Ohio Gov. John Kasich recently signed a $71.2 billion two-year state budget that includes an income tax cut.

A key part of the 2,876-page budget is a 6.3% state income-tax cut for 2015 as a part of a roughly $1.9 billion net tax reduction. That lowers the top income-tax rate to just below 5%. It also provides tax relief for small businesses and funds public schools.

In terms of agriculture, Ohio Department of Agriculture director David Daniels said there are some very positives in the state budget.

“The budget includes new incentives to make the Buckeye State an even more attractive place to start and grow an agriculture-related business,” Daniels said. “Beginning next year, the budget eliminates taxes for small businesses earning under $250,000 in business income — a benefit that should apply to virtually every Ohio farmer. For businesses above that income level, Ohio will establish a new, low flat tax rate of 3%.”

The budget streamlines environmental oversight for Ohio agriculture as well.

“The state budget also relocates Ohio’s Soil and Water Conservation program, which works with the state’s more than 75,000 farmers on soil health and nutrient management issues, from the Department of Natural Resources to our agency. We look forward to this move because it will give our agency (for the first time) responsibility over all farms, farm runoff and any impact on related soil and water issues, regardless of their size. This allows us to be a complete and total, one-stop resource for farmers in Ohio with nutrient questions and issues,” Daniels said. “The Kasich Administration has made land and water conservation a top priority. This proposal was drafted to provide a seamless transition to ensure there is no interruption in Ohio’s efforts to aggressively improve the quality of our state’s water resources. In total, Ohio has invested more than $1 billion since July 2011 in the Lake Erie watershed to improve drinking water and wastewater facilities, monitor water quality, plant cover crops, recycle dredge material, install controlled drainage systems on farm fields and fix faulty septic systems.”

In general, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation was also pleased with the state budget.

“With most budgets it is a mixed bag. You see some really positive things and there are some items you would’ve hoped to see taken care of that did not get taken care of,” said Brandon Kern, OFBF director of state policy. “You see the continued cuts of income taxes and we really supported the small business tax relief included in this package, but agriculture’s highest priority was fixing CAUV, which wasn’t addressed in the budget.”

The tax details in the budget include:

• A 6.3% across-the-board reduction in income tax rates;
• A 75% tax deduction for the first $250,000 in small business income for 2015, then a 100% deduction in 2016 and 2017;
• A flat tax rate on business income above $250,000 at 3%;
• A 35-cent increase in the cigarette excise tax;
• Creation of a 2020 Tax Study Committee to study, among other things, how to transition Ohio’s personal income tax to a 3.5% or 3.75% flat tax by tax year 2018;
• Requirement that a report be made by Oct. 1 on how to reform Ohio’s severance tax.

In terms of Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV), Kern said reforms would continue to be a priority.

“Our preference has always been to have the Department of Taxation do this using their administrative authority. We sought action in the budget because there is a very short window now to make some of the changes that need to be made in order to avoid those factors impacting the counties that are going to be revalued this year. We got an indication that the Tax Department wouldn’t act on their own in time to help those counties for 2015. The budget bill was within the window we had to take some action, so we asked the legislature to do it,” Kern said. “Since they didn’t, we will go back to the drawing board and talk more with the Tax Department.”

There were also a number of provisions in the state budget that address the challenges with water quality.

“There is a 5% increase in line items that fund the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Ohio State University Extension and the Sea Grant Program. The Heidelberg Water Quality Lab has steady funding provided in this budget as well,” Kern said.

In addition, there is additional funding of the Healthy Lake Erie Program set aside for Soil and Water Conservation Districts in the Western Lake Erie Basin to be used for technical assistance to farmers for Senate Bill 1 compliance.

In terms of rural education, OFBF was glad to see the budget avoid cuts to rural schools.

“In terms of education funding, the legislature found a way to make sure that rural school districts were not seeing cuts that were proposed in one version of the budget,” he said. “That was something OFBF advocated for and there is a big change in how career technical education was funded that should allow more dollars to flow into ag-ed programs across the state.”

Andy Rodefer, Preble Co.

Harvest is all done. We finished up with our custom work last week. Now we are working on disk ripping ground, spreading fertilizer and getting ready for next year.

In the corn it was all over the board. There were really good yields in some areas that were planted early. I think that in this area, no-till really struggled this year. There are a lot of no-tillers around here and they could not plant early this year. That no-till ground needed two or three days for the ground to dry out and the conventional guys were able to sneak in and get started. It is not about the no-till, necessarily, it is just about where you could get in early.

In this area there is corn that was in the 50 to 100 bushel an acre range, corn that was 100 to 150 bushels and then anything planted early on well drained soil was 200 or over. There was a very wide range.

Our corn was a little better than we expected it to be. The early corn was all really good for us and we had one farm on gravelly ground that had the best corn we have ever had on it. But if you took our township, I would say that the average yield is in the 125-bushel range.

We got 3.5 inches of rain a couple of weeks ago. Within two days, we were back in the field. The ground soaked it in really quickly. We have had a couple of small rains since then and they are calling for more showers this week. We are disk ripping and everything is in good shape right now. We got through harvest without compacting the ground worse than it was from this spring. And not having to pay the propane bill to dry this corn this fall was nice.

For the rest of this week’s reports, click here.

For those of us in agriculture, it is easy to see all of the ways that farmers, and what they produce, make our lives a bit easier to live. From the jeans we wear to the food we eat, there are an unlimited amount of products we use everyday that are taken for granted.

Heck, even the Big Game on Sunday wouldn’t be the same if not for agriculture. I’m not talking about the nachos and cheese or hot dogs served up at the game’s concession stand, or even the “pigskin” that is actually made of cowhide (right here in Ohio by the way). I am referring to the beautiful, lush natural-grass field that will take more hits than any one player will on Sunday night.

According to an ESPN The Magazine, on a remote piece of farmland east of San Francisco, sometime in the fall, a buyer arrives to inspect the product. The farmers have tended to it for months, keeping it warm under grow blankets and dry under tarps — its very existence under wraps. The farmers have leverage; few places grow product of this quality. The buyer has leverage; he can hold out for the best.

The buyer takes the product in his hands. He rubs it with his fingers. He inhales deeply, taking in the aroma. He pinches off a bit and tastes it, to judge the quality and texture.

Around the first of December, the phone rings at the farm. The buyer is on the line. The deal is made. The discussion turns to delivery — to Levi’s Stadium.

You’ve probably never thought about the turf at the Super Bowl, which means the people who grow and tend to the turf at the Super Bowl have done their jobs. Turf is big business, and the stakes are high.

Read the full article here

We have a new pastor at church and he was walking through the congregation prior to the service last Sunday morning and he stopped to say, “Hello.” He looked down at my six-year-old son and said, “Pleased to meet you, what is your name?”

Rather than sharing his name, my son said, “I went mutton bustin’ — I rode the ram in the barn today before church.”

“Oh really,” the pastor said.

“Yep, his name is Big Poppa. I wore my snowboarding helmet.”

The pastor stopped and looked up at me with a questioning glance. “Is this real? What he is talking about?”

