loan offi-cer with USDA. Theywent through a majordrought during the 1980sfrom two different per-spectives. His mothersaw the financial aspectfrom working with farm-ers going through thedrought. His father sawthe producer’s side.

“It would be reallyhard to replace their ex-perience,” Scott said.“They can ask the rightquestions - is this theright time to start some-thing new? Will the mar-ket hold? Theirexperiences are ex-tremely valuable. That isreally going to be whatsets the farmers in theyounger generation apart- will they be able to takethe experience of theolder generation andapply it?”

“What farmers do isessential and good, forthe community, and forthe future,” Minton said.“It is important to pro-vide support for youngpeople who are interested

in agriculture and wouldlike to begin a career inagriculture. Our wellbeing depends upon thosewho choose to produceour food products… Theimportant thing to re-member is not to dwellon the issue but find waysto turn the trend around.As an agricultural educa-tor, I feel an importanceto educate everyoneabout agriculture andwhere our food comesfrom; and a sense of ur-gency to ensure that theart of farming is not lost.

“It seems that Americahas lost sight of the im-portance of agriculture inour country and our abil-ity to feed the world,”said Minton. “However,when you look at all ofthe statistics and logi-cally look around at whatis happening in the U.S.,the future of agriculturedoesn’t look grim but isplentiful. On averageeach farmer in Americaproduces enough food tofeed 155 people, and onein seven Ohioans has anagriculture-related job,which is a huge increase,even in the last 50 years.It has been a tough cou-ple of years for farmers,but they continue to pro-duce a local, safe, afford-able food supply so thatpeople can still “talk”about farmers while theirmouths are full of food.”

(Chelsea Hall is an in-tern at The People’s De-fender in West Union,Adams County. Staffwriter Carleta Weyrichalso contributed to thisstory.)

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EPA RULING, From page 1A

But a member of theOhio Corn and WheatGrowers Association be-lieves that the news maynot be so bad for Ohio’slivestock producers. Boardmember Jed Bowers ofFayette County thinks thatthe supply of corn in com-ing months will be greaterthan the pessimists arepredicting.

This past summer’sdrought that witheredcrops led not only tohigher prices, but theprospects of less corn togo around to all thoseneeding it. Estimates indi-cate that as much as halfof the nation’s crop will beused to produce ethanolthis year to meet the fed-eral renewable energystandard for transportation

fuel. The federal standardmeans there is a mandatedquota on how much corn isneeded for the ethanol pro-duction.

Congress set theethanol year-by-year quotafor biofuels in 2007, andthat quota doesn’t changefor the variation in year-to-year corn crop yield.

“We recognize that thisyear’s drought has createdhardship in some sectorsof the economy, particu-larly for livestock produc-ers,” Gina McCarthy, anE.P.A. assistant adminis-trator, said in a statement.“But our extensive analy-sis makes clear that Con-gressional requirementsfor a waiver have not beenmet.”

To approve a change inthe standard, the agencywould have to concludethat the fuel rule would“severely harm” the econ-

omy, according to TheNew York Times report onthe issue. The E.P.A. saidit had analyzed 500 poten-tial market variations andthat most of them showedno impact from the use ofcorn for ethanol; those thatdid showed an average im-pact of 7 cents a bushel,less than 1 percent of theprice, it said.

A coalition of livestockgroups expressed frustra-tion with the decision, asdid the National Councilof Chain Restaurants,which says its costs havealso risen because of theuse of corn in ethanol pro-duction.

Bowers says he under-stands the concerns of thelivestock producers, butprices may not be as highas they fear.

“Corn growers planted96 million acres of corn in2012,” he said, and that is

one of the highest ever.“Despite the drought, Ithink we had a better corncrop than people were ex-pecting. Even with thedrought, there will be a lotof bushels to go around.”

He said some of thetalk of corn shortages is a“scare” and while live-stock owners were paying$7 or $8 a bushel for feed,he feels that won’t be thecase in the future.

“I think the livestockproducers will be OK,” hesaid.

Bowers, who is also amember of the NationalCorn Growers AssociationPublic Policy ActionTeam, applauded the EPAdecision. He said its im-pact will be huge on com-munities such as those insouthern Ohio where corngrowers provide thousandsof bushels of corn toethanol plants every day.

The ethanol plant inBloomingburg, for exam-ple, grinds about 100,000bushels of corn per day ormore at peak production.Bowers said the plant hasoperated lower recently, at80-90,000 bushels whenthe price of corn was muchhigher.

He said the EPA deci-sion is “wonderful for ourcommunity, for our marketarea.” He said the revenuefrom the corn productionhas allowed farmers to payfor updating their equip-ment and to hire additionalworkers. “All of thatmoney goes right backinto the local economy,”he pointed out.

The head of the Ohiocorn growers group alsoapplauded the EPA ruling.

“We support the deci-sion the US EnvironmentalProtection Agency hasmade to continue to up-

hold the Renewable FuelStandard (RFS) promotingAmerican-grown energy.Thanks in part to the con-tribution made by cornethanol and biofuels, ourdependence on foreign oilcontinues to decline, keep-ing billions of dollars inour economy. Energy inde-pendence is an importantgoal of our country and theRFS is a vital tool to ac-complish that task. In spiteof the drought, Ohio’s cornfarmers have helped toproduce the eighth-largestU.S. corn crop in recordedhistory, helping us tomaintain our path towardsAmerican energy inde-pendence,” said Ohio Cornand Wheat Growers Asso-ciation Executive DirectorTadd Nicholson.

(Gary Brock is Editorof ACRES of SouthwestOhio.)

Farmers nominate Clinton-Massie for education grantBy ANDREA [email protected]

CLINTON COUNTY — Clin-ton-Massie Local School Districtis one of eight Ohio school dis-tricts which received a rural edu-cation grant thanks to therecommendations of local farmers.

Clinton-Massie was selectedfor a $10,000 grant because of itsuse of technology in the schools,said Superintendent MichaelSander. �

America’s Farmers GrowRural Education, sponsored bythe Monsanto Fund, gives farm-ers the opportunity to nominate apublic school district in theircommunity to compete for amerit- based grant of either$10,000 or $25,000 to enhanceeducation in the areas of mathand/or science. More than 1,000nominated school districts sub-mitted applications.

After being nominated by

local farmers, school districtscompleted an online applicationand finalists were chosen by mathand science teachers from ineligi-ble school districts. Another Clin-ton County district, East ClintonLocal School District, was alsonominated, but was not a finalist.

The America’s Farmers GrowRural Education Advisory Coun-cil, a group of 26 prominentfarmers from across the country,then reviewed the finalists’ appli-cations and selected the winners.

“Clinton-Massie is honored toreceive this award. Our teacherswork hard to provide the highestpossible education to our stu-dents. We also are extremely for-tunate to live in a communitywhere our residents go above andbeyond the call of duty to supportour schools,” Sander said. “Weappreciate the recommendationof our community for this awardand feel that it is because of theirrecommendation that we moved

to the head of the applicants andwere awarded this grant.”

There were 176 school dis-tricts in 35 states that receivedgrants of up to $25,000, totaling$2.3 million from The MonsantoFund. America’s Farmers GrowRural Education started with asuccessful pilot in Illinois andMinnesota in 2011, in whichfarmers were given the opportu-nity to nominate public schooldistricts in 165 eligible countiesin those two states.

The Monsanto Fund awardedmore than $266,000 to localschools in 16 communities. Now,the program has expanded to1,245 eligible counties in 39states. America’s Farmers GrowRural Education is sponsored bythe Monsanto Fund to help farm-ers positively impact their com-munities and support local ruralschool districts.

“School districts were innova-tive and creative in their applica-tions,” said Deborah Patterson,

the Monsanto Fund president.“We are really looking forward toseeing the proposals come tofruition and learning how the stu-dents benefit from them.”

This program is part of theMonsanto Fund’s overall effort tosupport rural education and com-munities. Another program that ispart of this effort is America’sFarmers Grow Communities,which gives farmers the opportu-nity to direct a $2,500 donation totheir favorite community nonprofitorganization in their county. Farm-ers can participate in this programthrough Nov. 30, 2012 by visitinggrowcommunities.com.

Other school districts receiv-ing the award in Ohio areCrestview Local Schools, EasternLocal Schools, Garaway Local,Northeastern Local, RidgedaleCommunity, West Liberty-SalemLocal and Westfall Local.

(Andrea Chaffin is a staff writerfor the Wilmington News Journal.)

Clinton-Massie Local Schools are located in Clarksville.

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By GARY [email protected]

There is magic in the airduring this Christmas holidayseason. And there is no betterplace to enjoy the holiday sea-son than on the farm. Thereare plenty of special eventsscheduled around Ohio for theholiday season. Here is just asampling of where you can gothis month to enjoy the Christ-mas season on an Ohio farm:

THE NIEDERMAN

CHRISTMAS FARM

The Niederman ChristmasFarm is a free walk-thoughChristmas display. Visitors canenjoy tens of thousands oflights that illuminate the path.Fifty speakers set the moodwith Christmas music as youview life-size nativity and sev-eral Biblical scenes telling thereal story of Christmas. In ad-dition there are hundreds ofdecorated trees and live ani-mals. The walking path iswheel chair and stroller acces-sible. Free hot chocolate andcookies for everyone.

Free admission and freeparking.

• When: Open every nightthrough Sunday, Dec. 30.Hours are Sunday - Thursday– 6 to 9 p.m. and Friday - Sat-urday – 6 - 10 p.m.

• Location: 4972

LeSourdsville-West ChesterDrive in Liberty Township,Ohio 45011

• Phone: 513-887-0725.CHRISTMAS IN

AMISH COUNTRY

If you have always wantedto experience a country Christ-mas, here’s your chance.Berlin, Ohio’s Schrock’sAmish Farm & Village and Tisthe Season Christmas store areoffering their family-friendlyannual Christmas Down on theFarm celebration on Saturday,Dec. 4 from noon to 7 p.m.

Christmas Down on theFarm in the heart of Ohio’sAmish country offers visitors ataste of an old-fashioned coun-try Christmas. Sleigh rides,buggy rides and train rides willbe offered (weather permit-ting).

Other activities for visitorsto enjoy include Christmas cutout cookie decorating, makeand take ornaments for kids,and you can even decorateyour own gingerbread house.

There will also be strollingcarolers, a live Nativity sceneand you will be able to takephotos with Santa or Rudolph.

Refreshments will be of-fered at the adjacent shops in-cluding Tis the Season, TheBerlin Craft Mall, GrammaFannie’s Quilt Barn, BerlinLeather, Precious Petals,

Berlin Pets, and Quail HollowCandle.

Admission to the ChristmasDown on the Farm celebrationis free but there are minimalcharges for some of the activi-ties. Schrock’s Amish Farm &Village is located at 4363 StateRoute 39, Berlin, Ohio (I-77Exit 83 then 18 miles west onSR 39). Call 888-893-3604 forinformation and additionaltour dates in December.

THE CHRISTMAS RANCH

With more than 350,000lights, synchronized to musicusing state-of-theart technol-ogy, The Christmas Ranch“The Gift of Lights” display isa spectacular experience. TheChristmas Ranch sprawls overfive acres and includes a sce-nic drive-thru route whichleads you to a magical Christ-mas Village. Meander throughthe twinkling town and stop inthe barn for some hot choco-late before heading out towatch the Jingle Bell Show.Take a stroll through a forestof giant animated Christmastrees that twirl with 15,000

synchronized lights, or dancealong with dozens of Santa’sand Snowmen that bop andspin to the sounds of BingCrosby, Trans-Siberian Or-chestra, and traditional Holi-day tunes. A portion of theentrance fee to “The Gift ofLights” will be donated to theRonald McDonald House ofCincinnati.

Admission: $12 per vehicle,Buses – $1 per person ($12minimum) cash and creditcards accepted. Special admis-sion discount: $2 off for visi-tors who donate a bag of“gently used items” which willbe donated to Goodwill ofCincinnati. $2 off general ad-mission for visitors who do-nate a new toy to Toys forTots. Half off admission isavailable for members of thearmed forces on Tuesdays.

• Open: Through Jan. 1.Operating Hours: Sundaythrough Thursday, 6 - 10 p.m.

Fridays, Saturdays, and holi-days, 6 - 10:30 p.m.

• Location: 3205 SouthWaynesville Road, Morrow,Ohio 45152

• Phone: 513-697-2640FREE 513-697-2640

• Web Site: www.thechrist-masranch.com

EVENING CHRISTMAS

LANTERN TOUR

The feeling of a VictorianChristmas will be brought tolife for this evening lanterntour at Carriage Hill MetroPark & Farm, Huber Heights.Tour various candle lit stopsaround the farm while merrilysinging carols. Then join a pe-riod Christmas party and enjoya hot cup of wassail while vis-iting the farmhouse.

• Saturday, Dec. 8 - 5:30 –9 p.m.

All tours start at the VisitorCenter and run every 20 min-utes. No registration required.Contact (937) 278-2609.

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WILL D.C. RENEW BIOFUEL INCENTIVE?By PAUL [email protected]

Elements of the agriculture and en-ergy industries are watching the U.S.Congress to see if and when thebiodiesel tax incentive is renewed.

The incentive was in effect from2005 to 2009, and again in 2011.

During that time, reports the Na-tional Biodiesel Board, the incentivespurred biodiesel production to a levelexceeding one billion gallons a year andhelped increase to 39,000 the number ofjobs in affiliated industries.

That production consumed largeamounts of soybean oil and animal fat.Even french fry grease could be used.

The incentive was a $1 a galloncredit tax exemption, said Ben Evans ofthe NBB. It was such a boon to thebiodiesel industry, he said, that the pro-duction and revenue it generated cameclose to paying for the incentive interms of increased taxes to the federalgovernment.

The incentive “clearly works,” hesaid, and “we want to try to continuethat momentum.”

One problem, Evans said, is such taxincentives usually are temporary, partic-ularly in the beginning. Now, he said,the incentive has been caught up in “abroader political dispute” over federalspending, including the anticipated fis-cal cliff crisis.

