southwest acres april 2013

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6 Charles Grimes:Farmer, teacher

8 McClish nursery

10 Maple syrupseason begins

11 Ohio nut farms

12 Falling in lovewith goat farming

14 Anhydrous risks

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A typicalopen-airmarket insoutheastAsia. This

one islocated insouthernTaiwan inTaoyuan.

By GARY [email protected]

How can Ohio farmers capitalize on theever-growing agricultural needs of China?When asked by ACRES of Southwest

Ohio what one thing Ohio farmers could do tomake money on China’s growing needs forAmerican farm exports, retired Ohio State in-ternational agriculture economist Dr. AllanLines said it in one word - alfalfa.

The world’s largest nation is going toneed more and more of it. Dr. Lines saysChina wants the best quality alfalfa thatthey can find. And he says the Chinese arewilling to pay a premium price for it.

Why alfalfa?China has limited land resources, and a

growing demand for beef and dairy prod-ucts. Dr. Lines says that going into the fu-ture, China has no way of feeding properlythe beef and dairy cattle in their country.

“With the growth of beef and dairy facili-ties in China, they do not have the ability toprovide the forage for the animals,” Dr.Lines said.

He said there is a great opportunity here forOhio farmers, a community and/or an entrepre-neur to “get into the dried alfalfa business.”

IS ALFALFA THENEXT BIG EXPORT CROP?

OHIO FARMERS POISEDTO MEET CHINA’S NEEDS


T here isn’t one thing Ohio farmers need to know aboutChina’s affect on Ohio agriculture. There are two.And while Ohio State University’s retired interna-

tional agriculture economist Dr. Allan Lines says Ohiofarmers are all too familiar with the affect China has on theprice of corn and soybeans they receive - most Ohioans arenot aware of two more important factors in the “Ohio -China Connection” that will impact the future of Ohiofarming.

“Ohio farmers need to be more aware of the behemoththat constitutes Chinese agricultural production, eclipsingmost other countries in the world in the production of manycommodities, and doing it on a limited amount of land” Dr.Lines said.

The second factor, and the one that will have a majorimpact on the future of American farming, is what Dr.Lines says is the “changing diets” in the world’s largestcountry.

China’s population is approximately 1.35 billion people- almost one out of four people on Earth. That population’seating habits are changing, brought on in part by America’simporting “fast food” restaurants by the thousands in thelast two decades and a rising economy. As a result, Dr.Lines says Chinese citizens are eating less grain, fewervegetables and more meat.

WWoorrlldd’’ss llaarrggeesstt ccoouunnttrryy nnoott aabbllee ttoo ffeeeedd iittss ppeeooppllee,, llooookkss ttoo UU..SS.. ffoorr ffoooodd aanndd ffeeeedd

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2A April 2013 ACRES of Southwest Ohio

Ohio’s farmers are frustrated.Not only do they have to face- every day - the “normal”

challenges of being farmers, theymust also face wave after wave ofchanges, regulations, new paperworkand new expenses coming fromColumbus and Washington.

While I have no doubt that someof these new regulations are neces-sary, it seems that as we enter whatsome are calling a “Golden Age” inOhio farming, our government istaking this opportunity to tightenregulations and expand their controlsover what farmers do every day.

In the March edition of ACRES,there were several stories about newfederal food safety requirements andOhio water quality regulations. Thewater quality issues involved fertilizerrunoff for the most part. Part of whathas made some - perhaps many -farmers unhappy is the assumptionmade in Columbus from the OhioEPA, the USDA and ODNR (thethree agencies assigned by Gov. Ka-sich last year with fixing Ohio’s waterquality problems) that much of theproblem came from Ohio’s farmers.

At a February seminar for farmersin Fayette County, an Ohio State Ex-tension representative made it clearthat like it or not, “it is what it is” re-garding these runoff issues and theneed for Ohio’s farmers to change.That may well be. But farmers cer-tainly are not liking it.

A couple weeks ago, I received anemail from one Greene Countyfarmer who was not happy with theblame for the state’s water quality is-sues being place, even in part, onOhio’s farmers. He wanted to remainanonymous, but here is what heshared with me in his email:

”Having read your remarks in theAcres paper last month I thinksomeone should ask thesefine government folkswho seem to haveall the correct an-swers somequestions.Would it not

seem correct to have some testsshowing just when and where thephosphorous is entering the streams?Just because phosphorous has been“pointed” to would it not be correctfor the media to ask who is doing thepointing, where do they get their in-formation, how do they get it, whatmakes them think it is correct, whendid they get this information gath-ered, what tests have been done atthe outlets into the lakes and streamsfrom the sewage and storm waterdischarge pipes from the cities andtowns, or is it simply cheaper toblame the farmer and not fix any ofthe other source points because ofcost, politics, or gross vote totals?

“These people are aces at avoid-ing direct answers and of coursethere is always the old saying that ifyour repeat a lie often enough it be-comes the truth, that and no organ-ized opposition makes it becomeeven easier. Just because the speakeris from Ohio State does not mean hehas done the proper backgroundwork and that is the reason thereneeds to be questions — and noslack answers. Just the place themedia is supposed to fill — Frommy position I know we are not usingnearly as much phosphorous as weused to — if for no other reason thancost, and now with

global positioning and computersmany farmers are only applyingwhere fertilizer is actually neededand of course there are many moreacres of no till — how does that addup to more loss into the water???

“As we continue to allow govern-ment to regulate and force laws uponus, where does it stop? Our freedomsare being lost almost on a dailybasis, I would submit to you it can-not continue down this path for long— go and read the history of the last10 years before the Civil War, it willmake you think— or at least itshould. Remember, some day it willbe your turn to take the heat fromgovernment - will there be anybodyleft who cares?”

Clearly this farmer is frustratedwith the finger-pointing comingfrom Columbus, and Washington to-ward our farmers.

I agree that there are times whenregulations are needed, and our waterand quality must be protected at allcosts. However, the response and reg-ulations must be measured and appro-priate. Are the regulations and newrequirements an over-reaction? Arefarmers seen as an “easy target” frompoliticians in Columbus who canforce these changes on rural commu-nities and then they “are doing some-thing” to solve the problem? I don’tthink there is much doubt about theanswer to that question.

(Gary Brock is editor of ACRESof Southwest Ohio. Please email himat [email protected] withyour comments)

Pointing fingers at farmersGGaarryy BBrroocckkis Editor-In-Chief of Acres

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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of Southwest OhioApril 2013

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When rolled together,the limited amount of landand the increasing need for“animal protein” in Chinawill cause a huge jump inagricultural imports fromthe United States to Chinain coming years.

“Ohio farmers need tobetter understand the lim-its to farm production inChina - land, water and theenvironment,” Dr. Linessaid.

It may surprise manyOhioans that China, theworld’s largest nation inland mass, is mostlydesert. In fact, he says thatChina’s “tillable” land isabout two-thirds of theUnited States’ availableland for farming.