“Yes it is,” I said. “He was helping his mother with chores this morning and she let him ride on the back of the Horned Dorset ram in the barn. He did wear his snowboarding helmet.”

Even after the countless conversations he had with churchgoers that day I am pretty sure that one will be remembered for a while. The young, new pastor admitted this was the first time he had ever discussed mutton bustin’ in church and he was certain the topic would work its way into the lunchtime conversation with his family later that day.

The incident reminded me of a session I had attended at the Ohio Farm Bureau Young Ag Professionals event the day prior about developing your “elevator speech” to make a worthwhile and memorable impression on someone in a short period of time. The process of developing this effective first impression can be very strategic and well planned, but it does not have to be elaborate to be effective.

Often, for those in agriculture, simple honesty is the best policy. If you want people to remember you, just tell them what you do. I have an extremely successful friend in Columbus who has gone far in the real estate world. He spends his days travelling around the country to urban projects or working long hours in his office downtown. He then goes home to his house in the city. He calls me every so often.

“Hey Matt, what are you up to?”

“Well, actually right now I am shoveling chicken manure out of the coop before I gather the eggs for the day.”

“Matt you are the only person I know who could ever even say anything like that.”

And you know what? He’s right. And he is like most people that we will meet (since most people are not farmers). In fact, there is a reasonable chance — depending on where you are — that you may be the only farmer the person sitting next to you will ever meet. Because of that, the simple fact that you are a farmer is likely fascinating to them, and it makes for a very good and straight forward “elevator speech.”

Bruce King — a former U.S. Marine, turned factory worker from town, turned hog farmer who was just named the Swine Manager of the Year by the Ohio Pork Council — knows this well. He understands the appeal of talking to farmers to find out information about what really happens on farms with our food first hand, because just a few years ago he wasn’t a farmer.  His military and manufacturing background gave him a unique perspective as a farm manager to dramatically improve productivity on the farm. It also gives him a unique perspective in his community. Now, when he is not working on the farm, he is going about his small town life and eagerly sharing with others about what he does and why he loves it.

“I was at Home Depot the other day talking about open pen gestation,” King said. “I just want to educate people who only have watched a YouTube video on one side of the story. I have taken people from the community to go visit. Educating people is so important. We shower them in and let them in the barns to show them that the animals are well cared for.”

I am not sure King spent much time laboring over his “elevator speech” on how to effectively make an impression with the folks at Home Depot, but his passion for what he does just comes through. When people find out that he is a hog farmer who lives in town, there are inevitable questions that King is more than happy to answer. He doesn’t have a strategy to be a great spokesman for agriculture. He is just honest and passionate about what he does (and he is a former Marine so people listen to him).

The public is demanding to know more about what takes place in the production of their food, and not always in a nice way. In a world where PETA bashes the FFA, restaurant chains criticize the farmers who produce their food, and anyone can be a food/animal/crop/farm expert online, real, honest stories from people on farms are more important than ever. If you work on a farm, what you do — baling hay, carrying water, scooping manure, artificial insemination, feeding livestock, harvesting crops, and, yes, even Sunday morning mutton bustin’ — is very novel and memorable for others. Even your daily activities on the farm can leave quite an impression on those you meet.

I am one to rarely talk about politics. In fact, I won’t let anyone even put a sign in my front yard before election day. I just feel that my opinions are mine and your opinions are yours. We will be much better friends and neighbors if we just talked about anything else.

With that said, this whole Donald Trump running for President deal has had my attention (and obviously the attention of everyone else) for the past six months. I really thought that his campaign might last for a few months and he would implode by saying something or doing something that the American public couldn’t forgive.

Just the opposite has happened, as “The Donald” has used his years of experience in the business world and a brand that is synonymous with success, to garner millions of votes for the most powerful office in the civilized World. I am beginning to wonder if his rough and abstractly artistic way of talking about major issues our country faces could be used in other ways, like for issues in the agriculture sector.

For instance, if ag used a Trump-like approach to GMOs, it would go something like this…

“Over a trillion meals have been eaten containing GMOs and nobody has ever gotten sick or died. Nobody! Trump Steaks are full of GMOs and they are excellent. The best steaks on earth. A trillion…if I had a dollar for all of those meals…oh wait, I do.”

Or about the Renewable Fuel Standard…

“You know how much I like walls. I’m going to raise the Ethanol Blend Wall as high as I possibly can and I’m going to make the oil companies pay for it. This wall will be so high the EPA will never be able to see over it. Watch me!”

Or how to thwart Avian Influenza…

“We have to keep all geese from Canada out of our borders. Ted Cruz can take them back home with him. Let’s build a net that reaches so high that these varmints can’t keep pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by these illegal immigrants. They must go!”

Just think how this would go when approaching the EPA about the Waters of the U.S. Rule, or how to get the Trans Pacific Partnership passed. Have we in agriculture been too nice to get what we want out of our lawmakers and government agencies? Maybe if we go into the conversation in the way of Trump, we could make our case that those who actually grow the food, work the land and do more for the waters and the environment, know more than those that are elected or appointed into the government organizations that oversee agriculture.

As I was cogitating on what to cover in this month’s column, I came across a commentary in “Forbes” by Dr. Henry Miller and Drew Kershen, titled The Colossal Hoax of Organic Agriculture. http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2015/07/29/why-organic-agriculture-is-a-colossal-hoax/#31796dd038e4.

Their writing brought to mind an online training module I recently completed to prepare for an organic production certifier test. After completing the module, however, I opted not to take the test, but I did gain an education in organic food production. I’ll share with you a bit of what I’ve learned.

First, organic food production standards guide how food is grown. But they don’t guarantee the purity and wholesomeness of the food. Generally, organic food standards guarantee that antibiotics, synthetic pesticides and hormones are not used.

However, organic standards don’t prohibit use of natural pesticides and don’t guarantee that food is free of natural pesticides. And just because they’re produced naturally — rather than synthetically — doesn’t mean that natural pesticides are risk-free.

Many plants naturally produce pesticides to protect their leaves and fruit from insects and other pests. One of the best examples I can cite is pyrethrin, which is extracted from chrysanthemum flowers. They produce the chemical to repel insects. Pyrethrin is commonly used in nonorganic gardens, as well as fly repellants, flea collars and ant bombs.

Organic products at the grocery are rarely tested for purity, because, as I mentioned, organic production certification merely guarantees that food is produced in certain ways — not that the food is pure. The quality, purity and nutritive value of organic food versus conventional food is exactly the same  although organic food is often fresher because of the effort to expedite it to the grocery store. However, organic food is produced at a huge additional cost to the producer — and passed on to the consumer.

Organic milk production is a clear example of how organic standards apply to the production system and not product purity or quality. Traditionally produced milk and organic milk are both free of antibiotics. That’s because the regulations regarding antibiotics in milk are similar for both types of milk production.

However, the methods of traditional and organic dairy production differ when it comes to antibiotic use. I’m sure you’re with me in favoring humane treatment of cows. And I believe this includes treating a sick cow with antibiotics under the supervision of a qualified veterinarian.