This has occurred despite consider-able bipartisan support for the incentivein the House and Senate, he said.

The incentive created “a lot of plantsin rural areas with spinoff jobs. Now weare hearing reports many of the plants

are laying people off,” Evan said.Forbes Magazine has predicted as

many as 75 percent of those producersmight have to shut down.

The loss of the incentive “is reallycatching up to the industry and reallyhurting,” Evans said.

The NBB supports efforts to dealwith the federal budget, he said, but “itwill take a long time to deal with thoseissues.” The NBB would like to seeCongress take immediate steps to renewthe incentive.

“We think if it came up for a stand-alone vote, it would pass with flyingcolors,” he said.

Andrew Conley, program director forCleanFuelsOhio, agreed, “There isstrong bipartisan support for this (but)Congress gets distracted. … Tax incen-tives are something that are on the chop-ping block. … My personal sense isnobody’s going to move on this untilthey settle the whole fiscal cliff discus-sion.”

The soybean market faces uncer-tainty but is unlikely to be affected inthe short term, said Adam Ward of theOhio Soybean Council and Association

One reason, he said, is an increaseddemand for U.S. soybeans in China.

Another, he said, is the federalgovernment is requiring large oilcompanies to continue biodieseluse at a rate that will match therecord 1 billion gallons pro-duced in 2011.

That’s not the same, theBDD website says, as let-ting the biodiesel indus-try “continue tocompetitively pro-

duce” its products, which the incentivewould allow.

Evans said the oil companies are nothappy, but they are able to purchase“Renewable Identification Numbers,”which reduces the amount of biodiesel

they must produce. Those numbers, orRINs, represent biodiesel producedelsewhere. Buying the RINs lets the oilcompanies produce less biodiesel them-selves and the RIN sellers make money.

The Environmental ProtectionAgency has accused some companies ofselling fraudulent RINs that don’t repre-sent actual biodiesel production.

Evans said those “isolated caseswhere a couple of bad actors came inand took advantage of the system …don’t implicate the entire program. …We are working very closely with theEPA to make sure those cases of frauddon’t happen again.”

Ward said extending the incentivewould be a “win-win for the agricultureindustry … creating investment in newtechnology and growth in current busi-nesses.”

Because biodiesel is not carbon-based, Conley said, it is a renewableresource that produces cleaneremissions than 100-percent petro-leum diesel.

For more on NBB’s efforts toextend the incentive, visitbiodiesel.org/policy/fueling-

action-center.

“We think if it came up for a standalone vote, it would pass with flying colors.”

—Ben Evans, National Biodiesel Board

OSU gets grant to expand project to produce biogasBy OSU Extension

WOOSTER — OhioState University’s OhioAgricultural Research andDevelopment Center(OARDC) has received a$6.5 million grant fromthe U.S. Department ofAgriculture and the U.S.Department of Energy totest and expand a univer-sity-developed technologythat can produce biogasfrom a variety of solid or-ganic wastes and bioen-ergy crops.

Awarded through theBiomass Research Devel-opment Initiative (BRDI),the three-year grant willalso allow researchers todevelop technology forconverting biogas to liquidhydrocarbon fuels, withthe aim of further diversi-fying the country’s cur-rently available suite ofrenewable transportationfuels.

University partners inthe grant include Missis-sippi State University andthe University of Georgia.The project’s main indus-try partner is quasar en-ergy group, aCleveland-based companythat operates severalanaerobic digesters (sys-tems that produce biogasfrom organic waste) inOhio and Massachusetts,including one onOARDC’s Wooster cam-pus. Other industry part-ners include AgSTAR,Aloterra Energy, Ameri-can Electric Power, CNHand Marathon.

The project’s main goal

is to enhance the inte-grated anaerobic digestionsystem (iADs), a patent-pending technology devel-oped by OARDC andoperated by quasar. Thesystem combines quasar’scommercial liquid biodi-gester with a novel solid-state or “dry” biodigester.This combination allowsthe overall system toprocess types and amountsof dry biomass — such asyard waste, crop residueand lignocellulosic foodwaste — that the liquidbiodigester can’t handlealone.

“The iADs can treatand recover energy fromorganic materials with upto 85 percent solids con-tent,” said Yebo Li, theOARDC biosystems engi-neer who invented the in-tegrated system and thegrant’s principal investiga-tor. “By comparison, liq-uid biodigesters currentlyused in the United Statescan only process up to 14percent solids content.”

In the anaerobic diges-tion world, this differenceis very important. Biogasis produced from the solidnutrients present in thebiodigestion process, sothe more solids that go in,the more biogas thatcomes out. Another advan-tage of this system is thatit significantly increasesthe amount of biomass thatcan be fed to biodigestersand transformed into en-ergy, allowing this buddinggreen industry to expandand create new jobs.

The first iADs was

built in 2012 next toquasar’s biodigester inZanesville, and canprocess 8,000 tons ofwaste annually. Construc-tion of this system wassupported by a $2 milliongrant from the state ofOhio’s Third Frontier Ad-vanced Energy Program.

“The BRDI fundingleverages our 2010 ThirdFrontier award, expandingthe public-private partner-ship between The OhioState University andquasar,” said quasar presi-dent Mel Kurtz. “Work re-lated to this grant will beperformed at our energycampus in Zanesville —quasar’s largest facility

and proving ground foriADs development.”

The new grant willallow Li and collaboratorsto research production ofbiogas from three feed-stocks: yard waste, cornstover and giant miscant-hus (Miscanthus x gigan-teus). Giant miscanthus isa perennial warm-seasongrass from Asia that isgarnering attention acrossthe Midwest as a potentialbioenergy crop. Re-searchers at OSU SouthCenters at Piketon havebeen testing the crop’sadaptability to Ohio since2010.

Project collaboratorsRattan Lal, an Ohio State

soil science expert, andDenny Hall, assistant di-rector of the university’sOhio BioProducts Innova-tion Center, will evaluatethe nutrient-rich “diges-tate” left over from theanaerobic digestionprocess as a fertilizer togrow giant miscanthus onstrip-mined land not suit-able for traditional crops.

Additionally, ScottShearer, chair of OhioState’s Department ofFood, Agricultural and Bi-ological Engineering, willstudy biogas feedstock lo-gistics, including the useof a methane-fueled truckto both transport the diges-tate to the field and bring

the miscanthus biomassback to the biodigester.

The idea, Li said, is to“close an ecological loop,”reducing transportationcosts while improving soilfertility and crop yield. Tothat extent, Bhavik Bak-shi, a researcher in OhioState’s Department ofChemical and Biomolecu-lar Engineering, will con-duct a life-cycle analysisto determine the economicand environmental impactof the dry biodigestertechnology.

While biogas can beburned to produce elec-tricity or compressed touse as vehicle fuel, theproject will also seek toexpand its use in trans-portation by developing atechnology to convert bio-gas to liquid hydrocarbonfuels — so that it can beused just like gasoline.Scientists will use tech-niques such as catalyticreforming and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis toachieve that goal.

Another aim of theproject is to develop atechnology for pretreat-ment of lignocellulosicbiomass. Pretreatment, Lisaid, can enhance the “di-gestibility” of this bio-mass in the drybiodigester, leading tohigher biogas production.Another project collabora-tor, Zhongtang Yu of OhioState’s Department of Ani-mal Sciences, will studythe microbial communitypresent during the anaero-bic digestion of pretreatedfeedstocks.

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Photo by Lee JonesFellow educators, farmers and representatives from the USDA recently attended a day-longconference at a OSU branch campus to learn more about anaerobic digestion. Above, labtech Stephen Park shows off a reactor during the September lab tour.

By TONY [email protected]

Are you a small farmlandowner wonderingwhat to do with youracreage?

Are you interested inexploring options forland uses but not surewhere to turn or how tobegin?

Have you consideredadding an agricultural orhorticultural enterprisebut you just aren’t surewhat is required, from anequipment, labor, and/ormanagement perspec-tive?

Are you looking forsomeplace to get basicfarm information?

If you or someone youknow answered yes toany of these questions,then the OSU ExtensionSmall Farm College pro-gram may be just whatyou are looking for.

OSU Extension is of-fering a program tar-geted at the new andsmall farmer. The OhioNew and Small FarmCollege is an eight-weekprogram that introducesnew and even seasonedfarmers to a wide varietyof topics.

The program willteach participants how toset goals, plan, budget,and where to find re-sources available forthem if they chose tostart a small farming op-eration.

The courses will lay-out how to manage fi-nancial and farm records.Extension Educators willillustrate many differententerprises that can beprofitable on land assmall as one acre.

The educators willshow the benefits andpitfalls of each enter-prise so that the partici-pant will be able to pickand chose what maywork best for them andwhat suits their interest.

To round out the ex-perience, a bus tour willbe held around areafarms so that participantscan see first hand howsmall farm life works,and also make contactsof practicing farmers inthe area.

The Small Farm Col-lege was originally con-ceived as a way to helpsouthern Ohio’s tobaccofarmers make the transi-tion away from that cropas government subsidies

were phased out. OSUextension educators soonrealized such program-ming also could benefitrural landowners whoown small acreage in thecountryside.

Since 2005, past re-gional Southern OhioNew and Small FarmColleges have helped568 individuals repre-senting 436 farms from52 Ohio counties im-prove the economic de-velopment of their smallfamily-owned farms.This program can helpsmall farm landownersand farmers diversifytheir opportunities intosuccessful new enter-prises and new markets.And, it can improve agri-cultural literacy amongsmall farm landownersnot actively involved inagricultural production.

Many program partic-ipants don’t expect to

make a living off theland, but do want to re-coup something, said or-ganizer Tony Nye ofOSU Extension in Clin-ton County. First timefarmers want their inter-action with their land tobe productive.

“They like living inthe country, getting theirhands dirty,” Nye said.“That has been their mo-tivation for buying land.”

The New and SmallFarm College will beconducted at two loca-tions this year. The firstcollege will be held inPickaway County at theCircleville Fire Depart-ment, 586 N. CourtStreet, Circleville, Ohioon Wednesdays, begin-ning Jan. 9 throughWednesday, Feb. 27.Classes run from 6:30 to9 p.m. each week.

The second collegewill be held in Clermont

County at the OSU Ex-tension Office, 1000 Lo-cust Street, Owensville,Ohio on Thursdays, be-ginning Jan. 10 throughThursday, Feb. 28.Classes run from 6:30 to9 p.m. each week. Lim-ited to the first 50 regis-trations per location. Thecost of the course is$150 per person, $50 foran additional familymember. Along with thevast resources andknowledge gained, par-ticipants will receive anotebook (per each $150registration) of all re-source materials, a soiltest, refreshments, andthe bus tour. Registra-tions are now being ac-cepted.

Individuals interestedin the program may con-

tact the PickawayCounty Extension officeat (740) 474-7534 or theClermont County Exten-sion office at (513) 732-7070. Registrationbrochures for the pro-gram can also be foundonline at the followingwebsites http://pick-away.osu.edu or athttp://clermont.osu.eduand are available in areaOhio State UniversityExtension offices.

For further informa-tion contact Tony Nye,OSU Small Farm Pro-gram Coordinator at(937) 382-0901 or E-mail at [email protected].

(L. Tony Nye is theAgriculture and NaturalResources Educator forOSU Extension, ClintonCounty.)

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PIKE COUNTYAGRICULTURE SNAPSHOT

PIKE County – OhioRanked items among the 88 state countiesand 3,079 U.S. counties, 2007

State U.S.Item Quantity Rank Universe Rank Universe

MARKET VALUE OF AGRICULTURALPRODUCTS SOLD ($1,000)Total value of agricultural products sold 11,264 79 88 2,559 3,076Value of crops including nursery and greenhouse 7,775 75 88 2,005 3,072Value of livestock, poultry, and their products 3,489 78 88 2,598 3,069

VALUE OF SALES BY COMMODITYGROUP ($1,000)Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas 6,001 67 88 1,421 2,933Tobacco (D) 8 12 (D) 437Cotton and cottonseed - - - - 626Vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes 538 47 88 1,032 2,796Fruits, tree nuts, and berries (D) 68 88 (D) 2,659Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod 285 73 87 1,680 2,703Cut Christmas trees and short rotation woody crops (D) (D) 84 (D) 1,710Other crops and hay 680 63 88 1,900 3,054Poultry and eggs 19 84 88 2,175 3,020Cattle and calves 2,097 68 88 2,271 3,054Milk and other dairy products from cows 1,046 69 86 1,328 2,493Hogs and pigs 241 66 88 1,180 2,922Sheep, goats, and their products 25 80 88 2,151 2,998Horses, ponies, mules, burros, and donkeys 33 81 88 2,423 3,024Aquaculture 8 38 53 1,046 1,498Other animals and other animal products 19 72 88 1,792 2,875

TOP CROP ITEMS (acres)Soybeans for beans 10,105 73 88 1,710 3,060Corn for grain 7,860 66 87 1,090 2,039Wheat for grain, all 7,253 69 88 1,291 2,634Forage - land used for all hay and haylage,grass silage, and greenchop 804 67 87 1,700 2,481

Corn for silage (D) 12 35 (D) 281

TOP LIVESTOCKINVENTORY ITEMS (number)Cattle and calves 6,984 63 88 2,261 3,060Hogs and pigs 1,120 64 88 1,530 3,024Sheep and lambs 868 65 88 1,247 2,958Quail 862 56 88 1,577 3,066Horses and ponies 485 59 88 1,491 3,023

300

200

100

0

Farms by Size

Farms

Acres/Farm1 - 9 10 - 49 50 - 179 180 - 499 500 - 999 1,000+

Cropland47.19%

Woodland29.81% Pasture

16.81%

Other uses6.19%

Land in Farmsby Type of Land

2007 CENSUS OF

AGRICULTURECounty Profile

%2007 2002 change

Number of Farms ..............................................538......................505 ............+7Land in Farms.....................................80,636 acres .......83,602 acres.............-4Average Size of Farm ..............................150 acres ............166 acres...........-10

Market Value of Products Sold ...........$11,264,000 .........$8,289,000 .........+ 36Crop Sales $95,916,000 (79 percent)Livestock Sales $26,124,000 (21 percent)Average Per Farm....................................$20,936 ..............$16,415 .........+ 28

Government Payments.............................$931,000 ............$765,000 .........+ 22Average Per Farm Receiving Payments..........$3,998.................$4,297............- 7

Information from www.agcensus.usda

Economic Characteristics Quantity

Farms by value of sales:Less than $1,000 .....................................................................225$1,000 to $2,499 .......................................................................61$2,500 to $4,999 .......................................................................62$5,000 to $9,999 .......................................................................71$10,000 to $19,999 ...................................................................42$20,000 to $24,999 .....................................................................6$25,000 to $39,999 ...................................................................12$40,000 to $49,999 ...................................................................12$50,000 to $99,999 ...................................................................25$100,000 to $249,999 ...............................................................15$250,000 to $499,999 .................................................................3$500,000 or more........................................................................4

Total farm production expenses ($1,000) .............................11,279Average per farm ($)............................................................20,965

Net cash farm income of operation ($1,000) ..........................1,514Average per farm ($)..............................................................2,814

Operator Characteristics Quantity

Principal operators by primary occupation:Farming................................................................................................198Other ....................................................................................................340

Principal operators by sex:Male .....................................................................................................466Female....................................................................................................72

Average age of principal operator (years)............................................55.8

All operators by race:American Indian or Alaska Native ............................................................6Asian ........................................................................................................3Black or African American ........................................................................4Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander .................................................-White....................................................................................................745More than one race ..................................................................................1

All operators of Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino Origin.................................1

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By MARTHA FILIPICOSU Extension

HARRISON — A southwest-ern Ohio turkey processing planthas much to be thankful for thisholiday season.

