Tuesday, January 14, 2014

CAUV update at Farmers Breakfast


Chris Sycks, Coshocton County Auditor, provided CAUV education to today's attendees of the Coshocton County Farmers Breakfast. Sycks explained the qualifications of land for CAUV status and changes to the latest application. In 2013 farmers in Coshocton county saved an average of 70 to 80% of their taxes! Call the Auditor's office with questions at 622-1243. Additional information on CAUV can be found at go.osu.edu/CAUV or at the auditor's website www.coshoctoncounty.net/agency/auditor/ . The next breakfast is Feb 11 and Adam Komer, Coshocton county service forester will speak on timber marketing. 7:00 am at Edie Ryan's restaurant. These breakfasts are a joint program of Coshocton county Soil & Water Conservation District, Farm Service Agency and OSU Extension. We hope to see you next month!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

There are always at least 2 sides to every story

Yesterday our local newspaper printed an Associated Press article titled "The secret, dirty cost of ethanol, Obama's green power push" This morning I came across this article from AgWeb (Farm Journal) AP ethanol report: 'Its just not true'  You can read each of these by clicking on the titles.

When it comes to potentially controversial issues, it is always wise to get different points of view. Though after reading both of these articles, I think there is probably a third article that could be written addressing the facts that both sides present.




Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Flying in Cover Crops

Yesterday was an exciting day in Coshocton County. The Coshocton County Soil and Water Conservation District offered a cost share program to plant cover crops in an effort to promote soil health and conservation. Three airplanes from Fisher Ag Service of Cardington sowed oats and rye onto 1500 acres of soybean fields in the county. You can learn more about this cover crop program at the Coshocton County Soil and Water Conservation District website.

 

Monday, September 9, 2013

Land Use and the American Diet

I received this very interesting article from Brent Sohngen, OSU Department of Agricultural and Environmental and Development Economics. You can find this post on his blog at Ohio Environment.
It is an interesting analysis of how our food consumption has changed in recent years and the response of agricultural production capabilities.

   Recent high prices for energy and food leave many concerned that we are pushing the limits of the earth's system with too many people and too much consumption. One example of our over-indulgence is meat eating.  Estimates vary, but in general, a cow has to eat 12 calories of food for us to get one calorie of edible meat.  Surely we would use less land and be better off if we just ate less red meat, right?
   Let's look more carefully at this question. Just how much land does our meat eating use?  Beef is intensive, and the typical American's annual beef intake is 58 pounds.  It takes about 2400 square feet of cropland to produce that beef, or the size of the average house.  As a whole, we use about 6% of our cropland to grow our annual beef intake.
   Other sources of meat are more efficient than beef.  It takes 2 calories of input for a calorie of pork, and 4 calories of input for a calorie of chicken.  This translates into 400-600 square feet of land, or an area of land about the size of our living rooms, for us to eat the equivalent number of calories as 58 pounds of beef. If we want to use soybeans, tofu, other kinds of beans, or tree nuts like almonds instead, we would use up more land than if we were to get the same number of calories from pigs and chickens. 
   Well, if we are not using that much land now, aren't we constantly using more land, and consuming more food? One economic "certainty" from the past is that the wealthier people are, the more meat they eat.  In the US, meat consumption grew substantially after World War II as per capita income rose, and the middle class grew.  People in other parts of the world are less wealthy than we are, and they eat far less meat right now. As their incomes rise, they will consume more meat.
   The food reality here in America, though, is not one of endlessly increasing consumption.  Over the past 30 years, our diet has actually become a lot less land consuming. Actually, it's pretty amazing what we have done.  Based on our typical diet today, we eat the equivalent of about half an acre each year.  Back in 1980 we used two-thirds of an acre, or about 35% more land per person, for our food consumption.  How have we managed to economize like this? 
   First, we seem to have turned the corner on overall food consumption.  Between 1980 and 2004 per person food consumption in the US rose by 0.6% per year, but it has fallen ever since.  This recent reduction probably results from higher real food prices, but it may also have to do with the influence of our national dialogue on obesity.  Second, we've changed our diet by consuming more poultry and tree nuts, and less beef.  We have traded off more land consuming foods for less land consuming foods. 
   Third, we have dramatically increased the productivity of our agriculture.  Food production in the US, as measured by cereal yields, has increased by 1.6% per year since 1980.  About half of the reduction in land needed for our consumption is due to a change in our diet, and the other half is due to an improvement in land productivity.
   We are 38% richer in real terms, and population has grown by 36% since 1980, but today we only need 145 million acres to feed ourselves, down from 147 million in 1980. We nevertheless still use about 335 million acres of productive cropland, and an additional 700 million acres of less productive land. The excess food we produce is exported or turned into ethanol.
   Eating less meat will not necessarily cause us to use less farmland – exports and ethanol are just too lucrative. But eating less meat, when combined with productivity improvements, does help us use the land we have more effectively.  Given a rising global middle class in Latin America and Asia that will demand more food and meat, this will be a good lesson for other countries to learn.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Sheep Grazing Management Tour