In a traditional dairy operation, the milk of a cow being treated with antibiotics is isolated from the other cows’ milk. This prevents contamination of the farm’s milk supply that is transported to a processing plant for pasteurization.

When the ill cow recovers, the dairyman tests her milk to ensure antibiotics are no longer in her system and that her milk is ready for processing. Milk truck drivers also test milk on the farm before they pump it into their trucks to assure that it is free of antibiotic residue.

And when it arrives at the dairy processing plant, the milk is tested once more. Last year over three million tanker loads of milk arrived at dairy processing plants across the country. The good news is that only 0.01% of loads tested positive for antibiotics. And every tainted drop of milk was discarded prior to processing.

Organic milk undergoes the exact same monitoring protocols prior to processing. But under organic dairy production standards, a farm manager’s options for caring for a sick cow are limited to treating for pain relief and using herbal remedies, which are not FDA-approved and are not backed by research. These herbal remedies generally have no scientific data regarding their efficacy.

If I were a dairyman I would want my cows to have the best FDA-approved treatments available for their health. And I would follow the established antibiotic withdrawal times to avoid residues in their milk.

I know someone will ask, “OK, what about those hormones cows get?” In 1994, there was a newly approved product called recombinant bovine growth hormone or somatotropin (rBST), a synthesized version of cows’ natural growth hormone, BST. Dairymen learn how to administer rBST to cows, using management protocols that support good health.

The rBST hormone stimulates cows to produce about 10% more milk on about 90% of the feed normally required. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure the upside of this.

First, it was good financially at a time when dairymen were barely subsisting. And it was —and still is — good for the environment. When you can produce more milk with fewer cows and less feed, you reduce the dairy industry’s carbon footprint, or impact on the environment.

Foodies persisted in making such an issue about hormones in milk. Eventually nearly every grocery chain gave in and pressured processors, who in turn pressured producers, to not give their cows rBST.

The hysteria over rBST being used by dairymen was idiocy. Here’s why:

• Cows that receive rBST have one nanogram (.000000001 gm.) of BST in their milk
• Cows that never receive rBST also have one nanogram of BST in their milk — because BST is a naturally occurring bovine hormone. It’s as natural as mother’s milk, speaking of which….
• Nursing mothers have one nanogram of human somatotropin in their milk

Some foodies alleged that rBST caused a one nanogram increase in insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) in the milk. This was true, but the human body normally has about 300,000 nanograms of IGF-1. And IGF-1 in milk is digested, not absorbed.

A discouraging consequence of the discontinuance of administering rBST to cows is the impact on our environment. Every million cows fed rBST reduced carbon dioxide and methane emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 454,000 carbon-spewing cars off the road.

So, what’s better, organic or traditional farming?

One of the first to get the 2016 planting season started in Ohio was Pence Farms in Clark County. The Ohio Ag Net’s Ty Higgins rode along for a round or two of corn planting and visited with Brent about how things are going early on in this New Carlisle field.

The 2016 planting season has been Deja Vu all over again for many farmers in the Midwest. The Ohio Ag Net’s Ty Higgins wrote this tune to help share their agony with the rest of the country. It this fits what your spring has been like…Crank…It…Up!

Lyrics:
It’s been 45 day since I started rollin’
Yeah this plating seasons been really tollin’
It was off to a good start thought I’d be spending
the month of May in my tractor.
I’ve been waking up every morning hoping
Dirt would be right l I could get it going
But now it’s June and here I sit
And I’m feelin’ like such a slacker
I’ve been trying not to lose my temper
Always like ready set can’t go
Older farmers say they always remember
Springs like this but I need to see my crops grow
Other neighbors say that they’re about done
Please just don’t share that stuff with me
Farming should be a bit more fun
But I’m not even close with #plant16
All I want to do is get these seeds in
With some great help in the buddy seat
When I’m all done you know you’ll see it
I’ll be sure to send it out in a tweet
Just about finished my last corn field
But I’m not even close to done
Them early farms won’t have that much yield
Gonna tear ‘em up and give it one more run
Mother Nature wasn’t all that helpful
Hope I have plenty of corn seed
By July I’ll have a beer by the pool
Until then wish me luck with #replant16

Francis Marion (F.M.) Hatton walked across the rich, agricultural fields of Delaware County and stopped to talk with an elderly man about his interest in purchasing the land from the neighboring landowner.

The man was laying on a daybed at his residence and talked with his mouth full of tobacco — a spittoon at the ready — listening intently to F.M.’s story. F.M. talked about his plans for the land and his frustration in being a bit short of funds to cover the purchase price. At the story’s conclusion, the elderly man wiped the tobacco from his chin and reached beneath his daybed to produce a can containing untold funds, but plenty to cover the additional $600 F.M. needed to pay for the 134-acre property — thus started an incredible family tradition farming the land.

Born in 1867, F.M. had come from Stantontown east of Ashley to the north. He built a new house on the property and began to farm it. He quickly began to demonstrate the agricultural leadership and community involvement that would eventually become synonymous with his family legacy. He named the operation Hardscrabble Farms.

“F.M. had hogs and cattle like every other farmer back in that era. He was a speaker at Farmers Institute educational events in the area. I have seen his notes and there were sentences scratched out in his speeches from the changes he made. He was the first Delaware County Farm Bureau president and there has been a county Farm Bureau president in every generation of our family since then,” said Gary Skinner, who currently owns the property and farms 4,000 acres with his wife, Carolyn, sons Brian and Darin, and their families. “F.M. did a lot of drainage work. I think his mouth would hang open in awe just looking at the grain bins and combines and tractors we have today. I can remember my great grandfather Francis because I was about five when he passed away. He was progressive and always was looking forward. He would be proud, I think, of what we are doing today.”

There are no original structures left on the farm from F.M.’s time there, just two trees. The equipment, facilities and the technology have changed dramatically, but the family remains. F.M.’s modern descendants have often wondered what the farm’s founder would think of the farm today.

“He’d probably be amazed at how many acres can be farmed by one family,” Carolyn said.

“We are amazed at how he made a living off of 132 acres,” Darin said.

“He’d probably say, ‘Where’s my house?’ if he saw the farm today because Mom and Dad moved it off the farm and built a new one in the same spot,” Brian added with a grin.

Gary’s grandfather was the only one of F.M.’s children who survived.

“F.M. lost his first wife during childbirth and then remarried a nice lady, but they never had children. I was young but I can still remember her,” Gary said. “Most all those farmers back then were lean without an ounce of fat on them. They did everything by hand. They shoveled corn, hand milked the cows, dug fence post holes, and worked hard all day. They dug those drainage trenches with spades.”

“It is a lot of work today just working on fixing those tile lines with a backhoe,” Brian said.

F.M.’s son and Gary’s grandfather was Bernard Hatten (at some point the family name changed from “on” to “en”) who took over ownership of the farm in 1949.  Bernard was the first of the family to graduate from college at Ohio State University. He farmed and worked on the merchandising side for the Ohio Farm Bureau, setting up some of the first state accounting systems. He was good in accounting and was meticulous in all he did. Bernard was a good friend with Murray Lincoln, who started Farm Bureau Insurance, which is now Nationwide Insurance.