Whitewater Processing Co.slaughters and processes 6,000to 8,000 turkeys on a normalday, producing about 2.5 to 3million pounds of turkey in anaverage month. The Kopp familyhas run the business since the1930s, and with 110 employees,wanted to stay put.

But in the 1990s, environ-mental concerns about the145,000 gallons of wastewater itproduces each day nearly sunkthe business.

Today, with a first-of-its-kindtreatment system designed by anOhio State University researcher,the rough waters have calmed.

And although the costs havebeen considerable — about $1million to build the wastewatertreatment system plus an esti-mated $1.8 million to operateand maintain it over the next 20years — the Kopp family figuresthe business will save at least$10 million over the next-bestalternative.

“It’s working very well, we’revery excited about it,” said RyanKopp, project manager.

In the late 1990s, Whitewaterbegan working with KarenMancl, an environmental scien-tist and Ohio State UniversityExtension water quality special-ist, after the Ohio EnvironmentalProtection Agency grew con-cerned about the company’sopen-lagoon wastewater treat-ment system, especially with the

Whitewater River so close to thefacility.

“It’s a beautiful river, and wedefinitely wanted to make sureit’s protected,” said Mancl, whois also a professor in OhioState’s College of Food, Agricul-tural, and Environmental Sci-ences and a scientist with thecollege’s research arm, the OhioAgricultural Research and De-velopment Center.

The timing was fortuitous:Mancl had just finished a studyon using a sand bioreactor sys-tem to treat wastewater from acheese-making plant. Thoughthat company didn’t followthrough with the system,Mancl’s studies showed bioreac-

tors provide an effective wayto treat high-fat, high-organic-matter wastewater at a relativelylow cost.

Whitewater’s options werelimited. The EPA first suggestedit hook up to Harrison’s munici-pal wastewater treatment plant.But the company would stillneed to pretreat its water to re-move pollutants that the munici-pal system wasn’t designed tohandle, and it would still have topay a premium to the facility.

The total cost for the con-struction of the pretreatment fa-cility, hook-up and use of theHarrison treatment plant over 20years was estimated at $12.5million.

“And it likely would havebeen even more,” Kopp said.“They had given us some esti-mates for future increases intreatment costs when we firstlooked at that option, and so farthe actual increases have beenmore than they projected.”

In 2001, Whitewater beganfunding research in Mancl’s labto determine if bioreactors

would work for the type ofwastewater its facility generated.That funding continued yearafter year as Mancl, graduatestudents and post-doctoral re-searchers ran test after test in thelab.

“With all of Karen’s work, weknew the system would workgreat,” Kopp said. “It was just amatter of scaling up to what weneeded for commercial use.” Infact, before treatment, the efflu-ent at Whitewater is measured atover 800 BOD (biological oxy-gen demand), the standard thatregulators use to measure waterpollution. Normal sewage has aBOD of about 200. When White-water’s wastewater is tested aftertreatment, its BOD is less than 5,and it can be released directlyinto the Whitewater River, withthe Ohio EPA’s blessing.

“The EPA has been veryhelpful through this wholeprocess,” Kopp said. “Very pa-tient.”

Whitewater’s bioreactor sys-tem covers 4 acres of land adja-cent to the facility. “If you visit,it looks sort of like a park,”Mancl said. “All you see are 12large rectangles of gravel, andgrass is all around them.

Continued to page 11A

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New $$ystem $$aves turkey plant million$$

Photo courtesy of Karen ManclRyan Kopp and Karen Mancl pose on top of one of the wastewater treatment bioreactors at Whitewater Process-ing Co. in August. The system, the first of its kind, is the result of more than a decade of Ohio State research.

“Under the gravel arethe pipes that carry thewastewater and spray it,underground, onto thesand. It’s quiet, there’s noodor, and even thoughmost wastewater treat-ment plants aren’t neces-sarily something you wantto look at, it’s not ugly.They plan to plant trees tomake it even more attrac-tive.”

One of the challengeswith the system is that op-erators must be sure thebioreactor doesn’t getoverwhelmed and becomeclogged, she said.

“If the sand was to getclogged, the research weconducted here at OhioState shows you need toturn that filter off and letit rest, and send the waste-water to another cell,”Mancl said. “Then the mi-crobes consume thewastes that have cloggedthe filter and unclog it.That takes about fourmonths.”

Mancl knows this be-cause her lab tested it.

“The typical loadingrate for a bioreactor sys-tem is about 1.5 gallonsper square foot per day,”she said. “We loaded ourlab system up with 6 gal-lons per square foot perday, and it took a year toclog the sand.

“Then we let it rest,and after four months, itworked just like a brandnew filter. You just haveto let the microbes workto consume the extra or-ganic matter that cloggedthe sand.”

The amount of waste-water generated at White-water requires the use ofeight bioreactor cells at atime. Whitewater is build-ing 12 cells to have thebackups needed to let fil-ters rest; eight cells arecurrently online and inoperation.

“Two additional cellsare 80 percent complete,with two more to go,”Kopp said.

Another concern withwastewater is the amountof ammonia it contains.

“There’s a differentgroup of microbes thatconsume ammonia, andthey grow more slowly,”Mancl said. “We’re work-ing with Whitewater totrack that now as the newsystem is starting up.

“It’s definitely improv-ing, but for now they’reusing a backup chemicalammonia-removal systemthat takes the ammoniadown to practically noth-ing. And, the system alsohas some standby la-goons, so if for some rea-son they’re not able todischarge into the stream,they can hold the water ina lagoon.”

Yet another concern re-garding wastewater is itslevel of nutrients, such asphosphorus and nitrogen.Although currently thereare no limits on nutrients

in treated wastewater,such regulations are defi-nitely on the horizon,Mancl said.

“We’re not just waitingto see what will happen,we’re trying to get outahead,” she said.

In research funded bythe Ohio Water Develop-ment Authority, one ofMancl’s graduate studentsis using Whitewater’streated wastewater to irri-gate greenhouse plants,essentially recycling thenutrients to fertilize flow-ers, grasses and other hor-ticultural products.

If results are positive,Mancl and Kopp can envi-sion a day when green-houses could be built ontop of the bioreactors oron another nearby threeacres.

Another challenge isthe maintenance of thepipes, pumps, controlsand valves that distribute

the wastewater.“Distributing waste-

water over such a largearea in a simple way re-ally hasn’t been done be-fore,” Mancl said. “Thetechnology and the typesof valves we’re usingwe’re using are new. It’s anew approach.”

Both Kopp and Manclbelieve such a systemcould work well at otherfood-related processingfacilities.

“But I think we werethe perfect place to buildthe first one,” Kopp said.“There’s a gravel pit thatsits right behind the facil-ity.

“The land we’re usingwas previously a junkyardthat we just had to cleanup. Everything was righthere. If you’re fartheraway from gravel or in asetting without acreage, itwould be more of a chal-lenge.”

But Kopp is a big be-liever in the system, andin Mancl herself.

Sand bioreactor sizewas a big question andMancl’s research helpedOhio EPA understand howbig the system needed tobe. Since most wastewatertreatment systems needfull redundancy to providereserve capacity in case ofshort-term large flows ormechanical problems,

EPA initially told White-water it needed to build 16bioreactor cells instead ofthe 12 they had planned.

However, Mancl heldan OSU Extension work-shop on the sand bioreac-tor system for EPAengineers that presentedall of the research on thisnew technology. The in-formation gave the regula-tors the assurance that thisdifferent type of systemprovided the safeguardsnecessary to protectOhio’s environment.

By reducing the num-ber of cells from 16 to 12,Whitewater saved$250,000 in constructioncosts.

“That’s the kind of sav-

ings that university re-search can provide,”Mancl said.

Anyone interested inlearning more and gettinga closeup look at White-water’s facility can signup for a Cincinnati-areaconference Mancl is or-ganizing on April 11-12,2013.

“Low-cost Treatmentof Meat ProcessingWastewater” is the topicof her annual 2013 WaterQuality and Waste Man-agement Conference.Registration is $200 be-fore April 1. Details andonline registration areavailable athttp://setll.osu.edu/pro-grams/owqwm_conf.html.

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Photo courtesy of Ryan KoppPerforated pipes to distribute wastewater are installed on top of the sand in a bioreactor cell.

Photo courtesy of Ryan KoppWorkers spread fine sand in a bioreactor cell at Whitewater Processing, Inc. The sand isthe heart of the wastewater treatment system: Microbes populate the surface of the sandgrains to break down and remove pollutants from the water.

Photo courtesy of Karen ManclSamples of wastewater before and after treatment from asand bioreactor system.

Photo courtesy of Karen ManclKayakers enjoy the Whitewater River at the point where treated wastewater from the Whitewater Processing Co. discharges into the river.

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By OSU Extension

WOOSTER – While ear moldis always a concern in late-har-vested corn, growers who findblackish mold in their fields oncorn husks may not have earsthat are infested with grain-dam-aging and toxin-contaminatedmold. Rather, the mold could bea variety that may only impactthe husks, according to an OhioState University Extension plantpathologist.

But growers won’t knowwhat kind of ear mold the fieldsmay be infested with unless theyexamine the moldy-looking earsand send samples to a lab fortesting, said Pierce Paul, who isalso a researcher with the OhioAgricultural Research and De-velopment Center.

OARDC is the research armof Ohio State University’s Col-lege of Food, Agricultural, andEnvironmental Sciences.

The concern for ear mold ishigher than normal for somegrowers this year thanks to thedrought, which created ripe con-ditions for the development ofthe fungal disease Aspergillusear rot in some Ohio fields dur-ing the summer, Paul said.

“Harvests that were delayeddue to excessively wet condi-tions in areas that were affectedby the drought during the sum-mer and had problems with afla-toxin are of concern sincedelaying harvest may also in-crease aflatoxin contamination,”he said. “Stalk, root and ear rotsmay also cause considerabledamage in fields waiting to beharvested.

“Root and stalk rots leaveplants weak and highly vulnera-ble to lodging, while ear rotsmay lead to grain contaminationwith mycotoxins.”

The concern is that drought-stressed corn is more susceptible

to infection by Aspergillusflavus, an ear rot fungus thatproduces a very potent group ofcarcinogenic (cancer-causing)toxins, called aflatoxins, whichcan be harmful for animals andfor humans if used in corn forgrain and human food consump-tion, Paul said.

Besides aflatoxins, other ex-amples of toxins produced inmoldy ears are deoxynivalenol(vomitoxin), zearalenone and fu-monisin.

But, just because the cornmay have ear mold, not all earmolds are associated with myco-

toxin contamination, Paul cau-tioned.

“Don’t just abandon yourfield if it looks dark and moldy,”he said. “Some opportunisticfungi grow on the husk withoutaffecting the grain.

“These typically leave the earlooking dark and discolored, butwhen the husk is removed, thegrain looks healthy and normal.If you see the ear looking ugly,don’t assume you do or don’thave ear rot. Pull the husk backand take a look at what is goingon.”

To know for sure, Paul said

it’s best to pull multiple earsfrom around the field to send into a lab for testing.

“Growers are concernedwhen they see these black ears,but if the mold is an opportunis-tic fungi, the ear could be stillgood on the inside,” he said.

Samples from suspect fieldsshould be sent to an approvedlaboratory to determine whetheraflatoxins or other toxins arepresent and whether they exceedthresholds established by theU.S. Food and Drug Administra-tion.

More information on afla-toxin testing and FDA thresholdsis available at:

www.rma.usda.gov/fields/il_rso/2012/aflatoxin.pdf

andwww.fda.gov/Food/Guidance-ComplianceRegulatoryInforma-tion/GuidanceDocuments/ChemicalContaminantsandPesti-cides/ucm077969.htm#afla.

Late corn may show signs of ear mold“Growers are concerned when

they see these black ears, but if the mold is an opportunistic fungi, the

ear could be still good on the inside.”

— Pierce Paul, OARDC researcher

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OHIO’S NEW CASH CROP:

AGRITOURISMCOLUMBUS (AP) — If

you’ve ever picked your ownapples or bumped along on a

hayride, you’ve taken part inagritourism.

But the concept has grown upas more people want to learnabout their food. That’s led tolocal-food meals served in themiddle of sunflower fields andclasses on making cheese fromgoat milk.