“If you go west of Bei-jing, you move into adesert region,” he said.“And that desert region ismoving east.” He said thiswas partly caused by cli-mate change and partly bymismanagement of theMongolian plains area. Hesaid years ago, Russiatried to transform thishuge region in a new“wheat belt” - with disas-trous results. The regiondried up, and is expanding.

Dr. Lines also saidChina has serious air qual-ity problems and very seri-ous water qualityproblems. However, headds that China’s govern-ment is denying it has anyof these problems. So theproblems aren’t goingaway any time soon.

And then there is thechange in diet of the Chi-nese people. It is thatchange, coupled withgrowing restrictions onChina’s ability to farm its

own land, that will creategreat opportunities forOhio’s farmers.

“Up until the 1980s, theChinese people were es-sentially vegetarians. Thestart of the change wasswitching from rice boiledin water to rice cookedwith soy oil,” he said.

What caused thebiggest change in thisCommunist-run societywas American Capitalism.As American companiesbegan buying more inex-pensive products fromChina, the incomes of Chi-nese workers began to rap-idly increase (at leastcomparably). And for thefirst time, the average Chi-

nese citizen could afford tobuy something that in thepast was an unobtainableluxury - meat.

And buy it they did, ac-cording to Dr. Lines. “Itstarted with chicken, porkand eggs and has pro-gressed to dairy and beef,”he said. He added thattoday, Chinese childrenconsume as much milkand dairy products asAmerican children - un-heard of 20 years ago.

But China does nothave the capability of pro-viding the cattle, hogs andchicken with the roughage- the quality feed neededto produce quality meatprotein. China cannot pro-

duce enough corn to feedits livestock.

And consider this:China produces 53,747thousand metric tons ofmeat each year. That ranksit number one in the world,and that still is not enoughto satisfy its citizens’ de-sires for meat protein.

Dr. Lines said the Chi-nese government has nowdone something very smart- it has decided that thereare some things easier tobuy abroad than to try toproduce itself. But also,the Chinese governmentpicked farm produce thatno one country has a mo-nopoly in. That way, noforeign country can hold

supply and prices overtheir heads.

For example, soybeans.Ironically, soybeans comefrom China, but they haveessentially given up grow-ing it in favor of importingit from other countries.But America has no mo-nopoly on soybean pro-duction. If we don’t keepcosts low and quality high,China can go to Brazil, Ar-gentina, eastern Europe orAfrica. The same appliesto cotton. And wheat.

However, at present theUnited States does have amonopoly on corn produc-tion worldwide. Dr. Linessays that is why China isemphasizing corn produc-tion in its own country tofight the American monop-oly. He said at presentChina produced abouttwo-thirds of the U.S.’s165 bushels of corn peracre average.

Dr. Lines said the otherbig change taking place inChinese agriculture is theshift from backyard live-stock production (animalssubsisting on farm andhousehold waste) to inten-sified “western-style” ani-mal production. Thesemodern systems will re-quire immense amountsgrains, grain products,

soybeans and soy products– amounts beyond China’scapacity to produce. Thisincludes beef, pork, dairyand poultry production.

So, with all the growingneeds from a hungryworld, especially China,what advice does Dr. Linesgive Ohio farmers to takeadvantage of this growingneed?

Here is what he sug-gests:

1. Ohio farmers need tokeep producing more andmore soybeans and corn;

2. They must continueto be the low cost pro-ducer of soybeans andcorn;

3. Farmers must makesure they lay the plans forefficient farm managementso that the crops are pro-duced with no waste of en-ergy, time or money;

4. Farmers need tospend more time develop-ing systems to producelow cost and high qualitymeat products - with anemphasis on dairy, porkand chicken;

5. When China looksabroad for produce, it islooking for high quality.“Get the food to them inthe manner they want,”said Dr. Lines;

6. Remember that peo-ple are people, and theChinese people are likeeveryone else - they likemeat;

7. Americans, Ohiofarmers, need to “get intoChina with a strong mar-keting program” to pushour agriculture products;

8. Provide a high-qual-ity resource the Chinesecannot produce, but need.For Ohio farmers, thatcould be alfalfa. It is high-quality alfalfa that the Chi-nese will need more of inthe future for their live-stock (See related story.)

For Dr. Lines, what isthe bottom line for Ohiofarmers as they look toprovide more exports ofproduce to China?

“The over-arching storyis - the world’s largestagricultural producer withrising incomes and in-creased animal proteinconsumption cannot nowand will not be able tofeed itself in the future.”

(Gary Brock is editor ofACRES of SouthwestOhio.)

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CHINAContinued from page 1A

An open-air market in southeast Asia has dried beef and oth-er produce on display. This one is located in southern Taiwan in Taoyuan.

By CARLETA WEYRICH [email protected]

Still reeling from one ofthe worst droughts onrecord in 2012, what canOhio farmers look forwardto in the 2013-14 crop andmarketing year?

There’s no drought insight for the Ohio Valleythrough the end of June, ac-cording to the U.S. DroughtMonitor, a product of theNational Weather Service.However, that predictioncomes with the warning touse the information cau-tiously for applications suchas crops. The Old Farmer’sAlmanac, which claims 80percent accuracy, predicts

the remainder of the springand summer to be “slightlywarmer and rainier thannormal, with the hottest pe-riods in late July and mid-August.”

The Economic ResearchCenter of the United StatesDepartment of Agricultureput out its 10-year projec-tions for the U.S. food andagriculture sector in Febru-ary. Planted area for theeight major field crops* in2013 is projected at morethan 254 million acres,making 2013 plantings thesecond largest acreage since2000. As U.S. and globalsupplies rebound and pricesdecline for most crops, U.S.planted acreage for these

crops is projected to fallover the next several yearsin response to lower pro-ducer returns.

For the wheat marketingyear of June 1, 2013 to May31, 2014:

Wheat to be harvestedthis summer is expected toproduce 45.2 bushels perharvested acre and bring aprice of $7.20 per bushel.The variable costs of pro-ducing the wheat are pre-dicted to be at $127 peracre, leaving $199 per acreto cover fixed costs andprofit.

Looking farther downthe road, U.S. wheat sup-plies are predicted to be up29 million bushels by the

end of the marketing year,compared to beginningstocks - and the price is pre-dicted to fall to $5.40 perbushel by the 2014-15 mar-keting year.

For the marketing yearbeginning Sept. 1 for soy-beans:

Soybean yields are pre-dicted to be at 44.4 bushelsper acre in 2013. With apredicted price of $11.35and variable costs of pro-duction at $147 per acre, thenet return left for fixed costsand profit would be $357per acre.

Ending stocks are ex-pected to be up $12 millionbushels from beginningstocks, with the price to be

down about $1 per bushel inthe 2014-15 marketing year.