“In 1918 he bought 90 acres in Berlin Township. He nearly died from the flu and was sick for a whole year. Three of his four kids were valedictorians of their high school class. The fourth one who wasn’t was my mother. Her name was Alda and she was the oldest. Bernard worked for the Bank of Louisville Cooperatives and understood finances. Until 1950, there was only one local bank in Delaware. When he was farming with my father they were turned down for a cattle loan, even though they had plenty of collateral so Grandpa decided Delaware needed another bank. With some help from others he got the initial investors lined up and started the Delaware County Bank,” Gary said. “In later years Bernard was clerk for the Delaware County commissioners and he also took a job way after retirement to do roadside mowing for the township to keep busy. I remember him as being polite and courteous, but very serious minded.

“He tried to join the Army for World War I but he had a health issue and the military wouldn’t let him in. They told him they needed him more agriculturally than in the Army anyway. He was a photographer too. He was very thorough and precise. He would take pictures and type information on envelops with the pictures inside. He documented the history and was very active in the community and served as treasurer of the Delaware City/County sesquicentennial.”

During Bernard’s time there was a dairy on the farm and he too worked extensively with drainage and land conservation as his father before him. All four of Bernard’s children graduated from Ohio State, earning him the title “Dad of Dads” at the 1946 Ohio State Homecoming football game. One of his sons went to work on the Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine and was sworn to secrecy for years.

His daughter Alda married Jay Skinner while he was on leave as an Army Ranger in World War II.  He served in Italy, North Africa, France and was in the Salerno invasion.

“When I was born, my dad was in a fox hole in World War II. He was trapped on a mountain for three days when the company clerk got word to him that he had a son. One day when he got home on leave from the service, market hogs were $30 and that is what he made as a private in a month. He said his life wasn’t worth as much as a hog’s,” Gary said. “I always hear people talking about how my dad was fun to be around. It wasn’t like that at home. He was always serious. He was on the Delaware County Bank Board. My mother was a teller at the bank and later director of child welfare for Delaware County when she retired. My dad was a full time farmer and he was on several boards. He was the Soil and Water Supervisor and the Ohio Farmer’s Co-op.  He was always gone a lot when he was older but he told me he was still a farmer. He was named Master Farmer by ‘Ohio Farmer.’ Our family was also named a Blue Ribbon Farm Family and we got to meet and eat with Governor Rhodes at the Ohio State Fair.”

The farm was still a dairy when Gary was young.

“I remember getting up about 4 a.m. to go to the dairy every other weekend when the hired man had the weekend off. I’d go up in the haymow and sleep for about half an hour in the hay until I’d get yelled at to go get more cows in from the holding area. I loved everything about it,” Gary said. “Plowing was a big thing back then. Plows used to have a trip-hitch back then and every time you hit the smallest thing you’d have to stop and re-hitch.”

Gary noted there were many good friends in the farming community back in those days.

“I liked repairing and fabricating things early on. We built a lot of our bins with our own hands. The neighbors would come over and help. You hear about the threshers and their big dinners, working on bins that was kind of like that,” he said. “The group of friends to help each other has gotten smaller because the equipment has gotten bigger. We still have good farmer friends, but there are fewer of them.”

That is one of the most significant changes on the farm.

“The equipment has changed it all and information is out there right away. Today’s modern technology is one of the biggest changes. People talk about big operations now, but many are still family farms. The only thing we hire out here is trucking. The rest is all family,” Gary said. “The equipment has gotten so much bigger and higher quality. Our family had Farmall tractors and they were Hs and Ms with about 35 and 45 horsepower.  Today tractors are as 300 and 500 horsepower. My dad bought the first two Farmall 560 diesel tractors in Delaware County. The diesels were just coming on board and they were just learning about them. The lawn mowers are almost as powerful today.”

As equipment got bigger, so did the farms.

“Farmers can get more done because they are working longer hours in the comfort of larger equipment. When I first can remember, we were farming 750 acres and that was a good sized farm then — 350 acres of corn is a lot when you have a two-row corn picker. In the 60s livestock began to disappear from the county. We last had cattle 30 years ago on the farm. Planting dates have moved way earlier now too. Years ago no farmer would plant soybeans before June 15th because no one could control the weeds and they just kept working the ground. Another major change since the 1960s has been the use of on-farm grain drying. That has really increased the amount of acres you can farm,” Gary said. “We have purchased ground when we had the chance and rented more as we could. Our family has rented ground from the same family since 1939. This year will be the 77^th crop for our family on that land. That is a long time for two families to work together.”

The Skinner farm has grown in a county known for incredible growth in areas other than agriculture.

“Delaware County’s growth has been nibbling away at our farm,” Gary said. “Everybody use to like the ag community, but today agriculture is seeing more concern from the public about chemicals, noise, dust, and odors —all things that will happen if we are to produce food and fiber.”

Brian and Darin, after going to OSU’s Agricultural Technical Institute, came back to the farm in the early 90s.

“There were not a lot of people who came back to the farm in the late 80s and early 90s, but we got into farrow-to-finish hog production in ‘91 and we did that for four years until more land came available,” Brian said. “We got out of the hogs and got better excavating equipment and expanded that as a sideline source of income. We kept at that pretty hard for 20 years or so while row crop farming was tough.”

They have dabbled in organic production and have never grown a genetically modified crop on the farm, focusing on conventional varieties and the premiums they offer. The Skinners continue to work in excavation and have remained very involved with Ohio Farm Bureau, the Delaware County Bank and the community.  They have served on a Mutual Insurance Company Board, Grady Memorial hospital board, as a township clerk, Ohio Soybean Board, Ohio Wheat Growers Board, and are active members of the Delaware Chamber of Commerce. For the past two years they have enjoyed hosting “Benefit In The Barn” which brings the Central Ohio Symphony to their farm to entertain some 600 guests. The tradition of conservation on the land continues too.

The next generation of the farm looks bright as well with Gary’s grandchildren already showing an interest in agriculture and extending the rich family tradition on the Skinner Century Farm.

Farmers want answers on water quality. The general public wants answers. The residents on and around Ohio’s lakes and streams want answers.

But first, what exactly is the problem?

Laura Johnson works with the long-term water quality monitoring efforts at Heidelberg University in Tiffin. The research has painted a fairly clear picture of the agricultural impact on water quality in Lake Erie.

“We have a one of a kind long-term water monitoring program. The longest-term river monitoring efforts are the ones that run into Lake Erie like the Maumee, Sandusky, and Cuyahoga. We also monitor rivers running to the Ohio River and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico. At those stations we monitor all year round, every day and we try and get all of the storm events because that is when everything comes off the fields and out into Lake Erie,” Johnson said. “When we look at our agricultural watersheds, we see this big increase in dissolved phosphorus and it is bioavailable for algae. When we look at rivers like the Cuyahoga that are mostly urban, we don’t see those same increases. We actually see decreases because of the continued regulations on point sources. When we look at mixed land uses in watersheds like the Scioto, we see a combination of both. We see there have been some increases and we also see some really high phosphorus during low flows, which indicates problems with point sources. So we really see it all.”