It’s about relationships, saidRob Leeds, an Ohio State Uni-versity Extension educator andpumpkin farmer who offers ac-tivities such as horse-drawnhayrides at his farm in Ostrander.

“Picking your own food,knowing where it comes from,and hopefully while you are outthere meeting the farmer - it alldevelops a sense of trust for

who’s raising your food,” Leedssaid.

No matter what form it takes,agritourism is growing in Ohio,said Julie Fox, a direct-market-ing specialist at OSU Extension.More farmers are inviting con-sumers to buy baskets of sea-sonal produce, help make maplesyrup or learn how to can fruitsand vegetables.

“People want unique food ex-periences,” said Fox, who leads astatewide team that is beginningto collect marketing and agri-tourism data. Close proximity tofarms also is fueling agritourismgrowth, Leeds said.

In Ohio, farm income fromagritourism and recreationalservices more than doubled tonearly $5 million in 2007 from$2.2 million in 2002, according

to the U.S. Department of Agri-culture’s five-year farm census.Agritourism grew to 2.1 percentof farm income in 2007 from 1.4percent in 2002.

It took Val Jorgensen a longtime to accept the “tourism” as-pect of agritourism. “This is def-initely not Disney World,”Jorgensen said about her 65-acreJorgensen Farms in Westerville,which she sees more as an edu-cation hub than a tourist trap.

“What I want to share withpeople is what real food is,” saidJorgensen, who grew up on aMichigan dairy farm. “My de-gree’s in nursing. So my focus ison health and sharing theprocess of growing healthyfood.”

Jorgensen raises sheep, whichprovide wool, pelts and meat.

She keeps bees, producing sev-eral herb-infused raw honeys.She grows fruits, vegetables andherbs and sells them to localfood companies and restaurants.But hosting events from schooltours to organization dinners toweddings “does balance thebudget,” she said.

Her Sunday Supper seriesfeatures seasonal produce andmeats grown on her farm orother farms just outside ofColumbus, prepared by localchefs and served in a barn orsunflower field. Dinner ticketsusually sell for between $58 and$75.

“I want to provide a place forpeople to be nourished,” saidJorgensen, who sees herself as asteward, not an owner, of theland. “It warms my heart and

soul to see people come out tothe farm.”

Visitors to Orchard Hill Bed& Breakfast can feed the ani-mals - including donkeys, pot-bellied pigs, llamas and alpacas -while staying at the 1850 farm-house near Granville.

“The latest count is 72, if youcount all the chickens and otherfowl,” said Don Jones, whoowns the B&B with AndrewKohn. The three suites at Or-chard Hill go for between $95and $155 a night.

Jones and Kohn feature localfoods and products, includingGambier Gold honey and TiltonHollow goat milk soap, at theirB&B. Kohn makes jams, whichare served to lodgers and soldonline and at a few local stores.


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TOURISM, From page 13A

The B&B operators co-operate with local shopkeepers and wineries tocreate package deals.“Wineries can be a hook”to attract well-heeledtourists, said DonniellaWinchell, executive direc-tor of the Ohio Wine Pro-ducers Association.

Slate Run Vineyard inCanal Winchester doesn’tdo tours, but it does offer

wine tastings and use of its“weinhaus” for events ofup to 125 people. OwnerKeith Prichard charges be-tween $150 and $550 forweinhaus rental, he said.

At Soine Vineyard inPowell, volunteers domuch of the grape-pickingin exchange for a goodmeal and glass of wine,said co-owner SandySainey.

Mockingbird Meadowsbetween Plain City andMarysville connects visi-tors with healing herbs,

sustainable beekeeping,homesteaders’ dinners andthe spirit of the farm, saidco-owner Dawn Combs.

Combs and her hus-band, Carson Combs, re-cently hosted a troop ofGirl Scouts from BaileyElementary School inDublin for herbal facialsand a tour of the couple’sbiodiverse farm.

“We like to do thingswith the girls twice amonth,” said Tala Rogersof Dublin, one of the momsat the facial table. “A lot of

our girls are familiar withdairy farms. This is an herbfarm, so they’re learninghow to use herbs for healthand beauty.”

Dawn Combs infuseshoney from the farm’s beeswith herbs to create heal-ing spreads. Three Mock-ingbird Meadows productsare poised for national dis-tribution.

“It’s very difficult to liveoff a farm,” Dawn Combssaid. “If we were just to behoney producers, we couldnot support our family. We

diversify our honey, and wediversify our herbs.” Regu-lar events also bring in in-come, she said.

At Blue Rock Station inPhilo, home of the “Earth-ship” - a house made ofmud, scrapped tires andother recycled materials -Jay and Annie Warnketeach visitors how to makegoat-milk cheese and usemud to plaster walls andbuild structures.

Visitors can trek sur-rounding hills with llamas,finishing their journey with

a “proper English tea,” orthey can stay a night in twocabins made of recy-clables, said AnnieWarnke. The Warnkes havewritten a dozen books onsustainable farming, basedon nearly two decades ofexperience.

“For me, it’s a wholeway of life, every step youtake,” said Annie Warnke,who started out in a corpo-ration, not on a farm. “Thegross domestic product ofBlue Rock Station is hap-piness.”

Dr. Carrie Belles hasjoined the staff at CountryView Pet Hospital, Inc. inWilmington, as a MobileServices Veterinarian. Dr.Belles is a Wilmington nativewho grew up on a small beefcattle farm just outside ofPort William. She was amember of 4-H, where sheshowed beef cattle, and wasactive in the WilmingtonChapter of the FFA. Shegraduated from WilmingtonHigh School as Valedictorianin 2002, and graduated fromWilmington College in 2006.

Dr. Belles earned herDoctor of Veterinary Medi-cine degree from The OhioState University’s College ofVeterinary Medicine in 2011,and was then chosen for thehighly coveted large animalinternship at Ohio State’sHospital for Farm Animals.Dr. Belles spent the past yearcompleting this internship inFarm Animal Medicine andSurgery, and worked routineand emergency cases withsuch species as dairy andbeef cattle, small ruminants,camelids, commercial andpot-bellied pigs, and deer.Professionally, Dr. Belles is amember of the American As-sociation of Bovine Practi-tioners, the AmericanAssociation of Small Rumi-nant Practitioners, and theAcademy of Rural Veterinari-

ans. Dr. Belles joins owner Dr.

Jill Thompson, and associateDrs. Patricia Haines, JimEimermacher, and GabrielleDeHart in a newly expandedhospital. The hospital re-cently moved from a lease-hold space into a brand newfacility. This complete petcare facility contains an ex-panded veterinary hospitaland a pet resort which housesluxury cat and dog boarding,daycare, grooming and retail.

Dr. Belles will be avail-able to make farm animalcalls, as well as small animalhouse calls, within a 60 mileradius of the hospital. The lo-cation of Country View atState Route 73 and Interstate71 makes it very convenientfor serving the surroundingareas. “We are so excited tohave Dr. Belles at our prac-tice,” says Dr. Thompson.“She will allow us to accom-modate our farm clients withlarge animal services, whilealso allowing us to expandour pet animal services to thecomfort of our clients’homes.”

Appointments may bemade for in house, haul-in,and mobile veterinary callsby contacting Country Viewat 937-382-7387. You mayalso visit www.countryview-pets.com for more informa-tion about this practice.

Submitted photoDr. Carrie Belles has joined the staff at Country View Pet Hospital, Inc. in Wilmington, as a Mobile Services Veterinar-ian. She will be available to make farm animal calls, as well as small animal house calls, within a 60 mile radius ofthe hospital, located at State Route 73 and Interstate 71.

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By STEPHANI [email protected]

In 1994, William Kingand his wife, Marilyn, de-cided to start a small poul-try business in order tokeep their five young sonsbusy in the summermonths.

“It backfired, though,”joked Marilyn King re-cently, “because it endedup keeping us busy afterthe boys returned toschool.”

When the Kings beganthe business it was housedin a 20 by 30 foot build-ing; in 2000 they added ona 40 by 30 foot space andsince that time, they haveexpanded it by three addi-tional add-ons.

“In 1994, when webegan, we were handlingaround 5,000 birds; in1995 we were at 20,000birds and have increasedfrom that number by atleast 1,000 each year,”Marilyn said.

King and Sons has fourfull-time employees yearround – William and Mari-lyn and their two youngestchildren, Levi and Reuben.Both Levi and Reuben areinterested in and investingtime and work to helpingthe business grow and be-come larger.

King and Sons PoultryServices slaughter chick-ens, turkeys, and pheas-ants; customers bring inwhat they have raised forprocessing and then pickup the finished product.They provide basicbutchering services and,for larger quantities, theycut up or grind for

sausages; all meat is vac-uum packaged.

Levi King explained thebreak-down of what meatis brought in by customersversus what is raised onsite; “About 70 percent ofour processing is customerorders and 30 percent iswhat we raise on site andsell.”

Both Levi and Marilynexplained that their typicalcustomers are individualfarmers with the occa-sional fair project in themonths of July and August.

“Our customers comefrom long distances for theservices we offer,” Marilynsaid. “We have folks com-ing from as far as threeand a half to four hoursaway with poultry thatneeds processing.”

Long time, loyal cus-tomer, J.B. King, co-ownerof King Family Farms withwife, Charlene, had noth-ing but positive reviews forKing and Sons PoultryServices. “We have been aKing and Sons customerfor about 12 years now,”J.B. King said. “We startedgoing there for processingbecause they were, andstill are, one of the onlyprocessors in Ohio thatwill work with the size oforders we bring.”

J.B. and his wife, Char-lene, are no relation to theKing and Sons owners, butown their own pork andpoultry farm, King FamilyFarms in Athens County,Ohio.

“Over the years wehave taken between 7,500to 10,000 birds per year toKing and Sons for process-ing and there has never

been an issue once withtheir work,” said J.B. King.

It is this guaranteedgood work and theirfriendly service that keepJ.B. and Charlene makingthe long, three-hour, 167-mile drive to King andSons 13 to 15 times a year.

“We raise poultry tobutcher and sell it to farm-ers markets in AthensCounty, Ohio, as well asvarious restaurants,” ex-plained King, “and we arenever disappointed withtheir work. I would recom-mend them to anyone whoasked.”

New customers areoften coming to King andSons because of customerrecommendations; accord-ing to Marilyn the com-pany does not do muchmarketing unless specifi-cally asked.

In 2001, Kings reallyopened up their potentialcustomer base by becom-ing state inspected by theOhio Department of Agri-culture; this allows fortheir customers to resellbutchered and processedproducts to farmers mar-kets in various areas.

“As part of that li-cense,” explained Levi,“we have an ODA inspec-tor on site, everyday, look-ing at every bird weslaughter.”

Levi and Reuben Kingwork hard raising theirown personal chickens aswell as processing whatcustomers bring in.

“We raise and processaround 25,000 of the120,000 birds processed ayear under our own brand-ing name, King Poultry

Farm,” explained Levi.The King Poultry Farm

products are sold at vari-ous locations such as gro-cery stores, Flower Barrel,Troy Meat Market, SunsetMeats, and The CoveredWagon.

The King and SonsPoultry Services is nowapproximately 4000square feet and has eightseasonal employees fromaround May to Christmastime. During these months,employees slaughter threeto four days a week and inthe off season slaughtergoes down to one day aweek.

From a small 650square foot operation to a4,000 square foot business,King and Sons has donewell for themselves in

building a name and a rep-utation customers arehappy to continually pa-tron. For more information

visit www.kingandson-spoultry.com.

(Stephani Duff worksfor the Troy Daily News.)

KKiinnggss ooff aann eexxppaannddiinngg eemmppiirreeFamily’s small poultry business grows by leaps and bounds

Photos by Anthony WeberOrville Hartman, of Brookville, picks up 6 turkeys and 2 roosters from Levi King at King’sPoultry Farm after having them processed November 7, 2012.

King’s Poultry Farm worker Nicholas Bohman removes theneck as excess water runs off while going through dripping.

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A Christmas tradition:

Miller’s tree farm opens for 20th yearBy CARLETA [email protected]

LIBERTY TOWN-SHIP — Thanksgivingweekend not only bringsa turkey feast, but alsoheralds the time to deco-rate for Christmas. Inkeeping with the tradi-tion, Miller’s ChristmasTrees in Adams Countyopened for its 20th sea-son on Nov. 23.

Offering fresh treesready to cut and freshhome-made wreaths toorder, the Miller tree farmhas become a tradition initself. Families return yearafter year to choose justthe right tree, bring it in tobe cleaned and wrappedby owner Bob Miller,then linger to enjoy hotchocolate and the warmthof Eileen Miller’s wreathworkshop.

“The trees look reallygood this year,” Eileensaid. “The drought didn’t

hurt the mature trees,they look nice and fresh.”

Members of theMiller’s family usuallycome in to help with thetree harvest and welcomeguests. The family hasgrown to include fivechildren, 19 grandchil-dren and 11 great grand-children. This year son,Doug, and his wife,Betsy, from Ketchikan,Alaska have assisted thecouple in preparing forthe opening of the season.

“When our guests ar-rive, we send the familiesout with a bow saw tofind and cut their specialtree,” she explains.“When they bring it in,we shake out any looseneedles and branches onour machine, and thenoffer to wrap it for easytransport. Of course wealways have hot choco-late and cookies readywhen families come in towarm up when they areall done. The parents re-member cutting their owntree for the family, but thekids remember the hotchocolate and cookies.”

For those families un-comfortable with cuttingdown their own tree, theMillers have pre-cut treesavailable. Eileen also

takes orders for fresh,hand-made wreaths andswags for Christmas dec-orating.

The Miller’s trees, pre-dominately Scotch pines,are hand-sheared in Juneand July to help themform the desired shapefor a Christmas tree. Thetrees in the four to eight-foot range await the fami-lies who harvest them fortheir home displays. Ac-cording to Bob Miller,with annual planting oftrees they typically have asupply of trees of theright dimensions for theharvest.