Marketing year begin-ning September 1, 2013 forcorn:

The 2013 corn harvest ispredicted to yield 163.5bushels per acre, comparedto a 122.3 bushel yield in2012. The price is expectedto drop $2 per bushel to$5.40. The variable costs ofproduction is expected to be$349 per acre, leaving $534per acre to cover fixed costsand profit.

Although exports are ex-pected to be up for corn,due to the higher yields,stocks are predicted to in-crease 1 billion, 420 millionbushels by the end of the

marketing year. The price ispredicted to drop anotherdollar per bushel by the fol-lowing crop year.

The corn and soybeanpredictions are estimatedover the past 25 years(1988-2012), which in-cludes both the 1988 andthe 2012 droughts.

* The eight major fieldcrops covered in the 10-yearprojection are corn,sorghum, barley, oats,wheat, rice, upland cottonand soybeans. For more in-formation, go towww.ers.usda.gov.

(Carleta Weyrich is astaff writer for The People’sDefender in Adams County.)

What will spring 2013 hold for Ohio farmers?Predictions made for rainfall, crops for this year

China and Chinese agriculture by thenumbers (production is annual):Total Population: 1.35 billion

Farm Land: 255.4 million acres - 4thin world

(U.S. farm land - 436.5 million acres -1st in world)

Corn Production: 114,000 metrictons - 3rd in world

(U.S. - 259,273 thousand metric tons- 2nd in world)

Tractors: 841,073 - 11th in the world(U.S. - 4.8 million - 2nd in the world)

Labor force in agriculture: 66%(U.S. farm labor force - 2%)


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He said farmers here inOhio could provide thepellet/wafer alfalfa forChina.

“We would grow it, dryit, press it (process it),place it in containers andship it to China,: Dr. Linessaid.

Why Ohio? Dr. Linessaid it can now be donemore cheaply in Ohio be-cause of the drop in priceand ease of availability ofnatural gas needed to fuela processing plant to drythe alfalfa.

So, for the uninitiatedjust what is alfalfa?

Alfalfa is a floweringplant widely grownthroughout the world asforage for cattle, and ismost often harvested ashay, but can also be madeinto silage, grazed, or fedgreenchop. Alfalfa usuallyhas the highest feedingvalue of all common haycrops. It is used less fre-quently as pasture. Whengrown on soils where it iswell-adapted, alfalfa isoften the highest yieldingforage plant, but its pri-mary benefit is the combi-nation of high yield perhectare and high nutri-tional quality.

Its primary use is asfeed for high producingdairy cows — because ofits high protein contentand highly digestiblefiber—and secondarily forbeef cattle, horses, sheep,

and goats. Alfalfa isbelieved by some to be agalactagogue, a substancethat induces lactation.

Like other legumes, itsroot nodules contain bacte-ria, with the ability to soilIts nitrogen-fixing abilities(which increases soil nitro-gen) and its use as an ani-mal feed greatly improveagricultural efficiency.

Alfalfa can be sown inspring or fall, and doesbest on well-drained soilswith a neutral pH of 6.8 –7.5. Alfalfa requires sus-tained levels of potassiumand phosphorus to growwell. It is moderately sen-sitive to salt levels in boththe soil and irrigationwater, although it contin-ues to be grown in the aridsouthwestern UnitedStates, where salinity is anemerging issue. Soils lowin fertility should be fertil-ized with manure or achemical fertilizer, but cor-rection of pH is particu-larly important.

In most climates, alfalfais cut three to four times ayear. Total yields are typi-cally around 4 short tonsper acre in temperate envi-ronments, but yields havebeen recorded up to 16short tons per acre. Yieldsvary with region, weather,and the crop’s stage of ma-turity when cut. Later cut-tings improve yield, butwith reduced nutritionalcontent.

“It is a premium mar-ket,” said Dr. Lines. “They(the Chinese) want the best

possible quality of alfalfapossible, and they are will-ing to pay for it.”

But growing it is justhalf the job. The most im-portant part is the actualprocessing of the alfalfa.The main job of a process-ing plant is to dehydrate,or dry, the alfalfa. Oncedried, it can be turned intopellets, wafers or powderand then shipped.

“A community could setup a facility - a processingplant - to dehydrate the al-falfa, process it, then shipit.”

However, before Ohiofarmers starts searching foran entrepreneur to bankrollat processing plant, theyneed to be aware of a fewadditional facts: in the lastdecade of the 20th century,more than 200 such pro-cessing plants closed theirdoors, according to infor-mation from several alfalfaassociations across theU.S.

And while times maybe changing and the mar-ket might be right for in-vesting in such a facility,there are still an estimated200 plants in the U.S. al-ready, many on the westcoast, with more still inCanada.

But Dr. Lines says Ohiois still in a unique positionto start such an operationefficiently, and at less cost,than many other states.

(Gary Brock is editor ofACRES of SouthwestOhio.)

ALFALFAContinued from page 1A

An alfalfa processing plant is shown above.

By MARTHA FILIPICOSU Extension

COLUMBUS — When he was about8 years old growing up in the small townof Vernal, Utah, E. Gordon Gee joined4-H, the youth development program ofthe nation’s land-grant universities andCooperative Extension System.

Now president of The Ohio StateUniversity, overseeing six campuses,65,000 students and 42,000 faculty andstaff, Gee is among the most highly ex-perienced, respected and recognizedleaders in higher education. And hegives credit to 4-H for helping set himon his successful path.

“I greatly valued my 4-H experi-ence,” Gee said. “I believe 4-H first in-stilled in me the value of community,and it also provided some of my earliestopportunities to work with peers as partof a team.

His years in 4-H weren’t withoutchallenges, though. In fact, one of his fa-vorite stories about his 4-H years in-volves an ant farm: “I thought I had beenvery diligent in building the farm andcaring for the ants. But, all the ants died!Because of that experience, I like to jokethat I was not a very good 4-H’er.”

In 4-H, such missteps aren’t seen asfailures, said Tom Archer, Ohio’s stateleader for 4-H Youth Development andassistant director of Ohio State Univer-sity Extension. They offer young peoplethe opportunity to learn from mistakes ina nurturing environment and understandhow to rebound from setbacks. OSU Ex-tension is the outreach arm of the Col-lege of Food, Agricultural, andEnvironmental Sciences.

“I am often approached by peoplewho tell me the team-building, decision-making and problem-solving skills theydeveloped in 4-H became invaluable tothem in their professional and personallives as adults,” Archer said. “In 4-H,youths learn not only how to work to-ward a goal, but how to communicateabout what they’ve done, and the valueof giving back to their community.”

Ohio’s 250,000 4-H members are ad-vised by nearly 22,000 adult volunteers,most of whom work with membersthrough the state’s 4,547 4-H clubs. In

addition, nearly 7,200 teens volunteer inthe state’s 4-H programs. Children asyoung as age 5 and in kindergarten canjoin the 4-H non-competitive Cloverbudprogram; those age 8 and in third gradeup to age 18 can join clubs and choosefrom more than 200 hands-on projects toexplore.

