NEW GRANT FOCUSES ON NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT, CLEANER LAKE ERIE WATER – Extension specialists with the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University will use more than $1 million in new funding to help farmers develop nutrient management plans and to assist fertilizer service providers gain certification in a national nutrient stewardship program.
The initiative — funded by $531,000 in grant money and $531,000 in local cash matches from various agencies and industry groups — targets Ohio’s western Lake Erie watershed, home to rich agricultural land dedicated to field crop production and an important source of nitrogen and phosphorus that can affect the lake’s water quality downstream, said Greg LaBarge, Ohio State University Extension field specialist for agronomic systems and co-leader of Ohio State’s Agronomic Crops Team.
OSU Extension is the statewide outreach arm of the college.
“The overall goal of the project is to continue to refine our nutrient management strategies to ensure better crop production with less residual nutrient exposed to loss,” LaBarge said. “Every field has different risks. Separating high-risk fields so they can be targeted with more layers of appropriate best management practices is essential to seeing fewer nutrients in water leaving fields.”
OHIO AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CHIEF TO RETIRE – Steve Slack, director of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), has announced he will retire at the end of 2015 after 16 years at the helm of the nation’s largest university agbiosciences research institution.
“After more than 40 years of faculty and administrative service, the time is right to transition to the next phase of my life,” said Slack, who is also associate vice president for agricultural administration at The Ohio State University. OARDC is the research arm of the university’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).
Slack joined OARDC after serving as chair of the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University (1995-1999), where he was also the Henry and Mildred Uihlein Professor of Plant Pathology beginning in 1988. Before that, he was a faculty member in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MANURE SCIENCE REVIEW SLATED AUG. 12 – Manure Science Review this year will have a clear focus on water.
The annual learning event will present more than a dozen sessions on getting the most from the nutrients in manure while limiting the chance of them reaching lakes and streams. It’s for farmers and others in the industry.
“Manure is an excellent soil amendment and provides nutrients for crop growth,” said Glen Arnold, an organizer of the event and manure nutrient management systems field specialist for Ohio State University Extension.
“Every positive step we take in properly applying manure is a positive step in the direction of better water quality,” he said.
Manure Science Review is 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 12 at Mississinawa Valley High School, 10480 Staudt Road, in Union City, Ohio, on the border with Indiana.
Registration is $25 by Aug. 4, $30 after that date, and includes a continental breakfast and lunch.
Register using the form in the flier at go.osu.edu/MSR2015, or send your name, contact information and check for payment to Mary Wicks, OARDC/OSU, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. Make checks payable to OARDC/OSU.
LONG WINS OHIO FARM BUREAU DISCUSSION MEET – Elizabeth Long of London is the winner of the 2015 Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) Discussion Meet. The final round of the competition was held during OFBF’s Young Agricultural Professionals Summer Reach Out event June 27 at Miami County Fairgrounds.
The annual contest tests participants’ subject knowledge, problem solving abilities and personal and small group communications skills.
Long won $1,000 from Nationwide Insurance, a Polaris Most Versatile Generator and an expense-paid trip to the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla. where she will represent Ohio in the national Discussion Meet contest.
Long is a Madison County Farm Bureau member where she serves as the communications action team leader. She also is a graduate of Ohio Farm Bureau’s AgriPOWER program Class V. She has a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University. Long is an agriculture and commercial loan officer with Merchants National Bank.