In terms of the harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, there is a clear trend.

“We have found that between March and July the amount of phosphorus that comes out of the Maumee River is very closely correlated with the size of algal bloom in the lake. If we have a year where it rains a lot and we get a lot of rain running across the ground picking up phosphorus and getting it to the lake, we have a big bloom like in 2015. If we don’t have that like this year in 2016 where we were in a drought, we really don’t have much of a bloom. We had a little bigger bloom this year than in 2012, which was also a drought year and the other lowest bloom we have had,” Johnson said. “When we look at these export rates of phosphorus from farms, it ends up being only maybe 1% or 2% of what is being applied in the watershed. This means we are not losing a whole lot but it is still clearly enough to cause a problem in the lake. We have a lot of farms leaking a little bit of phosphorus. Because of this, nuance changes to nutrient management can have a huge effect. Most of the farmers I talk to are trying and want to do something about this issue. There is a lot of momentum moving forward and enthusiasm to try and implement some practices and fix this issue.”

Being proactive on this issue, Ohio agriculture saw this problem before it made national headlines with the Toledo water fiasco in August of 2014. Starting in 2012, big dollars were invested by Ohio’s farmers for researching the realities of agricultural nutrients and water quality. After extensive data collection and synthesis, there are finally some answers. The realities of this complex water quality/agriculture issue continue to be a bit murky, but there are some clear takeaways from the $3.5 million invested by Ohio’s grain farmers to determine how to best address the challenge.

In a recent news conference held by the Maumee River in Toledo, Elizabeth Dayton from The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences provided progress observations and presented on-field data spanning 29 farm fields, 2,000 water samples and 42,000 data analyses since 2012.

Her key findings are:

• Agricultural soil phosphorus levels are holding steady or trending downward in at least 80% of Ohio counties from 1993 through 2015.
• Soil nutrient testing is vital to determining the right amount and type of fertilizer needed for crops.
• Incorporating fertilizer into the soil through banding or injecting has the potential to reduce the concentration risk of phosphorus in runoff up to 90% under certain conditions.
• Tile drainage is an effective filtration system that can reduce soil erosion and prevent the loss of nutrients. In general, phosphorus concentration from tile runoff is less than in surface runoff.
• Current guidelines for phosphorus levels in soil established by Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations appear to be on the right track.
• Nearly three-quarters of phosphorus in surface runoff is attached to and travels with eroded soil sediment, making erosion control a key to phosphorus runoff control.

Dayton said that phosphorus and other nutrients concentrated on the surface along with steadily increasing soil nutrient levels in the late 1980s and early1990s were significant factors in the increased problems of algal blooms in lake Erie. Addressing those two problems is a great start for individual farms.

“Maintaining your soil phosphorus levels within the agronomic range continues to be vitally important. Another thing that is really important is fertilizer placement method to get those nutrients in contact with soil as opposed to just surface application — that reduces your runoff risk astronomically,” Dayton said. “Our participating farmers in the research have a multitude of crop rotations. Most of them are corn-beans, some are corn-beans-wheat and some are continuous corn. What we find is across all of those rotations we come back to the same things: manage your soil test levels; make sure your fertilizer placement gets in contact with the soil; try not to have bare ground through the winter. Keep cover on your field to keep erosion to a minimum. That continues to be important as well.

“With all of the outreach and discussion we have been having, now soil test values are trending down significantly in 80% of Ohio counties at all levels. That is a great thing. Now fertilizer placement method is what I keep harping on. By paying attention to fertilizer placement method we can prevent a lot of nutrient runoff.”

Bill Myers farms in Lucas, Ottawa and Wood counties right along Lake Erie. He is excited to get some more answers that help him manage his farm in a way to minimize expensive nutrient loss and maximize the water quality in his community.

“We are doing grid sampling, we are making fertilizer applications and injecting or incorporating into the soil as quickly as we can to minimize the movement of the nutrient into the soil profile so we don’t open ourselves up to leaching and runoff,” Myers said.  “In the distant past there were a lot of surface applications that were made and we relied on Mother Nature to wash it down into the soil. We have been enlightened from this OSU research that this is not necessarily the wisest way to spend our money. We need to get it in contact with the ground two or three inches below the surface. That is the best way to keep it from moving. The biggest need we have moving forward is getting the information from the research that has been done that shows us which practices we need to enhance and which ones we need to pull back from. The sooner we get that information, the sooner we can prevent dissolved phosphorus from getting in the waterways.”

Terry McClure, the chairman of the Ohio Soybean Council, farms a bit further from the lake in Paulding County, but still well within the Western Lake Erie Basin Watershed where the algal blooms have been a problem. He said they have also made numerous changes on the farm.

“This is a complex subject with many moving parts. We can do our part by doing the best we can do on our land. If we implement the 4Rs on the four million acres in this watershed I think it will go a long way to fixing agriculture’s share of this issue,” McClure said. “We used to apply all of our phosphate for the whole rotation at once because it was easy. For our wheat starter we’d put a lot more on than we needed for our wheat. Now we break it up and we soil test in between. We make sure we get it on in a timely manner. We also make sure to find a time to do some light incorporation. If we do some vertical till right before planting wheat, we make sure the fertilizer is on ahead of that tillage and not the last thing that happens on the field. It is not always the easiest way to do it, but we believe those small things can make a big difference.

“Balance is the key word. We are learning so much. We need to keep phosphorus and other nutrients in the right agronomic range to avoid those spikes. We can’t use that one-size fits all strategy. We are learning we need to make adjustments from what we have done in the past.”

Keith Truckor farms in Fulton County and serves as the Ohio Corn Checkoff Chair. He is glad to see Ohio agriculture moving in a positive direction on this important issue.

“The methods farmers are using to decrease the phosphorus going into the waterways are working. On our farm we are soil testing every three years and we have variable rate application of nutrients to our fields. We do not want to over apply because if we do they will leave our farms and lead to algal blooms,” Truckor said. “I think the main thing here is that it appears the runoff on the surface is the issue we have with the phosphorus. We also looked at research with tile drainage and we are not seeing the phosphorus particulate out of the drainage, which is a good thing. That means the phosphorous is attaching to the soil particles and providing nutrients for the crops. We’ve found when we apply nutrients to the top of the soil and get a heavy rain event or if it is on frozen ground, those nutrients tend to wash into the waterway system. That is just not appropriate anymore as far as our farming practices are concerned. We have to do a better job as farmers to negate that. We have to use the 4Rs.”

The research also clearly shows that agriculture is not the only contributor of nutrients to the waterways and that many mysteries remain. But for now, those who are seeking answers on how to address water quality and nutrient loss from farms have some.

First, let me say that I get it.

I understand that the farmers in the Lake Erie Watershed were listening to the science and doing what everyone told them. It was once common knowledge that phosphorus did not move in the soil and that reducing tillage was the answer to the algal woes of Lake Erie because phosphorus attached to the soil.