The impact of 4-H is clear. The 4-HStudy of Positive Youth Development,an ongoing study by the Institute for Ap-plied Research in Youth Development atTufts University, shows that 4-H partici-pants are: More likely to get bettergrades in school. More likely to plan togo to college. More likely to pursuecourses or careers in science, engineer-ing or computer technology. More likelyto positively contribute to their familiesand communities. Less likely to engagein risky behaviors.

And, despite the stereotype, 4-H isn’tjust for rural kids. Gee, who also isproud to serve on the National 4-HCouncil Board of Trustees, sees thathimself:

“As president of Ohio State, I fre-quently travel to all corners of Ohio, andI can tell you that 4-H is everywhere —in both rural and urban communities,cities and small towns. Truly, 4-H pro-vides a model of leadership developmentfor young people of all walks of life.”

For more about Ohio 4-H, visithttp://ohio4H.org.

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Farm products end up not onlyon dining room tables, butalso go toward health-care

goods, energy uses and other use-ful things, the Ohio department ofagriculture director said recentlyin Clinton County.

And Ohio Department of Agri-culture Director David T. Danielsanticipates the types of uses forthe state’s agricultural productswill only increase in the future,with research into plants yieldingresults having economic or humanimpact.

Daniels on March 14 continuedto observe Ohio Agriculture Weekon two stops near Wilmington -Stokes Berry Farm on CenterRoad and JD Equipment on U.S.68 north of town.

“My goodness, we’re makingrubber from dandelions now.Maybe you’ll be driving on tiresone of these days produced fromdandelions,” Daniels said inside agreenhouse on the 230-acre StokesBerry Farm.

Agriculture and food already is

Ohio’s number one industry, ac-cording to the Ohio Department ofAgriculture which sets the eco-nomic impact at $105 billion.

“We just want people to knowhow important and how large agri-culture is to the state,” saidDaniels.

Daniels was asked about thethought that research in the life sci-ences, which includes botany andanimal science among other spe-cialties, might have as big an effectas research in the electronics fieldhas.

“Yeah, I believe that,” he said,mentioning the research that theStokes operation takes part in re-garding the use of black raspber-ries to help prevent cancers.Daniels formerly represented Clin-ton County in the Statehouse andwas already familiar with theStokes operation prior to Thurs-day’s visit.

“But also know there’s researchgoing on at Ohio State all the timeon a number of different things,”added Daniels.

Earlier, the state director ofagriculture said, “Every day there’sresearch that unlocks some new

use for the products that are beingproduced right here in Ohio.”

Daniels said that ranges fromthe dried fruit industry to energyresearch.

“All those kind of things arethings that our agribusinesses andour producers are producing righthere in Ohio,” said Daniels.

Ohio already has operations in-volving 200 different crops, hesaid.

Recently, he saw an operationwhere the farmer’s entire businesson his 173 acres is herbs and veg-etables.

That producer markets the herbsand vegetables directly to chefsaround the world, according toDaniels, shipping to all 50 statesand 31 countries.

Further, “He is refining the re-frigeration process for overnightdelivery of vegetables picked onhis farm,” said Daniels.

The agriculture director made16 on-site visits in conjunctionwith Ohio Agriculture Week.

(Gary Huffenberger is a staffwriter for The Wilmington NewsJournal.)

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By CARLY [email protected]

It’s a cold, quiet Februarymorning.

The fields lining Grimes Roadare barren, nothing but grasslightly covered in the fallingsnow.

A quarter mile down the drivesits a house, isolated, amongst thequietness of it all. The main por-tion is red brick, clearly an addi-tion onto the small, historic whitehome in front of it.

I knock on the door, nervousto meet the local man I had heardso much about. His wife, Nancy,answers.

I am at Maplecrest Farm.We exchange cheery introduc-

tions as she leads me into thetoasty house, to a big, brownleather sofa in their living roomwhere Charles Grimes, 80, sits.

It’s uncertain how much timeI’ll have with this man, and see-ing that I am new to the area anddon’t know him like the long-term residents do, I ask him tostart from the beginning.

Without even knowing him, Ican feel he’s about to tell me agreat story.

“This is my home — the frontpart over here is where we wereborn, my brother and I,” Charlessays, nodding toward the old,

white structure in the front. “I’mthe fourth generation to live here,and when my kids take over thisthey’ll be the fifth generation tohave lived here.”

Hard work, the pursuit of edu-cation, family values and a littlebit of luck are what led Charles tobe one of the most interesting andsuccessful farmers in the area: tobe the founder of what is now anationally known Angus breedingoperation while climbing theranks of local education is cer-tainly a feat unmatched by anyother local.

The couple lives in AdamsCounty, but back when Charleswas in school the area was part ofByrd Rural School District, inDecatur.

“When I was in high school,there was everything here on thefarm,” Charles says. “We had

hogs, we had chickens, we hadthe dairy cows, the beef cows.Very self-sustaining.”

Nancy joins us as she sits onanother sofa in the room.

“It was very diversified,”Nancy says.

“While I was in high school, Ihad the Jersey cattle and so Ispent quite a bit of time in thesummer showing the cattle, youknow, showing the Jerseys,”Charles says.

He was also in 4-H.“I showed at the Brown

County Fair — that was myhome fair — but I also showed inAdams County and SciotoCounty and Pike County,”Charles says.

“And the state fair,” Nancyadds.

Nancy is clearly meant to behis other half, I think.

“I graduated from Byrd Ruralin 1950 and went to Ohio State,”Charles says.

He was a dairy science major.“It’s what I wanted to do: I

was the first one in the family toreally assume the cattle,” Charlessays. “I did get involved in theuniversity 4-H as well as theDairy Science Club. I was amember of the dairy cattle judg-ing team — my senior year myteam won the national contest.”

“He scored the highest in thejudging contest,” Nancy says.

I smile at how proud she is.Shortly thereafter, Charles

graduated from Ohio State in1954.

“Because of that [contest] Igot a scholarship to do graduatework,” Charles says. “But therewas an interference because in1954, in that spring, I was set to

go to Denmark on the Interna-tional Farm Youth Exchange Pro-gram — we called it ‘iffy’ forshort. And that’s where I metNancy — she’s a Kansas gal.”

They smile at each other.For being 80 years old, he is

as sharp as a tack, throwing outdates and telling short storieswith details as if they happenedyesterday — it’s amazing. I rarelycan remember what I eat forbreakfast hours later.

Charles was in Denmark forabout a year, from 1954 to 1955,and graduated in June of 1955.The following month, he enlistedin the Air Force and served twoyears.

“I went through four years ofROTC at Ohio State,” Charlessays. “So because I had four

Southern Ohio farmer a wealth of knowledge,experience on the farmand in the classroom

Charles Grimes: Farmer, teacher, mentor

See GRIMES/7A

Charles Grimes, 80, lives today on his family farm on GrimesRoad in Adams County.

years of ROTC I was al-lowed to enlist in the AirForce for just two years —usually it was three orfour.”