It takes nine years toproduce a six-foot Christ-mas tree. The trees haveto be protected from dis-ease, fungus, saw fliesand bag worms. Thisyear’s drought was toughon the new seedlings,with only about six per-cent of the crop surviving.

Every year until thetree is the right size for

harvest, the tree branchesare cut back to encouragea thick, even growth. Thefirst of June, the Millersbegin by trimmingaround the top of the

trees with hand shears,then whacking the rest ofthe tree branches with amachete. It takes aboutsix weeks, working oftenin hot weather andswarms of deer flies, totrim all of the growingChristmas trees. Treesthat are used to makefresh Christmas wreathsare left untrimmed theyear before they’re cut, sothe branches will be theright length.

The Millers will re-

main open throughout theseason from 10 a.m. to5:30 p.m. every day ofthe week except Mon-days. Miller’s ChristmasTrees is located at 1600Eckmansville Road nearWest Union. Their phonenumber is (937)544-2220, or they may bereached by email [email protected]

(Carleta Weyrich is astaff writer for The Peo-ple’s Defender in WestUnion.)

Photo by Rachael HamiltonMiller’s Trees opens the Christmas season in Adams County for the 20th year this week-end. Owners Eileen and Bob Miller (right) are assisted in preparations this year by son,Doug Miller, and daughter-in-law, Betsy Miller, from Alaska.

2337276

DiscoverHistoricHIGHLAND COUNTY

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UOCCOUNTYYT

On a recent stop in Hillsboro, the heart of Highland County, a visitor noted “this looks like the America I always read about”. From the 1842court-house that is still in use to the locally owned shops and restaurants the city has retained the flavor of small town life while being firmly

established in the 21st century. Within the borders of Highland County can be found a thriving Amish and Mennonite population as well as hightech companies that service the aircraft and auto industry. A high volume, automated candle works co-exists with locally made natural soy candlesthat are manufactured at their uptown store. Modern grocery merchants compliment the many local produce markets and butchers. Residents enjoythe best of modern life but in a peaceful, beautiful setting in the foot hills of Appalachia. From the city it is just a short, scenic drive out Route 50into the center of the county or from Route 32 it’s a short drive up Route 62 to Hillsboro. At the intersection of Routes 50, 73, 124, 62 and 138

the journey is a pleasant one that avoids traffic and congestion while enjoying the sights of southern Ohio’s countryside. The communities ofGreenfield, Leesburg and Lynchburg are minutes away from the main city of Hillsboro and each offer unique attractions for a day or weekend trip.Starting the day early could include a real country breakfast at one of the locally owned diners or a quick stop at the Amish bakery for donuts and

coffee. A day might include visits to the numerous shops in the county or a day on one of the two lakes in the county. Nightlife is relaxed andfriendly with a downtown theater offering local talent and a rural barn makes a great setting for nationally known blues and rock bands. Several

locally owned hotels and bed and breakfast homes offer low cost accommodations as well as cabins and camping at the state parks.Your weekend trip to Highland County might be the best value around.

More information can be found at www.highlandcounty.com

Only an hour from the city but a step backto the simpler days of small town life....

~ Calendar of Events ~

December 7th • Uptown ChristmasFirst Friday Event, shopping, carolers,

food and fun to start the season.Nativity display and petting zoo.

December 15th • Heritage Music Seriesheld on 3rd Saturday of each month

at Highland County Historical Society,151 E Main St. Hillsboro, Ohio 45133,

937-393-3392


By MARK [email protected]

Changes may be instore for southern Ohiofarmers with this year’sfarm bill, the legislativebundle of agricultural andfood policies rewritten byCongress every five years.

The bill includes anarray of policies that influ-ence the price of agricul-tural commodities, ensurethe availability of food,temper the cost of farmingand provide for agricul-tural research and conser-vation. The 2008 farm billexpired on Sept. 30, butmany of its provisions willretain funding or continueto pay out until the end ofthe harvesting season in2013.

For local farmers, thereare several substantialchanges that could resultfrom this year’s farm billdebate.

Since 1995, farms inFayette County have re-ceived more than $160million in federal agricul-tural subsidies, including$118 million in commod-ity payments and $28 mil-lion in insurance subsidies,according to data from theEnvironmental WorkingGroup Farm Subsidy Data-base.

Both the Senate’s Agri-cultural Reform, Food andJobs Act of 2012, passedin June, and the HouseAgricultural Committee’sFederal Agriculture Re-form and Risk Manage-ment Act of 2012,submitted in July, elimi-nate direct payments forproduction of agriculturalcommodities and enhancecrop insurance programs.The two bills would makechanges to more than 100programs, said SeventhDistrict CongressmanSteve Austria.

“They’re likely to makesome changes in how theydo it, but I’m hoping theydon’t drop the safety net inthe direct payments,” saidEric Keltner, director ofthe Fayette County FarmService Agency. “Farm-ing’s a cyclical thing,there’s good years and badyears, and I hope theykeep enough of those[safety nets] that if wehave bad years we cankeep farmers in business.”

Both bills also makecuts of about $6 billionover 10 years to the Con-servation Reserve Pro-gram, which pays farmersto convert environmentallyvulnerable land into pro-tective vegetative cover.The total acreage allowedin the program would dropby 20 percent over the nextfive years.

Local farmland enrolledin the program could beremoved as each 10 or 15-year contract expires. InFayette County, 550 con-tracts are ongoing, cover-ing 6,000 acres, accordingto the Fayette CountyFarm Service Agency.

Rather than engage in aelection-time debate overcontroversial food stampcuts included in that ver-sion, the House ignoredthe committee’s bill untilwell after the election, andhas yet to hold a floorvote. Several members ofCongress have noted thatthe bill will likely play arole in the end-of-the-yeardebate about the upcomingfiscal cliff, the automaticspending cuts and tax in-creases set to occur Jan. 1.

Austria said that themain hold-up on the bill isnot the agricultural policysections, but the debateover domestic nutritionalprograms.

“The big issue here isnot the agriculture side so

much, and I believe thatHouse and Senate couldcome to an agreement onthat,” Austria said. “Thehold up right now is thespending side, and most ofthat spending is comingfrom SNAP [the Supple-mental Nutrition Assis-tance Program].”

If continued, the pro-

grams in the 2008 farmbill would have cost al-most $1 trillion over thenext decade, with 78 per-cent going to domestic nu-tritional programs likefood stamps, according tothe Congressional BudgetOffice. The Senate billwould reduce that spend-ing by $23.1 billion and

the House version wouldreduce it by $35.1 billion,with most of the differencebetween the two due tocuts in nutritional pro-grams.

“Both the house and thesenate were looking forways to work more costefficiently within the farmbill,” Austria said. “We

need to be able to help[farmers[ with their needs,but at the same time beable to work in a morecost-efficient manner, withmany programs that wereeither overlapping or nolonger needed.”

The elimination of di-rect payments, which ac-count for the majority ofcommodity spending, willsave $50 billion over tenyears. Instead of givinglandowners and producersmoney each year for his-torical commodity produc-tion, the bills reroute thatmoney with $5 billion to$10 billion in additionalfunding for crop insuranceprograms.

Most of the $7.36 bil-lion in farm bill subsidiesused by Ohio farmers werefor growing corn and soy-beans. Much of thatmoney in Ohio and FayetteCounty would be reroutedinto revenue-based insur-ance programs.

“All these programswould be very differentfrom direct payments inthat they would only payout if something bad hap-pened,” said Patrick West-hoff, director of the Foodand Agricultural PolicyResearch Institute at theUniversity of Missouri.

The specific impact ofeach bill depends on thetypes of crops a farmer isgrowing, said Westhoff.

“With the Senate bill, ifyou’re growing rice andpeanuts, you’re not goingto be very happy, becauseyou’ll be getting less thatyou would with direct pay-ments,” said Westhoff.“We estimate that the netbenefits for the Senate billmay be slightly more thanthe House bill.”

But neither bill is veryclose to being made into

New farm bill to affect area farmersBy TRACY TURNEROSU Extension

COLUMBUS – Withthe election of 2012 over,it may be a good thingthat the forthcoming de-bate over the so-calledfiscal cliff of automaticbudget cuts and tax in-creases coincides with theongoing debate over thefarm bill, an Ohio StateUniversity farm policyexpert said.

The debate over the2012 Farm Bill involvesmany aspects of thebroader policy discus-sions currently occurringin the U.S., said Carl Zu-lauf, who is also a profes-sor in Ohio State’sDepartment of Agricul-tural, Environmental andDevelopment Economics.

In a paper written theday after the election, Zu-lauf said that while it isrisky to simplify the pol-icy environment in anycountry as large and di-verse as the U.S., “manyissues confronting theU.S. at present can beviewed as a debate overthe components, adminis-tration, and funding of aU.S. safety net modern-ized for the 21st century,”he said, noting healthcare.

“Debate is occurring

over both the form andcost of the farm safetynet, as well as whetherthe safety net should bedelivered through privateagents, (for example via)crop insurance, or viagovernment agencies,(such as) the Farm Serv-ice Agency,” Zulauf said.

“While entirely specu-lative, it is possible thathistory may reveal thatthe 2012 Farm Bill ulti-mately served to informthe resolution of the pol-icy issues surrounding thebroader U.S. safety netfor the 21st century.”

Movement on the2012 Farm Bill stalledwhen the Republican con-trolled House and Demo-cratic-led Senatedisagreed on key farm billprovisions including theamount of cuts to thefood stamp program andthe shape of Title 1 farmsafety net programs.

Zulauf said that whilenumerous paths exist forthe farm bill debate, thetwo most prominentlydiscussed are a short termextension of the 2008Farm Bill that couldrange from severalmonths to a year in lengthand passage of a compro-mise version of the exist-ing House and Senatedrafts of the 2012 Farm

Bill. “Which path is taken

will depend upon the de-bate over the broader pol-icy direction,” he said.“The willingness to com-promise on differences inthe existing farm billdrafts, and assessments ofthe impacts of potentialchanges in the budgetbaseline and how changesin the membership of theHouse and Senate withthe seating of a new Con-gress might impact theprocess of passing a farmbill next year.”

Zulauf also speculatesthat the drought of 2012,which devastated growersand producers across thecountry, particularly inthe Midwest includingOhio, will lead to ad hocdisaster assistance forlivestock producers, givenmuch higher feed prices.

“It is likely that cuts inspending on farm pro-grams are likely in anyso-called grand agree-ment to address the fiscalcliff,” he said. “These cutsmight exceed thoseagreed to in the farm bill,or the farm bill might bewritten to accommodatethe size of these cuts.

“In short, the debateover the farm bill is inter-twined with the debateover the fiscal cliff.”

Debates crop up over farm bill


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law, and Congress may need toemploy a stopgap extension ofthe 2008 farm bill to push the de-bate into 2013. If no replacementor extension is passed before theend of December, some policieswill revert back to “permanentlaw,” a collection of farm policies

written in the 1940s that have lit-tle relation to today’s market.

The reversion to permanentlaw would require the govern-ment to buy commodities tomaintain commodity prices wellabove modern market prices.Diary provisions stop applyingat the end of December, so milkwould be the first commodity af-fected and could double in price.

“Diary is the first crisis if

nothing passes,” Westhoff said.“It wouldn’t happen on Jan. 1,but eventually you would get towhere that would be the case.”

Although the federal inter-vention would help diary farm-ers in the short run, it woulddisrupt the marketing of milkand likely hurt them in the longrun, said Westhoff. The negativeimpact on the commodities mar-ket and the exorbitant cost to the

government will probably en-courage lawmakers to find a so-lution by the end of the year.

“Most people think thatsomething will be figured out,”Westhoff said.

Austria said that the Senate ispushing for a five-year extensionand the House is working to-wards a one-year extension.

“I’m going to be a strong ad-vocate to move the agriculture

bill forward, which is very impor-tant for our farmers,” said Aus-tria. “My hope is that we wouldtake the savings from the farmbill and put it towards reducingour debt, which in turn will bringmore certainty to our farmers andproducers who are working in theagriculture business.”

(Mark Fahey is a staff writerfor The Record-Herald in Wash-ington Court House.)

FARM BILL, From page 17A

By TRACY TURNEROSU Extension

COLUMBUS – More than250 farmers, producers,educators, school food

service professionals, businessleaders and Ohio State Univer-sity Extension experts are ex-pected to attend a statewideconference on the Farm toSchool program, with a goal tocontinue to get more fresh, lo-cally grown and producedfoods into more school cafete-rias.

OSU Extension will hostthe Farm to School conferenceMarch 13, as part of an effortto continue to expand the suc-cessful program, which worksto increase students’ access tohealthy foods and to help themlearn more about food, health,nutrition and agriculture.

Farm to School is a nationalprogram, which in Ohio is ledby OSU Extension and is sup-ported by numerous agencies,

foundations and industry or-ganizations. OSU Extension isthe outreach arm of Ohio StateUniversity’s College of Food,Agricultural, and Environmen-tal Sciences.

“The dynamic part of thisconference is that it brings to-gether all types of leaders in-volved in making pre-Kthrough college Farm toSchool programs work acrossthe state,” said Julie Fox, di-rector of Ohio State’s Farm toSchool program.

The conference theme is“Let’s Grow Farm to School,”and will feature keynote pre-sentations, 10 breakout ses-sions, a curriculum showcaseand other displays designed toshowcase opportunities farm-ers, schools and communityleaders have to work togetherto increase students’ access tohealthy foods.

In addition, there will alsobe plenty of networking oppor-tunities, she said.

Sessions will include:School Food Procurement, Op-portunities for Food ServiceBuyers and Ohio FarmersForming Farm to School Part-nerships Food Safety SchoolGardens Finding Farm toSchool Funding and ResourcesWhy Farm to School Market-ing Farm to School

“The objective of the con-ference is to provide educationfor those interested in initiat-ing or expanding a Farm toSchool program and to provideconnections to build andstrengthen program networks,”Fox said. “The conference isalso designed to support par-

ticipants as theymake a difference intheir communitiesand to provide oppor-tunities to unite profes-sionals and theirperspectives on food, healthor agriculture.”