Last Friday I had the chance to see 4 great Amish grazing farms in northern Coshocton and southern Holmes counties. The Sheep Grazing Management Tour was a joint effort of Ohio Heartland Sheep Improvement Association, Ohio Forage and Grasslands Council, Ohio Sheep Improvement Association, and Ohio State University Extension. The theme for the day was certainly that we all learn when we share ideas and experiences with one another. Here are some photos below from the tour. Also, if you are interested in learning more about grazing, this series of online modules covers everything from understanding forage growth to pasture layout and design. Click here to learn more: Pastures for Profit Grazing School- online modules

Bob Hendershot shares advice about
establishing and maintaining pasture grasses
 and legumes for grazing at the first stop in
Coshocton County near New Bedford. OSU Extension educators
Rory Lewandowski and Jeff McCutcheon look on.
Katahdin and Dorper sheep.
Participants admire the spring on this farm


Electric netting fence
Our bus drivers did a tremendous job
 navigating the county and township
 roads of Coshocton and Holmes county.
 
Jeff McCutcheon, OSU Extension, teaches how to calculate the amount of dry matter available to livestock in a pasture.
 

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Local Foods Cooking Class for Children

OSU Extension and Local Bounty Coshocton have been offering Cooking Classes for children age 4-10 this summer. The purpose of the classes are to teach children how fun and delicious cooking can be- especially with food you grow yourself. It also shows them foods that are grown and sold locally here in Coshocton County. During today's class we grilled pizzas made with vegetables from all colors of the rainbow - red tomatoes, orange and yellow peppers, green zucchini, purple (red) onions- not to mention cheese, pepperoni and sausage all on pitas made by a local baker. The children were even able to add fresh herbs that we planted during the first class in May. Here are some highlights of the day:
Instructor Kristi Adelsberger helps the children select fresh herbs to add to their pizza creations.
Instructor Marissa Mullett passes out the pitas for children to add toppings.


 
 






Thursday, June 13, 2013

Flooded fields

What a storm last night! We got a lot of rain in Coshocton County in the last 12 hours. Anyone with produce may be wondering if it is safe to harvest vegetables (primarily leafy greens) that are in flooded fields. Please read this Fact Sheet from OSU Extension Produce Safety and Flooded Fields.

If the water that has flooded the field is from the flooding of a water source like a river or stream, then the vegetables should not be consumed. This is considered high risk, because there is no way to know what contamination could have been introduced into the field with that water. However, if the flooding is due to ponding, just too much rain on saturated soil, and no edible portion has contacted the water, then vegetables could be harvested. This is considered lower risk, but still requires a thorough risk assessment.

The Fact Sheet will walk you through a risk assessment to determine recommended actions.