Farmers did what they thought they were supposed to do. With less tillage reducing erosion, phosphorus could be applied when most convenient in the most convenient way. Lake Erie got better and the problem was solved. But it wasn’t.

Unfortunately, the science used to develop the recommendations for those practices had not taken all of reality into consideration. With this compliant shift toward conservation, broadcast phosphorus in reduced tillage situations started to concentrate on the surface and not attach to soil particles. This led to issues with surface runoff of small amounts of very potent dissolved phosphorus after big rains. When broadcast in the fall and winter or early spring on bare soil before big rains, the problems were compounded.

The result, even after doing what they had been told to do, left farmers squarely in the crosshairs of the public blame game when Lake Erie’s ugly algae problems again bloomed. Farmers were frustrated and felt they had done their part, but the public was not pleased and there was plenty of data to support agricultural blame.

So, late last month I sat in a room at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo with numerous stern-faced urban/suburban/environmental journalists in formal dress for a visit from Hillary Clinton later that day. They sat and listened to the summary from OSU researcher Elizabeth Dayton clearly stating:

• Agricultural soil phosphorus levels are holding steady or trending downward in at least 80% of Ohio counties from 1993 through 2015.
• Soil nutrient testing is vital to determining the right amount and type of fertilizer needed for crops.
• Incorporating fertilizer into the soil through banding or injecting has the potential to reduce the concentration risk of phosphorus in runoff up to 90% under certain conditions.
• Tile drainage is an effective filtration system that can reduce soil erosion and prevent the loss of nutrients. In general, phosphorus concentration from tile runoff is less than in surface runoff.
• Current guidelines for phosphorus levels in soil established by Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations appear to be on the right track.
• Nearly three-quarters of phosphorus in surface runoff is attached to and travels with eroded soil sediment, making erosion control a key to phosphorus runoff control.

All of the journalists in that room heard this information, and maybe they even understood it. It is quite possible they know that farmers want to do what is right but also must balance the challenges of weather, logistics, economics, and countless other factors when making farm management decisions. They heard that farmers care about clean water, but do they get it? I’m not sure. And if the journalists do not get it, do you think the general public will?

Agriculture I know you are trying to do what is right for the environment and for your farms. But in today’s ever increasing demand for accountability and traceability in all levels of our society, you not only have to do what is right but you also have to demonstrate that you are doing things right in a way people who do not get what you are doing can understand. And now, courtesy of big investments in terms of time, money, collaboration and research, there are some fairly concrete answers on what needs to happen in agriculture to address water quality.

I get that: budgets are tight, time is limited, resources are stretched thin, prices are low, inputs are high, questions are numerous, trends are headed in the right direction, ag is not the only contributor, and there are plenty of “ifs” and “buts.” The general public and the stern-faced journalists, however, do not really seem to care. They care about clean water and I know you do too.

The dry conditions in 2016 led to less runoff and, as a result, a smaller algae bloom in Lake Erie. Because of that, the issue was somewhat out of the spotlight this year, but we all know the algae issue has not gone away. And while there are still many questions, those in row-crop agriculture who want to address problems with water quality and costly nutrient loss now have some fairly clear guidelines to follow and plenty of help from Ohio farm organizations and agribusiness to help implement and showcase those efforts. The answers are as simple and simultaneously complex as the 4Rs.

In what will surely be an ongoing battle with nutrient loss in agriculture, we finally have some answers. Now we all need to make sure we are acting on them. Do you get it? I sincerely hope that you do.

When a sports fan heads to the stadium to cheer on their favorite team, it is safe to say that one of the last things on their minds is agriculture. But, thanks to some help from an Ohio farm boy turned NFL football player,  the ways those in the stands think about farming and how it correlates with many aspects of the sporting event they are attending are changing.

Behind that concept is Ohioan Mark Inkrott, who grew up in Glandorf with a long agricultural family history behind him. His grandfather converted a flour mill to a grain elevator that has been in the family since 1942. In fact, Inkrott’s father still delivers feed to farmers throughout Putnam County.

“When I was a kid, whenever I wasn’t in school I was in my dad’s bulk truck,” Inkrott said. “That’s when I got to know all of the farmers and found out what they did and started to understand everything that goes into food production.”

Although Inkrott has never forgotten those lessons from his rural neighbors, his life’s journey took him far away from home. He followed a career in football, which began at the college level at the University of Findlay and then professionally with the Carolina Panthers and the New York Giants. He even spent time on the gridiron in Europe.

After hanging up the cleats, Inkrott came back to Ohio to attend graduate school and then found himself back in the industry where he started.

“When I think back to when I was younger and thinking about what was ahead, I didn’t think agriculture would be where I ended up in my career,” Inkrott said. “It’s funny how you end up where you’re supposed to be and be working with farmers again has been very rewarding in the sense that they are value-based people who know what hard work is.”

After working in the dairy industry for a while, Inkrott came up with a concept to fill what he saw as a need for agriculture. So he and a business partner, a fellow Glandorf native, founded UpField Group, a sports marketing and consulting firm specializing in agriculture and farm to stadium programs. The team also consists of a farm policy specialist and a rancher’s daughter. Together they bring a unique skill set to their agricultural endeavor  and have teamed up with associations ranging from the NFL Alumni to Mossy Creek Outfitters and Dairy Management Incorporated.

“At one point in my life I just assumed that everyone across the country knew where food comes from but that certainly isn’t the case,” Inkrott said. “After my football career it occurred to me that sports have a powerful platform to be influential and to tell great stories about agriculture and food production.”

UpField Group founder Mark Inkrott and professional wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald

UpField Group specifically saw the most potential in the stadiums, which already are used to deliver messages from the teams on the field and from the sponsors that are plastered all around the venue.

“Sports transcend throughout the community and it brings people together,” Inkrott said. “No matter what your political stance is, or your background or beliefs, when you go to a ballgame we can all agree on the team we are rooting for.”

Inkrott said that when he did play football in cities like Charlotte and New York, he noticed things that very few people around him might have picked up on.

“The first time I went to an NFL game, I was playing in it and even then I recognized the agriculture component to a ballgame,” Inkrott said. “As fans were enjoying a cold beer I knew that there were hops and barley farmers somewhere that made that possible. The same goes for hot dogs, popcorn and lemonade and the examples go on and on.”

The vision of UpField Group is to make those connections to food and sports easier to see for everyone involved, closing the many gaps that are in between farmers and consumers.

“Consumers, in general, are confused about their food and more labels and misleading marketing aren’t helping,” Inkrott said. “Transparency about how food is made is trendy and so is buying local, especially in urban markets and that is where UpField Group can come in and share the messages that people need to hear about farming and its misconceptions. Sports is a great platform for that.”

And UpField Group believes that message should come from no one else but the farmer, so they have developed a strategic alliance with ag accounting firm K Coe Isom to help give consumers a 360-degree view of the farm through their many farmer clients.