In addition to providingyoung people with fresh, localfood, Farm to School alsohelps them understand wheretheir food comes from andhow food choices affect theirhealth, environment and com-munity.

The Farm to School Advi-sory Group is finalizing con-ference details and acceptingconference sponsors, Fox said.Registration information willbe available on the conferencewebsite athttp://go.osu.edu/Farm-ToSchool.

For more information onOhio’s Farm to School pro-gram, visit http://farm-toschool.osu.edu.

March event will focus on teaming farmers with local schools

‘FARM TO SCHOOL’ CONFERENCE PLANNED

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graham crackersBeat together cream cheese and

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The Amish Cook

BY LOVINA EICHER

I hope everyone had a happy,healthy, and blessed Thanksgivingholiday. Hard to believe there's onlya month left before 2012 is history.

I thought I'd share a few favoriterecipes from our family that youmight enjoy during the upcomingChristmas season. Try these three!

For more recipes, Amish stories, and videos visitamishcookonline.com and sign upfor the free twice-weekly newsletter.

1 cup shortening2 cups white sugar2 eggs1/2 cup cream or milk1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt1 tablespoon lemon extract1 tablespoon vanilla5 cups flour

4 cups granulated sugar1/4 cup light corn syrup1/2 teaspoon salt3/4 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup water1/3 cup chunk-style peanut

butter1 teaspoon vanilla

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ESCAPE EDGE

Issue 10 December 2012 1B

of Southwest Ohio

BSection

An Early Start, A Strong FinishWOMEN ON THE FARM:

Amanda DeGroat’s family farm rises from ashes stronger than ever

By PAT [email protected]

Like any successful stockbroker, Amanda DeGroatlives by her phone, starts

the day by studying the markets,contacts buyers and sellers andmakes educated bets on commod-ity futures. However, Amanda is acattle woman, not a Wall Streettrader and the stock she trades iseating and sleeping not far fromher back door. She says, “We al-ways have about 350 head on theproperty and we feed about athousand cattle here every year.”

The DeGroat family owns andoperates Hidden Acres Farm, abeef feedlot that contracts directlywith packers to produce and pur-chase beef feeder-cattle until theyare “finished,” ready to becomehigh quality, well-marbled cuts ofmeat for the table. Amanda man-ages most of the financial side oftheir enterprise, buying and sell-

ing, and assists with a variety ofthe farm responsibilities, like vac-cinations, tagging and transport.She says, “We have a 30’ stocktrailer that I haul. It holds 15-18head of 800 pound cattle. For abigger load, we use a doubledecker with a semi.”

Amanda grew up in Farm-ersville, where her parents stilllive, showing cattle and hogs.Back then, Jason’s family haddairy cattle. Amanda says, “Heand I intended to get married afterI graduated from high school, butI postponed the wedding untilafter the Fair just so I could showmy cattle!” Although Amandacontinued her education andworked for 15 years managingdoctor’s offices, she remained anactive partner in the family farm.“I milked until the day I deliveredand was back milking three daysafterward!”

Continued on page 2B

Amanda DeGroat and her family operate Hidden Acres Farm in Germantown, shown above, a beeffeedlot that contracts directly with packers to produce and purchase beef feeder-cattle until they are“finished,” ready to become high quality, well-marbled cuts of meat for the table.

Amanda DeGroat, right, and her mother-in-law Rita DeGroat are vital partners in their family farmbusiness. They are shown at right with the farm’slivestock trailer. Amanda poses below beside thechute entry for the farm’s cattle.Photos by Pat Lawrence

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2B December 2012 ACRES of Southwest Ohio

DeGROATS, From page 1B

She says, “When dairyprices began dropping, westarted looking at businessopportunities. We’d alwayshad freezer beef, and whenwe realized how profitableour production of about 50head had been, we beganthe transition to beef cat-tle. We decided on thefeedlot because of the wayour property is laid out.”Jason and Amanda havebeen married 18 years andhave a 16 year old son and13 year old daughter whostill enjoy showing cattlecompetitively.

Hidden Acres is one ofabout 450 beef cattle feed-lots in Ohio, and like most,it’s also a family farm.Rita, Amanda’s mother-in-law, lost her husbandClarence, three years ago,but she has been an inte-gral part of the family en-terprise for over 40 years.According to Amanda,“She used to do all themilking!” Rita has been

farming in partnershipwith Amanda and Jasonfor over twenty years. Shestill provides insight andadvice, handles bookkeep-ing and receivables andmakes a home-cookedlunch for everyone on thefarm each workday.Amanda’s husband, Jason,manages the crops andfarming operations withthe assistance of Amanda’sbrother Steven Ward, theirfull time Farm Manager.Dustin Barnes is the Feed-yard Manager. Amandasays, “Every business de-cision, we make as agroup.”

According to theUSDA, cattle and beefproduction represent thelargest single segment ofAmerican agriculture. Ofthe 2.2 million farms inthe US, 31 percent areclassified as beef cattle op-erations, more than anyother type of farm. The in-dustry is roughly dividedinto two production sec-tors: cow-calf operationsor cattle feeding, like Hid-den Acres.

Amanda says, “We feedtwice a day. It can take 90to 300 days, depending onthe animal’s weight atplacement, feeding condi-tions and desired finish.We try to raise the kind ofbeef that we would serveon our own table.” Shesays cattle owners choosecustom feeding to main-tain or expand their cattleproduction as well as otherreasons. “If the market ishigh, people often sendtheir cattle to the stockyard; when it’s low, theyoften contact us.

Cattle can only be on atrailer 14-16 hours and anowner may not be near astockyard or have the fa-cilities or hauling capacityneeded for finishing cattle.This year’s drought wasproblematic for many. Weprovide feed, facilities andlabor while owners savethe expense of customfeeding and take advan-tage of favorable marketsituations. We raise fresh,hormone and antibiotic-free beef so when thehomemakers purchase it

from the grocery, they cansee and taste the quality!”

Amanda says they buycattle in groups of 10 ormore directly from farmsthey have visited in Ohio,Indiana, West Virginia andKentucky. “Hauling is in-cluded in our bid price.And, I drive over to UnionStockyards in Hillsboroabout once a week to ful-fill our needs. The cattle inthat area perform verywell. We buy from sellersthat operate with humaneanimal standards and pro-mote health. We get cattlein at least three times aweek. Every animal is keptunder shelter, about 40 perbuilding, with adequateventilation and space sothe cattle and their bed-ding stays dry. Each ani-mal is tagged and recordedin a computer program fortracing them. If there’sever a problem, we knowwhere each animal camefrom and where it went.”

Amanda spends thefirst part of every day onthe computer, checking themarkets, looking at cattleand feeder prices and graintrades. “I watch the agri-cultural market on RuralTV to see how pricesended yesterday and wherethey’re predicted to go.When we’re ready to sell,we’re looking at the futureprice. We guarantee the

price of our cattle a month,or even a year, ahead. For800-pound animals, apenny per pound is amajor change. It’s alwaysa gamble but that’s whatfarmers do every day –gamble! Life is full of de-cisions.” Amanda seems tohave handled them with acool head. She has con-tracts for every month tillOctober 2013, two loadsfor some months. Eachload is 49,000 pounds or40 head of finished cattle.She says, “You must becomfortable with what youcan buy them at and whatyou can sell them at. Youcan’t be greedy.”

The family also farms1100 acres of corn, soy-beans and wheat, kept wellfertilized. “Waste is gath-ered with a bobcat. Wehave a manure storage fa-cility, so when the weatheris good in summer andfall, we have it ready tospread.” Without a breeze,the malodorous side effectof fresh waste is surpris-ingly localized to thebuildings which actuallyhold cattle.

Neatly placed grainbins, tractors and graincarts among the eightbuildings make HiddenAcres look like any familyfarm. And, the animalsthemselves are so quiet asto be barely noticeable.

Amanda says, “Confinedcattle are very differentfrom range cattle. They’reaccustomed to people,some, but their thoughtprocesses are different.They do require a specialway of handling. You mustalways move slowly, qui-etly, calmly, not to rilethem up.”

The comfortably famil-iar pattern of the De-Groat’s life went up inflames three years ago.Amanda says, “We wereshowing cattle at the Fairwhen our home caughtfire. We lost everything.The homestead was so old,it only took about 45 min-utes for it to go. We weredevastated.”

The young familymoved in with Rita to startrebuilding. Amanda says,“We realized living to-gether worked very wellfor us, so we stayed andadded space here, justacross the road from theold house. There’s roomfor all of us - plus six dogsand four cats. It still worksvery well for us.” Ritaworks mostly out of theoffice in the center of thehouse, Amanda works byphone from wherever sheneeds to be that day. “I al-ways keep an extracharger!”

Amanda says the firetaught them that, “Stuff isjust stuff. It’s not whatmatters. The hardest partfor the kids was losing alltheir trophies. For me, itwas losing our family pic-tures.”

For fun, she says, “Weshow cattle in the winterand go boating in Ten-nessee in the summer. Wedon’t have problems, re-ally. What we’ve done sofar has been profitable andafter eight years, thingsrun pretty smoothly. Westay busy with the farmand the kids but everythingwe do, we do as a family.”

(Pat Lawrence is a con-tributor to Acres of South-west Ohio.)

6-8 pound brisket1 sliced onion1 jar salsa½ can cola½ cup ketchupliquid smokeRub brisket with cumin, brown sugar, salt and

pepper. Place prepared meat covered with slicedonion on the roasting rack inside a large roastingpan. Cover. Bake 14 hours at 250 degrees. Removebrisket. Add cola, ketchup and a splash of liquidsmoke for savory gravy sauce. May also be pre-pared in a crockpot, on low for 14 hours if brisketis cooked on slightly elevated rack in crockpot.

DeGroats Tender Lovin’Christmas Brisket

Amanda and Rita DeGroat, shown at their home, and the whole DeGroat family enjoy livingunder one roof.

By FAYE [email protected]

The weather continuesto amaze me. The morn-ings are frosty and downright cold and the after-noons are sunny andwarm. But as soon as thesun goes down the coatand gloves are a must! Wehave been trying to takeadvantage of the comfort-able working conditions inthe afternoon to finish upsome outdoor projects andsplit wood for the wood-stove. I obsess over howmuch wood is split andhow much “kindling” Ihave stored away.

Last week I startedcombing through the cata-logs trying to come upwith my “wish list” for ourson. My list (so far) in-cludes: Mushroom Kit(Grow a variety of mush-rooms right on yourkitchen counter), “WhatTree is That?” applicationfor smart phones (leadsyou through the basiccharacteristics of the treeto help you identify it), aBirdSong Identiflyer(helps you identify birdsand their songs), and TreeTubes for my newest addi-tions to our woods.

I really enjoy lookingthrough all the catalogsand have learned quicklythat if I see something thatinterests me, I had betterwrite the informationdown in a notebook or I’llnever find it again!

Do you have a gardeneron your gift list this year?

You might consider a coldframe as a gift that keepson giving. I love my coldframe, and am guilty ofnot using it as much as Icould. My Juwell coldframe has opener arms thathave cylinders filled withfluid that will expand andcontract with changes intemperature. In my earlygardening years I had builta cold frame using oldwindows. The problem?The windows were heavyto lift, and if I left them onduring the day and we hada sunny day… I would lit-erally cook my poor littleseedlings! The openerarms are a great solution tothat problem.

OSUE Fact SheetHYG-1013-88, “ColdFrame, Hot Bed Construc-tion and Use” providesgreat information aboutchoosing the right loca-

tion, size, and construc-tion. Cold frames - or theirheated versions, hotbeds,are miniature greenhouses.A cold frame is simply abottomless box coveredwith a light-admitting lid.Sun enters the box duringthe day heating the soiland air inside. At night, thesoil radiates the heat ab-sorbed during the day backinto the covered frame.

Hot beds are similar tocold frames, except that inaddition to the sun’s heat,they use an artificialmeans of heating the soil-usually electric cable.Hotbeds can be maintainedat minimum desired tem-perature. This makes themmore useful during thecoldest times of the year.

Hot beds and coldframes are used by garden-ers for propagating vegeta-bles, flowers and

ornamentals. Hot beds areused for starting the plantsand cold frames for tem-pering or hardening plantsto outdoor conditions be-fore transplanting. Formost home gardeners thesame frame can serve bothpurposes.

You could actually buythe materials for the coldframe and include yourhelp with the constructionas your gift! Here is a planfor a basic wooden coldframe:

Materials:• 1 piece 8 feet long 12-

x 1-inch pine board• 1 piece 4 feet long 10-

x 1-inch pine board• 1 24- x 48-inch sheet

of Plexiglas (1/4-inchthick)

• 3 pieces 4 feet long2x2 boards

• Jigsaw• 2 sets of hinges with

screws• Handle• Electric drill• 16 #8 1-1/2-inch

screws• #6 3/4-inch screwsInstructions:1. Cut the 8 foot boards

in half. Take 1 of the 4-foot pieces and cut it inhalf again. These twopieces will create the sidesof the cold frame, whilethe remaining 4-foot piecewill be the back of theframe.

2. Place one end of theside board against the edgeof the back board and at-tach with screws. Repeatfor other side.

3. Place front boardagainst edges of the sideboards and attach withscrews. (Bottoms of theboards should be flush.)With a yardstick, draw aline on side board from topof the back board to top ofthe side board. The linewill be diagonal. Cutboard along the line usinga jigsaw. Sides will slope,allowing for a sloped lid to

close properly.4. To make the lid:

Make a 2- by 4-foot frameusing 2x2 boards. Takeone 4-foot 2x2 board andcut in half for the sides ofthe frame. Top and backare made using remaining4-foot boards. Attach endstogether using an anglebrace if necessary. AttachPlexiglas to frame using3/4-inch #6 screws.