He was stationed in theUnited States and wasnever deployed.

You could say every-thing happens for a reason.

When he got out of theAir Force in 1957, he en-rolled at the University ofIllinois where he earned hisMaster’s degree in Agricul-ture for being a dairy sci-ence major.

“We got married in ’58,”Nancy says.

“I was in grad school atthe time,” Charles says. “Iwas in grad school forabout a year and a half, twoyears.”

We talk for a bit abouthow long the two had been“going steady.”

When Charles finishedhis Master’s degree at theUniversity of Illinois, heand Nancy returned to hisfamily’s home and heplanned on being a dairyfarmer.

“My dad had passedaway while I was in the AirForce and our dairy herdwas fairly small at thattime,” Charles says.

Hard work and life ex-periences had brought himthis far, and he was prepar-ing to grow the herd.

That’s when luck cameknocking.

“I would say, oh, thesummer of ’59, Hugh Bal-ridge — he was the super-intendent at West UnionSchools before the consoli-dation — he came knock-ing on my door and wantedto know if I would be inter-ested in teaching science,”Charles says.

I’m immediately in-trigued and happy for his54-years-ago self.

“I think that’s an un-usual situation, how he gotstarted in teaching,” Nancysays. “Can you imaginesomebody coming to yourdoor to offer you a job?Teachers today, you have tosearch first.”

She’s right.“I accepted it,” Charles

says.But the gesture required

additional work — Charlesmajored in dairy science,not education.

“I think it’s kind of in-teresting they offered himthe job,” Nancy said. “Ifyou realize that he had hisBachelor’s degree and hisMaster’s degree in dairyscience — he didn’t havehis education courses.”

Charles went to Wilm-ington College to get histeaching license. His firstyear of teaching he taughton a temporary certificatewhile taking educationcourses at Wilmington Col-lege.

Whiles Charles wasteaching at West Union, hestarted taking educationclasses at Ohio University— Portsmouth. Then hespent two summers at OhioUniversity — Athens.

“I did enough coursework to get a second Mas-ter’s but I had to write athesis and so forth and Ijust wasn’t that much inter-ested,” Charles says.

“But he had enoughcourses that he could’vehad it,” Nancy adds.

Initially, Charles had noproblem balancing his ca-reer in education with hiscareer in farming.

“There really wasn’t anyproblem that first year be-cause we had signed a two-year visa for a young manfrom Denmark to come tothe United States with theunderstanding that hewould stay with us for theyear and then he’d have ayear to do what he wantedto do,” Charles says. “Sothat first year, he did themilking, and of course Ijust helped on the farm

when I wasn’t at school.”Then things got tricky.“So he left after the first

year, and then I hired localpeople to do the milkingbut that didn’t work out be-cause sometimes theydidn’t show,” Charles says.“After the first year I de-cided that I either had tosell the dairy cows, or quitteaching.”

Charles decided to sellthe dairy cows.

“We were probablymilking about 20 cows atthat time,” Charles says.“That wasn’t enough cowsto run a full-time dairyfarm.”

So he sold the dairycows and then bought oneAngus, which slowly grewto a few Angus cattle,which his niece andnephew showed.

“Then my own kidsstarted showing Angus fe-males and crossbred steers,and so we were just, youknow, a small herd, limitedfarming. My mother al-ways regretted that, shewished I had kept the dairycows — my work with ed-ucation came first.”

Charles taught at WestUnion for four years, from1959-1963, then he went toManchester and was theprincipal there from 1963-1973.

Then a second knockcame.

“I had wanted to moveon from Adams CountySchools, but the GoodLord, it’s in his time,”Charles says. “But it wasn’tmuch longer before Super-intendent Yockey cameknocking on my door andasked if I would considerbeing the principal at East-ern.”

After Charles acceptedthe job at Eastern, he andNancy moved from Man-chester back to his family’sfarm.

Their kids also startedshowing locally around1970.

The couple has fourchildren: John, Joan,David, Jennifer. Interest-ingly, John followed in hisdad’s agricultural footstepsand Jennifer is now theprincipal at Eastern HighSchool.

David is now an attor-ney in private practice inthe West Union area andJoan is also in educationand is the Pre-K supervisorfor the Brown County Edu-cational Service Center inGeorgetown.

“It’s interesting howthings work out becausethat summer, the summerof ’73, I was renting thisfarm then to somebodyelse,” Charles says. “Ithought we were just goingto move out to the farm forthe summer.”

But once that secondknock came, Charles de-cided to stay on the familyfarm.

Charles was a principalat the Eastern Local SchoolDistrict from 1973-1978when the school boardasked if he would like tomove from principal to su-perintendent, a position heaccepted and held from1978-1987.

In all, he spent about 13years working in AdamsCounty and 14 years inBrown County.

And throughout his edu-cational career, Charles stillmaintained the farm withhis older brother, Earl.

“My brother and I bothworked off the farm,”

Charles says. “On a limitedscale, we kept the farmgoing. We had a small herdof cattle, beef cattle at thattime.”

Charles and his brotherkept the farm on this lim-ited scale until he retired in1987.

“After that, we ex-panded the operation andthe kids showed more,”Charles says. “My kids gotinto showing in a big wayand so I kept active withthe herd from ’87 until, oh,about 10 years ago, in2003,” Charles said. “ThenI turned the cattle operationover to John. I got out ofit.”

His retirement wasgreatly due to growinghealth problems, which hehas been battling for thelast 11 years.

“And when I hit 70, Ithought, well, I’ve donethis long enough, andturned it over to John,”Charles says.

John became involvedin a big way.

“It’s been interesting be-cause John’s expanded theherd, he’s become the statebeef specialist for exten-sion, and their childrenhave continued to show anddone well at the nationallevel, very active,” Nancysays.

The Grimes feed outabout 15 steers a year, butthe farm is mainly a breed-ing operation. Every year,John sells some of the cat-tle off, but they do feed outa few steers every year tosell to people locally forslaughter.

In fact, Maplecrest Farmis having an inaugural bullsale 7 p.m. Monday, March11 at the Union StockYards in Hillsboro. A highattendance rate is predictedsince the herd is nationallyrecognized.

But to get from wherethe farm was to where it isnow definitely took effortfrom the whole family.

“To think what westarted on was just oursmall family farm opera-tion and that it has bloomedto the significant herding ofstate and national level,”Charles says.

Although Charles andhis brother started freshwith one Angus cattle backin the ‘70s, by the timeCharles retired they hadabout 70-80 heads of cattle.

The farm grew as well:Charles and Nancy firstlived on the 200-acre familyfarm, but the Grimes lateracquired a 75-acre farmdown the road that belongedto Charles’ grandfather. Helater bought the 125-acrefarm in between his farmand his grandfather’s oldfarm, making their currenttotal around 400 acres.

Their daughter, Jennifer,now lives in the home onthe 75-acre portion.