“The information we glean through this partnership is allowing us to create fact-based marketing and go find new opportunities in new markets,” Inkrott said. “We can meet with companies like a brewery, for example, and introduce them to a farmer and the corn crop they raise, their sustainability record and value of their message and offer that brewery a great ambassador and face for where their product comes from.

“Then, we can do an event at that brewery with the farmer and he can talk about what happens on his farm, giving the consumer confidence and trust and a great image of where the product comes from.”

On a bigger scale, UpField Group sees potential in making the farmer-to-consumer connection inside sporting arenas by placing producers on the Jumbotron to share what they farm to make the spectator’s experience that much more enjoyable.

“Consumers are smarter than ever and they have access to more information than ever before so there’s no trick marketing and no gimmicks in what we are doing here,” Inkrott said. “Since the core values of a farmer are honesty and hard work, helping them tell their story will be the best way to regain the trust of the American consumer.”

President Donald Trump again sent the left wing aflutter when he fulfilled another campaign promise by announcing a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement that laid out a framework for countries to adopt clean energy and phase out fossil fuels in a global effort to address climate change.

The Paris Agreement seeks to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”

This, to be sure, is a noble goal, but in the world of climate science (and much more so in the world of climate politics) there are many ifs, buts, unknowns, and educated guesses that can render even the best of intentions ineffective. At its best, the Paris Agreement is something that makes people who are terrified of climate change feel good that we are collectively doing something to address the challenge. That good feeling, though, may ultimately have very little impact on the realities of the changing climate. You can tell a dripping glacier you drive a Prius, but it is still going to melt.

Each of the 195 countries that signed on to the agreement submitted a climate-action plan to achieve the goals of addressing climate change. The U.S. plan was submitted by the Obama Administration in 2015 and set the voluntary goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% by 2025. The baseline level for this reduction is measured against 6,132 million metric tons of carbon dioxide that was emitted by the U.S. in 2005.

The problem, though, is that there is no guarantee that these costly measures will have any real impact on the changing climate. There is also no guarantee that any of the other participating countries will follow through with their plans (like say, for example, the U.S. withdrawing from the program). At least, though, we know to count on the fact that China — the other leading polluter involved in the Paris Agreement — has always been above-board and trustworthy.

But, for being immersed in the pretty-much-impossible-to-accurately-predict-the-future area of climate science, there are some certainties with the Paris Agreement. One certainty is that it will be costly.

In climate negotiations for several years leading up to the Paris conference, participants called for a Green Climate Fund that would collect $100 billion per year by 2020. The goal of this fund would be to fund green energy and climate adaptation and mitigation programs in the world’s poorer nations. The thought was that the rich nations (particularly the biggest polluting rich nations like the United States) would shoulder the largest part of that hefty bill. The Obama administration sent a billion U.S. taxpayer dollars to this fund already with another couple of billion promised. Some experts suggest that even $100 billion a year by 2020, though, would be on the low end of the necessary funds to accomplish the world’s ambitious climate changing goals.

There are also other costs, especially in energy intensive states like Ohio with large industrial and manufacturing sectors, according to Americans for Prosperity – Ohio. The conservative group cited a NERA Economic Consulting study looking at what the Ohio economy would look like in 2025 and estimated the Paris Agreement would reduce Ohio GDP by $9 billion, cost 110,000 jobs, and lower household income by $390.

“The Paris Agreement was a bad deal for Ohio and President Trump was right to get us out of it,” said Micah Derry, AFP-Ohio Director. “President Trump deserves tremendous credit for standing up to immense domestic and international pressure to keep his campaign promise and do what’s right for Ohio and America.”

Another certainty is that climate-change addressing measures will continue with or without the U.S. in the Paris Agreement. The U.S. has made tremendous environmental improvements in efficiency, renewable energy use and other measures based on federal policies, economic incentives and increasing environmental awareness. Agriculture too has made tremendous environmental strides in recent decades, long before anyone thought of climate change concerns. A withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has no impact on any of those trends whatsoever. This is emphasized by, of all people, Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan who said this in an interview: “The U.S. is one of the largest emitters of carbon, so Trump’s recent acts of rolling back national action on climate, coupled with a withdrawal from Paris, will make it harder to keep the climate under the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

“That said, Trump’s decisions won’t determine much of what happens on climate internationally or even in the U.S. Close to 200 countries, accounting for 87% of global emissions, remain committed to the Paris Agreement. The same goes with a growing number of states, cities and major businesses who’ve made clear that they’re still in.”

Also certain is that the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will not have a cataclysmic impact that so many of its supporters seem to be claiming — even referred to as “a suicide note to the world.” Now I am not saying that the Paris Agreement is without merit — there are certainly positive aspects of the plan — but the lack of U.S. participation in the deal is not going to suddenly lead to the inevitable demise of life on earth, as some folks would have you believe.

“The Earth’s climate has been changing since the planet was formed — on this there is no disagreement,” said Sonny Perdue, USDA Secretary. “At USDA, we rely on sound science and we remain firmly committed to digging ever deeper into research to develop better methods of agricultural production in that changing climate. Floods, droughts, and natural disasters are a fact of life for farmers, ranchers, and foresters. They have persevered in the past, and they will adapt in the future — with the assistance of the scientists and experts at USDA. To be effective, our research and programs need to be focused on finding solutions and providing state-of-the-art technologies to improve management decisions on farm and on forest lands.”

A final certainty: the Paris Agreement has tremendous support in the U.S. and around the world. People want to do the right thing and they want to feel good about doing something about it. But no matter how Al Gore, countless enraged-but-still-haven’t-moved-to-Canada celebrities, President Trump, Greenpeace, or anyone else feels about it, they do not have the final say on climate change. From what I’ve seen in my lifetime in and around agriculture, we still have plenty to learn on that subject and the last time I checked, Mother Nature had not yet signed on to the Paris Agreement.

I take great pride in being a farm broadcaster, an opportunity in no small part thanks to the rich history of agricultural communication in Ohio. A huge figure in this industry was the remarkable Ed Johnson, the founder to our company today. It’s hard to go around and not hear people reminiscing of his name or seeing the great pride someone has as they say, “You know I was interviewed by Ed back in the day.”

We’re now getting a glimpse of just how many interviews there were as our crew at Ohio Ag Net & Ohio’s Country Journal has undertaken a new endeavor — converting all the Agri Country episodes from their current tape form over to digital to preserve them for current and future generations.

Agri Country was a weekly television show that appeared across Ohio (and parts of surrounding states) featuring agriculture and the unique people that made it happen. Ed Johnson hosted each episode, with various contributors coming and going through the years. It began in 1982 and ran until shortly after Johnson’s passing in 2001.

While we’re busy at work saving the history of Ohio agriculture for generations to come, here’s an episode of Agri Country from this exact time of year about 34 years ago. The episode appeared on November 12, 1983 and showcases the All-American Quarter Horse Congress. Take note the talk of it moving somewhere else in the coming years. Also appearing in the episode is a unique glimpse into the loading and shipping of grains on the Ohio river.

I’m a pretty young pup. The final years of Agri Country coincided with my first years of elementary school. Nevertheless, I know the importance of the past and there’s quite a bit of history jam-packed into those aging tapes.