5. Attach lid to top offrame with hinges. Addhandle to front portion oflid.

6. Be sure to include acopy of Fact Sheet HYG-1013-88 (available on Ohi-oline) to complete yourgift!

Enjoy the sunny after-noons while you can!Keep attacking thoseweeds that show up inyour landscape. Have youstarted your ChristmasList? Better get started!

Be sure to leave it outwhere it will be noticed!

(Faye Mahaffey is aOSUE Brown County Mas-ter Gardener volunteer.)

Alaska CruiseJoin other Farmers onVacation!

Plus...West Coast Train Tour & San Francisco

13 Days Depart July 19, 2013 from$2298*Seven night Alaska cruise on the NCL Jewel through the scenic Inside Passage.Visit Ketchikan, “The Salmon Capital of the World” and home to the world’slargest collection of Native American totem poles; Juneau, the capital ofAlaska; and Sawyer Glacier, that calves constantly, shedding huge chunks ofice with incredible colors. Stop in Skagway, where the Gold Rush began andonshore enjoy a stroll on the weathered boardwalks; and Victoria, BC, Canada’sGarden City on Vancouver Island.

Sightseeing tours in Seattle including Pike’s Place Market & San Francisco with opportunitiesto see the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’sWharf. Plus Napa where you will visit two ofthe area’s premier wineries.

Scenic Amtrak Coast Starlight train trip from Seattle to San Francisco. Relax in yourAmtrak sleeper-roomette at night (includes VIP lounge).*Per person, based on double occupancy. Price based on inside cabin,upgrades available. Airfare is extra.

Canadian Rockies TourAlso includes “RockyMountain” Rail Trip &Olympic National Park

14 Days Depart August 2, 2013 from$1958*Start in Seattle, Washington; beginning your drive to Spokane. En route, visitthe Grand Coulee Dam, and Dry Falls. Drive through the beautiful lake-sidecommunities as you head east to “The Big Sky Country”of Montana. Next visitGlacier National Park. Then cross over toWaterton LakesNational Park, Glacier’s, Canadian sister park. The followingday you will travel to the town of BanZ and BanZ NationalPark. Then travel north on the IceYelds Parkway beginningyour scenic route through the Canadian Rockies. VisitLake Louise; Jasper National Park; Jasper town and YohoNational Park before crossing the Continental Divide toRevelstoke; the Lake Okanagan region and the resort town, you will board the “Sea to Sky Climb”Rocky Mountaineertrain and travel the breathtaking PaciYc coast to Vancouver.The following day you will take a ferry trip to Victoria onVancouver Island with its classic colonial architecture. Then travel back to the U.S.and enjoy another ferry trip to Port Angeles and tour Olympic National Park beforereturning to Seattle. *Price per person based on double occupancy. Airfare is extra.

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December 2012 3BACRES of Southwest Ohio

Gift ideas for the gardener on your Christmas listCold frames and hotbeds are miniature

greenhouses.Shown here is a diagram

of a hot bed.

By JERRY [email protected]

There are several thingswe can do to make landscapeplants around our home orfarm more attractive now andincrease the chances of thembeing alive next spring. Thedry summer has left many ofour perennial plants in poorhealth. Consider special treat-ment for those plants growingunder roof overhangs. Theseplants may need additionalwatering as we go into winter.Try not to water when theground is frozen.

Check soil moisture bypulling the mulch away fromplants before watering. Iwould not fertilize this late inthe season as new plantgrowth will not harden off be-fore winter.

Between now and earlyDecember is the time to makeyour last and probably mostimportant fertilization of yourlawn. Fertilizer added nowwill go towards strengtheningthe grass root system and notspur a lot of top growth. Itwill also keep the grass plantgreener longer into the win-ter. Again do not fertilizewhen the ground is frozen asrain or snow melt will trans-port the fertilizer into ourrivers and streams. Normallythis involves applying a prod-uct marketed as a winter fer-tilizer.

For more details on lawnfertilization log on to the website:“http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/4000/4006.html.”http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/4000/4006.html. Mostfertilizers now do not haveany phosphorus (the middlenumber in the fertilizer analy-sis: ex. 32-0-10) because thiselement is causing much of

our algae problems in lakesand streams.

There are many invadersfrom the outside who want tomake your home their homefor the winter. These includespiders, flies, and other bugs.The warmth of your house istheir “Florida.” To minimizethe number of intruders checkand repair bottom door seals.Caulk around areas wherepipes or wiring enter yourhouse to determine if theseareas need sealed.

Check/repair window sealsas well. Do not forget to re-pair those attic or soffit vents.They are great places forsquirrels, raccoons, bats andbirds to enter your home. Ihave received several callsover the years dealing withsquirrels, raccoons or birdsthat made it down the chim-ney and into the house.Screens on chimneys dowork. Picture a squirrel orraccoon running around yourhome in a panic tearingdrapes, furniture and tearingup the house in general.

Farm cash rentLand owners and farmers

are in the process of negotiat-ing cash rent agreements for2013. In addressing this topica few months ago I suggestedboth parties consider a flexi-ble cash rent agreement. Thistype of agreement protectsboth parties from wideswings in the market as wellchanging input prices likeseed, fertilizer, weed controlproducts and fuel to name afew. For example a bag ofseed corn containing 80,000seeds would be enough seedto plant roughly 2.5 acrescould cost over $250. A flexi-ble cash rent agreement usu-ally will set a floor price ofcash rent with possible up-ward increases depending on

market conditions, weatherand the farmer’s ability. Itgives both the land owner andfarmer some protection fromwide swings in crop prices aswell as the cost of inputs likefertilizer, seed etc. as well asgiving incentive to the farmerto do a good job of farmingthe ground to increase yieldswhile adhering to the require-ments set forth by thelandowner.

These requirements mightinclude maintaining grass wa-terways, controlling noxiousweeds and providing soil testand yield information as anexample. The problem on thehorizon is not if but whencrop prices will drop and theagreement must be designedto reflect changes in the farm-ing environment. It is best tolook at a flexible cash rentagreement which includesflexing for both yield andcrop price. Often we get cropprice increases in bad weatheryears but yields are not good.

Cash rent always goes upeasier than it comes down.For more on this topic go tothe website for the factsheettitled “Flexible Cash Rentsfor Farmland” at http://ohio-line.osu.edu/fr-fact/0002.html. The followingwebsite allows you to plug inyour information on five yearaverage yields and historicalcrop prices in the 5 year pe-riod as well as base revenueas a help in determining baserent: http://aede.osu.edu/pro-grams-and-research/osu-farm-management/decision-tools. You can then do somecalculations on possible baserent calculations. In the OSUExt. Crop Budgets for 2013Agriculture Economist BarryWard has cash rent figuresshowing an increase but keepin mind some areas of Ohio

hit hardest by the droughtmay see little or no increasein cash rent.

The website is:http://aede.osu.edu/pro-grams/farmmanagement/bud-gets. These figures are basedon several assumptions whichare listed at the end of eachbudget and vary with regionsof the state. The budgetsallow you to plug in your owncost figures as well as the ex-pected returns.

To get a sample farmagreement (cash, flexible,crop share) log on to:www.mwps.org/.

My closing comment onthis topic is for both parties tosit down and be truthful witheach other as they negotiate anew lease agreement. Suchinformation as yield data andsoil test information are onthe table for sharing and in-cluding in the agreement.Only through common trustcan good business collabora-tion be forged. Another sug-gestion is for farm operatorsto share what is happeningwith the crops and marketsnot just at the end of the yearbut during the growing seasonwith the landowner.

Crop yieldsAs I write this column in-

formation on the harvest ofcorn and soybeans is comingin with figures all over thespectrum. I am hearing ofcorn yields in the 65 -220bushel range with soybeans inthe 20-70 bushel range. Thisis close to predictions madeearlier in light of the widevariation in rainfall pattersacross Greene County thepast few months.

(Jerry Mahan is a retiredOSU Extension EducatorAgriculture and Natural Re-sources for Greene County.)

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DDEECCEEMMBBEERR• Guided Bird Walk— Dec. 8: 9-

11 a.m., Secrest Arboretum, SeamanOrientation Plaza, Ohio AgriculturalResearch and Development Center,1680 Madison Ave., Wooster. Free. In-formation: [email protected] or 330-464-2148.

• Marion Popcorn Pop-n-Drop—Dec. 31 – Jan. 1, A night to rememberas you bring in the New Year. Every-one gather at the park at 11:30 p.m. toparty and watch the popcorn ball dropat the stroke of midnight. Location:Busby Park Downtown Marion, cornerCenter St., & Prospect St. Contact:(740) 382-2181; www.mariondown-town.com

FFEEBBRRUUAARRYY• Groundhog Day - Buckeye

Chuck — Feb. 2; Chuck, Ohio’s offi-cial weather-predicting groundhog,will check for his shadow. Come earlybefore the sun comes up, if any, to seeChuck. Always hot drinks and, ofcourse, the spam burger that is servedevery year. Hours: 7 to 8 a.m. Loca-tion: Clear Channel Marion, 1330 N.Main St., Marion; Contact: (740) 387-8173; www.wmrn.com

• 2013 Agronomy Workshop —Feb 19 and 20, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. eachday. Mark your calendars; the 2013OARDC Agronomy Workshop/In-ser-vice is scheduled for next February inthe Fisher Auditorium, on the WoosterCampus of OSU. This 2-day programwill feature presentations and hands-onactivities on a range of important cropproduction, pathology, entomology,and weed science issues facing thefield crops industry. Topics rangingfrom Disease, Insect and Weed Resist-ance in Population to Interpretation ofStatistics in Field Research will becovered, as well as updates on disease,insect, weed, and mycotoxin detectionand management. The content of thisprogram will meet the needs of bothour new county Extension Educators aswell as more seasoned Educators, FieldSpecialists, and Crop Consultants, andwill be team-taught by Drs. Anne Dor-rance, Ron Hammond, Andy Michel,Laura Lindsey, and Pierce Paul. Savethe dates. Registration details will beavailable later in December.

Upcoming EventsBEFORE WINTER ARRIVESLate season tips for protecting home, garden

BY SUSAN [email protected]

In search of the perfectChristmas tree this year?Grab your family and headon out to one of many localChristmas tree farms. Cut-ting your own tree makesfor fun holiday memoriesand a tree that will stayfresh throughout the entireholiday season.

One Miami Countyfarm is becoming widelyknown throughout theMiami Valley for its“choose and cut” fir trees.

Fulton Farms, located at2393 State Route 202, eastof Troy and Tipp City, isbecoming known for morethan their pick-your-ownstrawberries and other sum-mer veggies. For the past25 years, the family-ownedfarm has offered 20-acresof Christmas trees. Open-ing the Friday afterThanksgiving, the farmalso offers weekend (exceptDec. 22-23) horse-drawnhayrides out to the treefield.

“We have a lot of peoplecoming from Dayton andas far north as Coldwaterand Celina,” said Jim Ful-ton. “We sold 1.300 treeslast year.” The Fultonsplant new trees every otheryear, he said.

The past summer’s dryweather didn’t affect theFulton Farms Christmastrees. “We’re an irrigationfarm,” Fulton said, soworkers spent the summerirrigating the trees to avoiddamage.

Fulton’s barn store alsowill be open through theholidays, with gift itemsand hot chocolate and cof-fees for sale.

The farm has trees rang-ing in height from 4-12 feet— all priced at $40.

The tradition of cele-brating Christmas with adecorated tree wasrecorded in a travel diaryfrom 1605, which describesa fir tree in Strasbourg,

Germany, hung with paperroses, apples, wafers, andcandies, according to a factsheet on Christmas trees byThe Ohio State UniversityExtension office in Colum-bus. The fact sheet also re-ports that in the UnitedStates, the first reportedChristmas tree was foundin a German Moravianchurch in Bethlehem, Pa.,in 1747.

So once you find andcut that perfect tree, what’snext? Follow these stepsoutlined by the OSU exten-sion and your familyshould be able to enjoyyour freshly cut treethrough New Years Day —and beyond if you chooseto recycle on your property.

Christmas Tree Facts• How do I select a

clean, fresh tree? Cleantrees are trees that, in addi-tion to being free from anyextraneous plant materialsuch as vines and grass,have been shaken to re-move the dead needles thatare lodged in the foliageand branches. Christmastree needles do not live for-ever. Each year a new batchof needles develops and theoldest needles on the treedie. Some species, such asthe spruces, may have four-or five-years’ growth ofneedles on the tree at anyone time; other species,such as many of the pines,may have only one- or, atmost, two-years’ growth ofneedles on the tree at anyone time. A freshly cut, un-shaken Christmas tree mayhave literally thousands ofneedles hanging in itscrown. These needlesshould be shaken from thetree with a tree shaker orthey will end up in the car-pet, the heating ducts, andpractically everywhere elsein the house.

A cut Christmas treewill last the entire holidayseason without becomingexcessively dry or droppingan excessive amount ofneedles provided it is fresh

when purchased and it isgiven the proper care. Ob-viously, the most effectiveway to ensure a fresh tree isto visit a choose-and-cutplantation and cut the treeyourself. For many familiesthis has become a holidaytradition, with the familydevoting most or all of aday to choosing the “per-fect” tree while enjoyingthe scenery and other activ-ities provided by thegrower.

When evaluating fresh-ness, do not be concernedif excessive amounts ofbrown needles fall. Re-member, these are the nee-dles that the tree sheds eachyear. Just make sure thetree is shaken before it istaken into your home.

Other methods of as-sessing the freshness of aChristmas tree, includingneedle flexibility, treecolor, aroma, and the rela-tive dryness of the bottomof the trunk, are far moredifficult to evaluate and canmany times be very mis-leading.

• Caring for the tree be-fore it goes in the house

If possible, cover thetree with some type of tarpduring transport to preventit from drying out, particu-larly if it’s going to be ontop of your car. A plastictree disposal bag, availablefrom many growers andlots, works well for protect-ing bailed trees during thetrip home.