Charles comments onwhat I saw on the drive in.

“All the land, it’s solelygrass — cows runningaround everywhere,”Charles says. “Everything’sin grass now either for hayor for pasture. We don’t doany crop farming.”

John does not come tothe family farm every day,but has hired three farmhands to conduct the work.Charles estimates that Johnhas about 300 heads of cat-tle — some on his farm inDecatur, and some onJohn’s farm in Belfast.

Even after he retired,Charles remained active in

education. About eightyears after he retired as su-perintendent in 1987, hewas on the Eastern LocalSchools Board of Educa-tion.

Throughout the conver-sation, Charles has beenvery modest, smiling shylyyet proudly when Nancydiscusses his accomplish-ments.

There’s a lot to be saidfor someone who can bal-ance two careers — espe-cially when they’re sodifferent but both very timeconsuming.

I wonder out loud whatit was like to balance histwo careers in teaching andfarming — they’relifestyles, really.

“It all depends on theschool you’re at and howmuch farming you want totry and do, because mybrother and I took care ofthe cattle together,” Charlessays. “For about two yearswe tried to raise tobaccoand found out that that wasjust too much so we quitraising tobacco and rentedit out.”

Charles tells me anothershort story and it becomesclear to me just the type ofperson he is: someone whochose a happy country lifeof hard work instead ofbeing a suit who climbedthe ranks of the educationalladder for higher pay.

“The interesting thingis, while I was at OU, oneof my professors said therewas an opening at Heath upin Licking County, whichhas a pretty wealthy dis-trict,” Charles says, almostsecretively. “He said ‘theyhave an opening up there,would you be interested ingoing up there? I can speakfor you?’ And I said ‘no,I’d rather come back herebecause I want to raise thekids on the farm.’ I tookwhat jobs became avail-able, which worked outbetter for all of us.”

But after 80 years, andon this day, Maplecrestlooks a lot like Charles: aquiet power, successful,and holding many goodstories. Taking his healthproblems into considera-tion, I hand him the reignsand ask what he would likethe moral of his own storyto be.

“You can start small andaccomplish whatever youwant if you work hardenough for it,” Charlessaid. “That’s in education— I just started as a teacherand retired 28 years laterand I was local superin-tendent and it was the sameway with farming: westarted with one Angusheifer and kept graduallyincreasing the herd. Theherd is recognized nation-ally now.”

Now that his story hasreached the present day, wetalk about our generationsand the differences be-tween them — mainly thatpeople today seem so muchmore materialistic and un-willing to work hard forwhat they want — and hegives me one last piece ofadvice.

“The thing is, you justgot to think of thingsabove, of Heaven, insteadof these earthly things,”Charles says. “Because it’llbe a lot better world upthere than it is here.”

(Carly Tamborski is areporter for the News De-mocrat and Ripley Bee, lo-cated in Brown County.)

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COLUMBUS — OhioState University Exten-sion’s Ohio Vegetable Pro-duction Guide (Bulletin672) has been discontin-ued but most of its content,including cultural, varietal,and pesticide recommen-dations, have been mergedwith an existing regionalpublication, an OSU Ex-tension specialist said.

The Midwest VegetableProduction Guide (Bul-letin 948 for Ohio) is a re-gional publicationinvolving seven states, in-

cluding Ohio, publishedby Purdue University Ex-tension. OSU Extensionand Ohio Agricultural Re-search and DevelopmentCenter (OARDC) veg-etable specialists are con-tributors to the new guide,ensuring the informationwithin the document willreflect current recommen-dations applicable to Ohiofarming operations, saidJim Jasinski, an OSU Ex-tension educator and Inte-grated Pest Managementspecialist.

OSU Extension andOARDC are the outreachand research arms, respec-tively, of Ohio State’s Col-lege of Food, Agricultural,and Environmental Sci-ences.

The states included inthe regional guide areIowa, Illinois, Indiana,Kansas, Missouri, Min-nesota and Ohio.

“Ohio growers shouldfind the new comprehen-sive guide filled with thesame information that waspreviously published in the

former guide,” Jasinskisaid. “If there is specificcontent growers noticemissing, please contact usand we’ll try to includethat information nextyear.”

A change for Ohiogrowers in the new guideis the arrangement of thechapters by crop groupinginstead of individual crops,Jasinski said.

“For example, tomato,pepper and eggplant are allplaced in a ‘Fruiting Veg-etables’ chapter,” he said.

“Also included in theguide are icons indicatingreduced risk, biopesticidesand organic-approved pes-ticides.”

The Midwest VegetableProduction Guide is nowavailable at OSU Exten-sion county officesstatewide for $10. Theguide can also be pur-chased online at OSU Ex-tension’s MediaDistribution Store(http://estore.osu-exten-sion.org) for $10 plus taxand shipping.

A free PDF version ofthe document can be foundonline athttp://www.btny.purdue.edu/pubs/id/id-56/.

For more information,contact Jasinski at 937-484-1526 [email protected]; Ce-leste Welty, OSU Exten-sion Department ofEntomology at 614-292-2803 or [email protected];or Cindy McCain, OSUExtension Media Distribu-tion at 614-292-1607 [email protected].

OSU Extension merges vegetable production guides

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By MARK [email protected]

Brent and Nancy McClish founded McClish’s Plants PlusGreenhouses 29 springs ago, building their first plastic-roofed greenhouse with their shared savings and selling

out of a small tent.Since then, the operation has expanded to include seven grow-

ing greenhouses, a large custom-built glass showroom green-house, and the two McClish children. The greenhouses includeabout an acre of indoor growing space and thousands of youngvegetables, flowers and seedlings.

“We just felt like it was something we could do together and itfelt like there was the potential for an opportunity,” said BrentMcClish. “I said ‘I think I could build a greenhouse and I thinkNancy could grow the plants’…and the Lord has blessed us fromthere.”

The site, across from Miami Trace High School, was the homeof the old Eber general store, a run-down structure that had to bedemolished to make room for the first greenhouse in 1984. Thefamily business has continued to grow since then, adding newgreenhouses on a yearly basis.

Both Brent and Nancy McClish grew up on farms in FayetteCounty: Nancy on a corn and soybean farm about a mile from the

A family grows in McClish

greenhouse

See MCCLISH/9APhoto by Mark Fahey

Brent and Nancy McClish started McClish’s Plants Plus Greenhouses 29 years ago.

business and Brent on adiary farm on the otherside of town. The familystill maintains a farm dur-ing the months they’re notworking in the green-houses.

“We’re just on the in-side and we start a couplemonths sooner than every-body else,” said Brent Mc-Clish. “In the field we’redealing with corn and soy-beans, while in here we’redealing with about 50 dif-ferent crops. Some takedifferent water, differentfertilizer…not everybodyhas it exactly right, butyou just try to find a happymedium.”