Yes, it’s exciting to look back on Ohio agriculture through the lens of Agri Country. The show featured the great strides farming has made in during that time with regard to technology. Not to mention many of today’s industry leaders can be found as young people in early episodes, with their progress thoroughly documented through the years. An example can be found when Ed interviewed the newly-placed executive vice president of the Ohio Farm Bureau, Jack Fisher. Fast-forward to today and Fisher has recently retired after serving in that position ever since. The legends of Ohio ag in that timeframe — the likes of Governor James Rhoades, Bob Evans, Merlin Woodruff and many more — make an appearance from time to time.

The show is not only educational from an agricultural perspective, but also interesting from a purely sociological standpoint. It’s quite obvious that gender norms have changed. For example, the Farm Wife of the Week highlight was pretty standard. Many interviews dealing with farm events focus a majority of the questions on the upcoming things to learn, though they always seemed to be finished with, “What do we have to offer for the ladies in attendance?” Times have changed.

With that said, some things don’t change — like the aggravating nature of tape players. That’s one of the many factors ensuring this digital conversion venture does not happen overnight. The sheer number of episodes involved poses an issue. Agri Country ran every week for nearly 20 years, that means well over 1,000 episodes have to be converted, edited, catalogued, and archived. Also challenging is that a majority of the episodes were not stored on traditional media (like VHS tapes), but rather a type of 3/4-inch tape popular with professional video at that time. Not only are players for these tapes hard to find, but they’re tired old machines with a tendency for error. You could even say we run a sort of retirement home for the tape player. A number of massage techniques are employed to keep the ol’ gals happy.

To add even one more issue to the archival process is the fact that these “U-Matic” tapes suffer from something called sticky shed syndrome. I didn’t even know tapes could have syndromes! Sticky shed has to do with the deterioration of the tape while in storage, causing issues when trying to play back several years later. Dealing with this has forced us to resort an interesting, widely used solution in the archival world. We bake every tape before converting it. Yes, bake. We literally have a modified toaster oven and dehydrator that we pop the tapes into. We have to be careful some days not to get our lunch confused with episodes of Agri Country.

The conversion process is ongoing and will be for some time, though we’re a couple hundred episodes in and the results are astounding. For the time being, we are not releasing episodes of Agri Country to the public, other than from time to time on our website.

Would you like to see more Agri Country episodes down the road? What favorite memories do you have from Agri Country? What do you think about converting these episodes to digital? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

There was quite a stir this week in Toledo with news regarding the Lucas County commissioners’ sponsorship of a website identifying “hotspots” in the Western Lake Erie Basin watershed for nutrient loading. The Western Lake Erie Basin Nutrient Sources Inventory is described as a “mapping tool that identifies causes of impairment and potential pollutant sources that need to be controlled to achieve desired nutrient load reductions.”

The tool reshuffled existing data and offered a new platform for old arguments about the role of agriculture in the Lake Erie’s water quality woes. From a related story on Toledo’s 13abc.com this week:

This summer was the third largest algal bloom outbreak in the history of Lake Erie.

It was so bad, algae backed up into the Maumee River in downtown Toledo.

The city and Lucas County are spending hundreds of millions of dollars fixing sewer and storm water runoff that dumps into the lake.

But now there’s hard evidence farms need to do more.

Monday, maps of the lower Maumee watershed pinpointed where nutrient runoff is concentrated–it’s primarily in farms south and west of Toledo.

Those areas indicate higher amounts of polluting phosphorous coming from those farmland areas.

Lucas County commissioner Pete Gerken implores farmers, “Don’t defend the status quo that is poisoning our lake.”

So the call is for farmers to dramatically cutback on fertilizer.

And the data-based maps could prove farmers they need to do more.

Commissioner Tina Skeldon-Wozniak says, “We have to begin to make progress and we believe this tool shows the areas where that can get done.”

Unfortunately, most of those within Toledo’s city limits are not familiar with the complexities or the realities of agricultural nutrient management. Improved nutrient management has been taking place for decades as part of a necessary, proactive and ongoing effort to improve agricultural production efficiency, economics and water quality.

“The data in the report isn’t new or news,” said Brandon Kern, Senior Director for Strategic Partnerships & Policy Outreach for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. “Farmers know they have a role in cleaning up the Lake. Their practical efforts, not political positioning, will get the job done.”

At yesterday’s 2017 Ohio Grain Farmers Symposium, researchers outlined the extreme complexity involved with agricultural nutrient management while also pointing out some of the practical efforts being implemented on farms, including tillage reduction to reduce soil erosion.

“The biggest thing that comes up over and over is controlling erosion risk. If you can keep your soil in the field, you reduce that particulate-bound phosphorus in the runoff and that is the biggest risk driver for most fields,” said Elizabeth Dayton, a soil scientist with Ohio State University at the Ohio Grain Farmers Symposium in Columbus. “And most everyone agrees that if you are banding or injecting you are getting good soil contact with your fertilizer and not increasing your erosion. The challenge is always the time, the talent and the funding to make that happen.”

USDA Agricultural Research Service agricultural engineer Kevin King agrees on the importance of getting nutrients under the soil surface as a part of the 4Rs. He also spoke at yesterday’s 2017 Ohio Grain Farmers Symposium.

“There are no silver bullets with this, but first and foremost is the 4Rs. We first have to identify the source of fertilizer we have and we need to be soil testing and adhering to those soil tests. We need to use the Tri-State recommendations and we need to be putting that fertilizer on as close to when the plant needs it as possible — no winter or fall applications. Then if you can get it below the surface, that is the ideal situation. We have got to get it in contact with the soil and get those nutrients down in that top inch or two,” King said. “We need to be talking about water management as well. We know that the largest amount of nutrients are transferred in those rainfall events that are an inch or two or greater. How do we store more of that water in our landscape? We’ve got means to do that. Drainage water management — this idea of artificially raising the outlet elevations of tile drainage — can go a long way in doing that. We can also raise the organic content of our soils through reduced tillage or no-till. For every percent of organic matter we can store an additional three-quarters of an inch of water. There is a new concept of using more retention/detention basins on the property to store water and maybe use that for irrigation at a later date. Being able to address some of the hydrology can keep water from going downstream.”

Accounting for the available phosphorus for the crop is also increasingly important, King said.

“Issues like legacy phosphorus are still unknown right now. Since the 1970s a lot of phosphorus went into the watersheds and we have enormous amounts in reserve out there in some fields. We need to be more aware of that,” King said. “We need to do soil tests and be aware of what is out there but we also need to make sure we move our mentality from a ‘build and maintain’ type approach to a ‘feed the crop’ mentality. Only put on what the crop needs or maybe a little less than the crop needs and understand that you have that legacy reserve out there. We need a better understanding of how much of that legacy phosphorus is transferred in any given year and is available to the plant.”

And, while the farm community is actively taking these and other steps to address water quality issues, there are no quick solutions to Lake Erie’s broad-based algal bloom problems, no matter what county commissioners, news reporters or a new tool using old data have to say about it.