If the tree is to be keptfor several days beforebeing set up in the house,place it out of the direct sunand wind, perhaps on thenorth or east side of thehouse, behind some shrub-bery, under an overhang, orin an unheated enclosedporch or garage. If the treeis to be stored more than acouple of days, it is advis-able to place its trunk inwater. If the tree has beencut within the last six toeight hours, it will not needto be recut; longer than thatand it should be recut. Cutstraight across the trunk(not at an angle) removingan inch or more from thebottom of the trunk. Besure the container holds

enough water and replenishit often enough that thewater does not fall belowthe level of the trunk bot-tom. If it does, the trunkwill begin to seal, andwater absorption will be re-duced or cease. When thisoccurs, a fresh cut must bemade to remove the sapseal. Cut Christmas treeswill absorb a surprisingamount of water, particu-larly during the first week.A tree with a two-inch di-ameter trunk may initiallyuse two quarts of water perday; one with a four-inchdiameter trunk may usemore than four quarts perday.

• Setting up and caringfor the tree

The lower the tempera-ture and the higher the hu-midity, the longer a cutChristmas tree will last. Ifpossible, turn down thetemperature or close (atleast partially) the heatvents in the room where thetree is located. If you havea humidifier, set it as highas feasible without causingcondensation throughoutthe house. Some individu-als who do not have whole-house humidifiers place asmall portable humidifierin the room with the tree.Do not locate the tree nearsources of heat such as afireplace, an open heatduct, or a radiator, or infront of a window that re-ceives the direct rays of thesun.

If the trunk has not beenrecut, recut it as describedpreviously. Place the tree ina stand that is large enoughand strong enough to hold atree of its size. Be sure thatthe tree stand will hold anadequate amount of water(most would suggest a one-gallon minimum; more forlarge trees) and that it is re-plenished on a daily basis.Water is important becauseit prevents the needles fromdrying out, becoming brit-tle, and dropping off; thebranches from droopingand then becoming brittle;and it keeps the tree fra-grant. Again, rememberthat the tree will absorb alarge quantity of water, par-ticularly during the first

week, and it is essentialthat the water level in thestand never go below thecut end of the trunk or aseal of dried sap will form(in as little as four to sixhours), preventing the treefrom absorbing water. Ifthis happens, a fresh cutwill need to be made to re-move the sap seal, a cutthat is often not feasiblewith a fully decorated tree.

Use only approved andcarefully inspected electri-cal lights and extensioncords when decorating aChristmas tree. Do notleave a lighted Christmastree unattended.

• Taking down the treeTake the tree down at

the end of the season orwhen it has become toodry. A well-cared-forChristmas tree should nor-mally remain fresh for theentire holiday season. Re-search has shown thatfresh-cut Christmas trees ofthe species commonly soldin Ohio should last at leastfour weeks before drying toan unacceptable level.Some trees will last longer;others will dry out sooner.We have evaluated treesthat were still acceptableafter six weeks, and a fewtrees that took up very littlewater and began drying outimmediately. Certainly alittle judgment must beused in evaluating when toremove the tree.

• Disposing of the treeAfter the holiday sea-

son, a Christmas tree canbe disposed of in a varietyof ways. Many communi-ties have curbside pick-upor drop-off locations for re-cycling or disposing ofChristmas trees. Christmastrees can be chipped andused for mulch or com-posted. Christmas trees canbe set up in your yard orgarden as a shelter orfeeder for birds or otherwildlife. This is most com-monly done by simply se-curing the tree in a standingposition and hanging suetor other food in the foliage.Christmas trees can be usedas cover in fish ponds.

(Susan Hartley is the ex-ecutive editor of the PiquaDaily Call.)

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On the hunt for the perfect tree AArreeaa TTrreeee FFaarrmmssWARREN COUNTY

� Berninger Trees andWreaths, Lebanon

� Big Tree Plantation,Morrow

� Ever Green Acres,Lebanon

� Evergreen Acres,Beavercreek

� Evergreen Nursery,Rootstown

� Rossmann’s Christ-mas Tree Farm, Blan-

chester� Wertz Family TreeFarm, Franklin

� Caesar’s CreekNursery, Waynesville� Timberwind TreeFarm, Lebanon

GREENE COUNTY� Carl and DorothyYoung’s ChristmasTrees, Yellow Springs

� Harmony Tree Farm,Springfield

� Millstone ChristmasTree Farm, Jamestown

� Raymond Bower-master, Springfield

� Spring Valley TreeFarm, Spring Valley� Adventure Acres,

BellbrookROSS COUNTY

� Crosley Tree Farm,Chillicothe

CLERMONT COUNTY� Dirr Nurseries,

Goshen� Nana & Pap’s Christ-mas Trees, Felicity� Simmons Farm,

Bethel� Spring Grove Farm,

New RichmondPICKAWAY COUNTY

� Lands ChristmasTrees, Stoutsville

� Rhoads Farm Inc.,Circleville

HIGHLAND COUNTYSugar Tree Farms,

CincinnatiMADISON COUNTY� Waters Tree Farm,

South Solon� Foxwater Farms,

LondonBROWN COUNTY� Pinefield Farm,Fayetteville

� Corsi Tree Farm,Hamersville

� Memory Lane TreeFarm, Sardinia

ADAMS COUNTY� Miller’s ChristmasTrees, West Union

� Sugar Tree Farms,Seaman

Photo by Mike UlleryAcres of trees await “adoption”

as a family Christmas Tree for the 2012 Christmas season at Fulton Farms.

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The Old Home Placeis the place to shop for yourcooking and baking needs.

They also have a wide varietyof baked goods, soups andsalads if you’re not in themood to make your own!

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CONTACTJack Garen 937-402-0058Matt Gibson 740-207-6039Paul Yelton 513-846-7108Growers 1-800-437-4769

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Clinton County Motorsports6002 US Hwy 68 North Wilmington, OH 45177

Phone: 937-283-2220 Toll Free: 877-RIDE-CCM (877-743-3226)www.clintoncountymotorsports.com

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By DAVE [email protected]

We have a new bug.Well it is not completelynew to Ohio, but it is be-coming more of an issue.In last week’s CORNnewsletter, OSU ExtensionSpecialist provided infor-mation about this invasiveinsect and a way to reportit if you find it. The follow-ing is part of the articlethat can be found in theCORN newsletter. If youwould like to be added tothe mailing list for thisweekly newsletter duringthe growing season andevery other week duringthe winter, send me an e-mail request [email protected].

The Brown MarmoratedStink Bug is being foundin field crops, fruit andvegetable fields. These

stink bugs are also knownto invade homes, apart-ments, businesses, barns,and other man-made struc-tures in the fall. To see anupdated map of whereBMSB has been detectedin Ohio crops, follow thislink: www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/BMS/viewdata.asp. Because detections inbuildings often precedesinvasion in nearby cropfields, it is important tocollect reports of stinkbugs inside buildings.

While finding thesebugs in homes may be un-settling to residents, report-ing the finds does allow usto get a clearer picture oftheir distribution in Ohio.If you see BMSB this win-ter or spring in your homeor other structure, use thisOSUE site to report it:www.surveymonkey.com/s/bmsb. The report form has

11 questions regarding lo-cation, number of insects,time of invasion, and con-tact information.

BMSB can be identifiedby alternating black andwhite bands on the anten-nae, and black and whitebands along the edge of theabdomen that shows underthe wings, as well as faintblack and white bandingon the legs (images can befound at our Ag Crops In-sects page under the soy-bean tab,http://entomology.osu.edu/ag/). To confirm the pres-ence of BMSB, pleasesend your contact informa-tion along with a few deadspecimens in a tissuepadded pill box or othersmall container to: BMSBID Program, OSU Exten-sion, 1512 S. US Highway68, Suite B100, Urbana,OH 43078.

Brown marmorated stink bug is new to Ohio

BUG INVASION

Small Farm College — The pro-gram starts in January with two loca-tions to choose from. The Wednesdaynight program will be held in PickawayCounty at the Circleville Fire Depart-ment and the Thursday night programwill be in the Clermont County Exten-sion Office in Owensville. Classesbegin on Jan. 9 and 10.

Private Applicator Re-cert — Pes-ticide re-certification will be offered atSouthern State Community College’sSouth Campus in Fincastle on Monday,Feb. 4, at 5:30 p.m. and again onWednesday, Feb. 13, at noon. Both pro-grams will offer a light meal and mate-rials. Pre-registration is required.Details about registration will be avail-

able soon. Space may be limited thisyear.

Pesticide License Testing — Privateand commercial testing for applicator li-cense will be offered on Feb. 11, March11 and April 8 at the Old Y Restaurant.You are required to pre-register by call-ing the Ohio Department of Agricultureat 800-282-1955 or online athttp://pested.osu.edu. Space is limitedso register soon. Study materials arealso available at this address or phonenumber.

Ohio River Valley Agronomy Day— Mason County Extension Office inMaysville, Ky., on Feb. 6 at 9 a.m. Callto register at (606) 564-6808.

Annual Tobacco Grower Meeting

— North Adams High School in Sea-man on Wednesday, Feb. 6, in theevening. Details about registration forthis free program will be available soon.

Master Gardener Class — Class be-gins on Feb. 20 at the Brown CountyExtension Office. Contact the AdamsCounty Extension Office to register at544-2339.

Small Farm Conference — Wilm-ington College on March 8 and 9. Go tohttp://adams.osu.edu,http://brown.osu.edu or http://high-land.osu.edu for the printable flyer orcall for details.

Farm and Family Night —Maysville Community and TechnicalCollege on Tuesday, March 12.

Dates to Remember:

CNMP Services LLC

EQIP or Non-EQIP CNMPNutrient Management Plans (NMP)

Roger L. Butts, TSPCertified CNMP Specialist

Office: 937-442-3202Cell: 937-750-3202

Email: agroserve@ frontier.com

Independent soil fertility recommendations by

Roger L. Butts, CCA, Agronomist9771 Stivers Rd. Hillsboro, OH 45133-6718

Agro-Serve Consulting

Comprehensive NutrientManagement Plans

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Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract. A stand-alone prescription drug plan with a Medicare contract. The benefit information provided is a brief summary, not a complete description of benefits. For more information contact the plan. Limitations, copayments, and restrictions may apply. Benefits, formulary, pharmacy network, premium, and/or copayments/coinsurance may change on January 1 of each year.

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By OSU Extension

WOOSTER — A neworganic-based fertilizer forcommercial hydroponicproduction can boost let-tuce growth by about 13percent, according to pre-liminary trials conductedby Ohio State University’sOhio Agricultural Researchand Development Center(OARDC) in Wooster.

The fertilizer, BiOW-iSH-Hydroponic, is pro-duced by BiOWiSHTechnologies, a Chicago-based manufacturer of nat-ural food production andenvironmental remediationtechnologies.

Available in the U.S.market for a little over ayear and for two years in-ternationally, the fertilizeris a unique blend of bacte-ria and biocatalysts that,according to companyclaims, helps speed up thebreakdown of organic mat-ter and potentially impactsplant processes, makingnutrients more readilyavailable or usable.

BiOWiSH Technologiessought out OARDC — theresearch arm of OhioState’s College of Food,Agricultural, and Environ-mental Sciences — tocarry out independent,third-party testing of itsproduct for the U.S. Alsoinvolved in the trials isCropKing Inc., an Ohio-based company that servesthe hydroponic produce in-dustry and is a local dis-tributor ofBiOWiSH-Hydroponic.

“We had previouslytested this technology atCropKing’s researchgreenhouse and experi-enced positive results ofover 10 percent in thespeed of lettuce growth,

meaning a grower usingour product could get oneto two additional crops peryear,” said Bill Diederich,senior executive vice pres-ident for agri-business atBiOWiSH Technologies.

“After that, our com-pany began looking for athird party or universitypartner to test the resultsand refine some aspects ofthe product. That led us toOhio State. Wooster is agood location, close toCropKing and also toBiOWiSH.”

Another link betweenthe partners in this projectis Natalie Bumgarner, aCropKing horticulturist

and recent Ph.D. graduatefrom Ohio State’s Depart-ment of Horticulture andCrop Science. She worksclosely with RobertHansen, an OARDC ex-pert in hydroponic lettuceproduction who is runningthe trials for BiOWiSHTechnologies.

“Our first round of ex-periments has verifiedwhat the company claims,”said Hansen, a researchscientist in the Departmentof Food, Agricultural andBiological Engineering.“We have seen a 13.4 per-cent advantage of one bio-catalyst compared to acontrol without the biocat-

alyst. We used three differ-ent lettuce cultivars (vari-eties) and found almostidentical results.”

Funded by BiOWiSHTechnologies, the project— which began in thesummer — will continuefor three years, involvingsome 15 different experi-ments. Some of the trialswill look at the effect ofvarious concentrations ofthe fertilizer, while otherswill focus on various flowrates — the rates at whichthe fertilizer is fed to theplants.

The goal, Diederichsaid, is to find the bestpossible combination of

BiOWiSH-Hydroponicand grower managementpractices to increase pro-duction.

“During our collabora-tion, we will also conductquality evaluations de-signed to quantify the nu-merous anecdotal claimsthat BiOWiSH-Hydro-ponic has a positive effecton the taste of lettuce,” hesaid.

For Paul Brentlinger,president of CropKing,this type of research is im-portant for the develop-ment of the hydroponicindustry in Ohio and else-where.

“Hydroponic is getting

a lot of press these days asan emerging field,” hesaid. “Here we have threeimpressive organizations,which are leaders in theirfields, putting energy,money and time to im-prove this industry.”

Hansen agrees.“The ultimate goal of

this project is to makeOhio more competitive sothat the hydroponic indus-try can grow lettuce moreefficiently and we don’thave to import it fromMexico or other places,”he said. “This also fits intothe push for local foodsand fresher, higher-qualityproduce.”

OSU researchers testing new bio-organic fertilizer

Photo courtesy OSU ExtensionBiOWiSH's Bill Diederich, OARDC's Robert Hansen and CropKing's Natalie Bumgarner survey recently transplanted lettuce at an OARDC greenhouse.

southwest acres december 2012

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