The McClishes have in-vented innovative solu-tions for many of theunique problems thatgreenhouses face: fabri-cated metal racks androllers to increase space ineach green house, alertsystems to keep the tem-peratures at the right levelin each building and irriga-tion systems that conservewater while keeping eachplant at the right level ofmoisture.

The greenhouses can gothrough 20,000 gallons ofwater on a hot day, and thefamily’s water deliverysystem has evolved fromhauling water in milk cansto a 65 foot wells drilledinto the area’s underlyinglimestone aquifer. The re-cent cold weather hasn’tbeen friendly to the green-houses business, whichmust keep buildings warmon cloudy days, but theMcClishes said they’vehad good luck in the past.They’ve never had a pestor other problem wipe outtheir plants.

“We’ve been very fortu-nate,” said Nancy McClish.“The first five years weremake or break and we hadperfect springs for fiveyears in a row. These lastfew have been pretty rocky.It all revolves around theweather around here.”

The family starts set-ting up in January, movingthe plants into the glassshowroom greenhouse foropening in March. Theglass house was engi-neered by a group formCanada to stay within adegree of the outside tem-perature — a useful build-ing on some of Fayette

County’s sunniest days.The McClishes grow

about 95 percent of theplants they sell, raisingthem from cuttings orseeds sent from places likeNicaragua, Israel, Ethiopiaor China. Very few plants,like cactuses, are shippedalready partially-grown.

“Whether it’s us or an-other independent place, Ithink it’s important toknow that we’re growing ithere and it’s not beingshipped in from someplaceelse,” said Brent McClish.“It’s pretty hands on righthere, and I think in thelong run that’s a benefitfor the customer.”

Running the green-houses is not a static busi-ness. Every year theMcClishes test new plantvarieties to see how theystand up in the FayetteCounty climate. Becauseeach plant is growing in solittle soil, small variationsin factors like fertilizeramount or water alkalinitycan have a large impact onfertility, said McClish. Thefamily must learn the opti-mal growing conditionsfor each plant it sells.

Nancy and Brent’s twochildren also play an im-

portant role in the businessoperation, helping in thegreenhouses even as theypursue their other inter-ests. Bryan, 22, tends thefamily farm with hisgrandpa and also assem-bles farm equipment forlocal dealers.

Rachel, 19, is a sopho-more in the agriculturebusiness program at Wilm-ington College. Like herparents, Rachel has cre-ated her own business,selling pies to a “loyal fol-lowing” in Fayette County.

The

McClishes don’t know yetif either of their childrenwill be interested in takingover the family businesswhen they’re older.

“We let them do theirown thing. Right nowthey’re perfectly willing tohelp, but to say “hey, wewant this,” that’s not quitethe case yet,” said Mc-Clish. “Maybe someday.”

Brent McClish saidthere’s some debate withinthe industry about whethergardening will be as popu-lar with today’s generationas it was for their grand-

parents. In

Fayette County, though, hesaid people are still eagerto grow their ownflowerbeds and vegetablegardens.

“We’re in farm countryand farm folks tend to stillbe doing a lot of planting,even in folks in the cityaren’t doing as much,” hesaid. “We’re just reallythankful for all our cus-tomers, and a lot of themhave turned out to befriends over the years.”

(Mark Fahey is a staffwriter for the Record-Her-ald in Washington Court

House.)

Bryan McClish, 22, tends the family farm with his grandpa and also assembles farm equipment for local dealers.

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McCLISHContinued from page 8A

Rachel McClish, 19, a sophomore in the agriculture business program at WilmingtonCollege, has also started her own business selling pies to a “loyal following.”

Rachel McClish helps in thegreenhouse.Photo by Mark Fahey

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By DIANA SHARP

Spring means manythings to many people …budding flowers, the returnof migratory birds, and for afew dedicated, hard-workingindividuals, like SteveShasky, it means the flow ofsweet sap from Ohio’sMaple trees.

The popularity of realmaple syrup during earlyAmerican history centeredaround the demand for sugar.Back then, sap was boileddown to make a sugar loafthat was easily shipped onboats to meet the demand.

“It was called loaf sugar.You boiled almost all thewater out. The idea was …(in the colonies) you hadhoney sorghum or molassesand maple sugar. Those werethe three sweeteners until theslave trade kicked in and thesugar started coming fromthe Indies. …Well, if youwere on the frontier, envisionthe Great Lakes … all theproduction for maple syrupis around the Great Lakes,”explained Shasky recently ashe was preparing to boil. Headded, at that time, there wasalways a demand for sugar,so it was a profitable venturefor a frontiersman or earlysettlers.

It’s not as easy as tappinga tree and hanging a bucket.There is a lot of care and ef-fort that goes into producingquality maple syrup, thenand now. In fact, it is a trickycrop dependent on weatherand the relative short seasonin which one must collect thesap.

The sugaring season be-gins in late winter or earlyspring, Presidents’ Day untilthe end of March accordingto Shasky. Optimal condi-tions occur when the temper-

ature is below freezing atnight and above freezingduring the day, creating in-ternal pressure that causesthe sap to flow through thetree. Sugar season is overwhen the buds begin to swelland the sap develops an offflavor.

“Prime syrup weather is20s and 40s. In the 20s andnight and in the 40s duringthe days,” explained Shasky,who owns Steve’s Ski Shop,2583 Possum Run Rd., nearSnow Trails. These tempera-tures are ideal for the sap torun. It is a clear liquid that istwo percent sugar and 98percent water. Producers boil60 gallons of sap to produceone gallon of syrup.

A grove of sugar trees iscalled a “sugarbush.” Shaskytaps around 700 trees andboils for himself and a friendwho taps around 400 trees.He considers himself a com-mercial producer who sellsbulk syrup and some retail.This is compared with com-mercial producers in NewEngland who average around50,000 trees.

Any sizable sugaring op-eration occurs in a sugar-house, a building designed tovent the enormous amount ofsteam that is produced by thecondensing syrup. Shaskysays he calls his shack apalace. “You won’t find mostshacks with drywall,”laughed Shasky. He went onto describe that most sugarshacks can be very “rustic.”

Sugaring is the process inwhich the sap is boiled downand converted to syrup, atwhich point it’s about 67percent sugar and 33 percentwater.

“To me syrup-ing is a lo-gistics issue. Everybody’swoods is different - nothingis steady state. This year is

different from another year… It’s farming,” explainedShasky. He went on to de-scribe the intricacies of sug-aring. It’s a race againstbacteria from tree to evapo-rator. One doesn’t want to letthe sugar water sit too longfor fear the growth of bacte-ria will eat the sugar yourtrying to syrup. Likewiseonce the water makes it’sway to an evaporator there isthe temperature and flow tomaintain as the water isevaporated. After boiling, thesyrup is filtered, graded, andbottled.

Shasky prefers fancygrade syrup which has un-derstated maple notes and arich flavor unlike any dark oramber syrup. Shasky says hiswife Cindy prefers thedarker syrup. Regardless ofthe grade, taste is in thepreparation, how quickly thewater makes its way to theevaporator and the regulationof temperature in the sugar-ing process.

The Shaskys sell theirsyrup, which is availablenow at the Ski Shop and atthe Village of Bellville’sFarmers’ Market.

Shasky hopes to grow hisoperation; after all, he admit-tedly has the sugar bug. Heis a member of the OhioMaple Producers Association(OMPA).

“Everyone’s syrup is dif-ferent. It’s in how each oneboils their water,” saidShasky. He welcomes any-one to stop out to try hisproduct. It’s an expensivepassion and he takes pride inhis syrup that he and his wifeproduce.

For more informationconcerning the entire drivingtour visithttp://www.ohiomaple.org/maple-madness.html.

Sugaring season has arrived

2378155


Seedlings sales allow nut farmers to see the forest for the treesOhio goes nuts!By DIANA SHARP

Most people are famil-iar with the saying, “Youcan’t see the forest for thetrees.” Well, it’s spring andone could declare a similarstatement, “You can’t seethe forest for theseedlings.” With the ap-proach of Arbor Day,slated for the last Friday inApril, tree sales are in fullswing.

Spring is a busy timefor farmers. As Ohio nearsthe end of sugaring seasonand the production ofmaple syrup draws to aclose, another group ofOhio’s niche farmers isbusy thinking ahead.

The Ohio Nut GrowersAssociation (ONGA)spring meeting and scionswap will be held Sunday,April 14, at the KingwoodCenter, 900 Park Ave. W.,in Mansfield. This is a timefor area growers to come

together to learn about sci-entific advancements ingrafting, marketing andpromotion of nuts, to buyseedlings for their opera-tions and to enter their nutsin the Ohio State Fair.More importantly, this timeof year is the best to con-sider planting trees after acold winter.

The Clear Fork Valleywill be represented at thismeeting by local growerBud Luers of the village ofButler. He owns a nut farmthat specializes in BlackWalnuts. He currentlyserves as a trustee on theONGA board and was fea-tured farmer in the 2007book called “Farms andFoods of Ohio from Gar-den Gate to Dinner Plate,”written by Marilou Suszkofrom Hippocrene Books.

Nuts are one of nature’ssupper foods. While read-ers may be most familiarwith English Walnuts,

which are known for theirmild flavor and a shell thatis easier to crack, hardershell nuts like Hickory orBlack Walnut have gainedtremendous popularityamong foodies in recentyears.

Luers’ nut farm, locatedin Richland County onOpossum Run Road, justnorth of Bellville hasgrafted trees bearing nutfruits, including delicatebutternut, the ChineseChestnut, hazelnuts, hicko-ries, hicans, heartnuts,Japanese butternut, in addi-tion to his main crop theBlack Walnut.

The Black Walnut is na-tive to Ohio, once a staplein Native American’s diets.While it has the buttery,nutty flavors of the EnglishWalnut, the Black is fa-vored because of it’s rich-ness in flavor, it’searthiness and it’s bitterundertones.

“I have good successselling at the farmers’ mar-ket in Bellville,” saysLeurs. He added, “It is ahobby that has gotten outof control. I have plantedover 2,000 black walnuttrees over the years.” Ac-cording to Ohio.org, it iscommon for farmers andother small-scale growersto sell black walnuts lo-cally for anywhere be-tween $8 and $10 a poundfor black walnut meat.

Luers’ 26 acre farm thatsurrounds his home con-tains more than 100 graftedBlack Walnut Trees andmore than 600 seedlings. Itis important during harvesttime to collect the nuts asthey fall. If they sit toolong, the shells may get toohard. This isn’t the onlychallenge to growing nuts.The Clear Fork Valley isoften 12 degrees coolerthen neighboring counties.While this is good news for

the area ski resorts, itleaves Leurs’ trees vulnera-ble to frost. Disease is alsoa threat.

“There is a Black Wal-nut disease going aroundcalled thousand canker dis-ease. It is coming in fromthe west coast and killingall the walnuts there. It hasbeen found in southwestOhio in some wood foundthere,” according to Leurs.

At this time of yearthere are typically a num-ber of sources forseedlings.

In Richland County, theClear Fork FFA is teamingup with the Soil and WaterConservation Departmenton Friday, April 12 andSaturday April 13, to selltree seedlings at the Rich-land County FairgroundsNature Park. Availablespecies will include ever-greens, such as Coloradoblue spruce, Norwayspruce, white pine, Canaan

fir, Canadian hemlock andarborvitae. In additionlarge trees will be offered:white oak, red oak, sugarmaple, persimmon, blackwalnut and tulip tree.Three broad-leaf shrubswill also be sold, the com-mon paw paw and Ohiobuckeye. New this yearwill be a wildlife packet.Birdhouses made by theFFA will also be for sale for$10. The sale begins at 9a.m. of Friday and ends at 6p.m. On Saturday, April 13,the sale will be held from 8a.m. until 1 p.m.

Call your local CountySoil and Water Conserva-tion Department to learn ofsimilar sales in your area.

Bud, a retired GeneralMoters worker runs hisfarm with his wife Mari-lyn; together they are veryactive in the OGNA. Formore information concern-ing the upcoming meeting,visit www.onga.org/

By CARLY [email protected]

Every farmer takes adifferent path into theworld of agriculture.While some go into farm-ing because their parentsdid, others participated in4-H or the local FFA pro-grams and go on to havecareers in the agricultureindustry.

To most, the idea offarming puts images oflarge scale operations andsun-up-to-sun-down hoursof sweaty labor into theirminds. Rarely is itthought of as a hobby ordone so successfully onthe side. Those who wantto ease into the industryshould take a lesson fromSusan Loudon, a goatfarmer just south ofGeorgetown.

Loudon, now in her50s, never expected shewould one day be a goatfarmer. But when you seea baby goat, it’s hard toturn away.

“I fell in love with it,”Loudon said of why shebrought home her firstgoat.

She and her husbandKeith have two sons, now37 and 34, who becamehighly involved in 4-Hduring their youth.

It all started in 1989.“The boys wanted to

get into 4-H and theywanted sheep,” Loudonsaid. “So we went toCarol Saner’s and gotsheep. When we werethere I fell in love with agoat that she had, so Ibrought it home and it’sexpanded from there.”

Loudon grew up inGeorgetown, graduatedfrom Georgetown HighSchool, and lived in town

until she married Keith in1975.

They met in highschool, as many couples inBrown County do.

“My husband and Iraised the boys in town,and then we moved outhere about 15 years ago,”Loudon said.

Initially, the goats wereall dairy, but the Loudonsrarely milked them.

“We didn’t make milkproducts,” Loudon said.“We never milked, if wedid milk it was just for funto make a pie or ice creamwith it.”

And they did it byhand.

But for the most part,the Loudon boys used thedairy goats for their 4-Hprojects with a few organi-zations, including theGeorgetown Hooves andHalters.

Eventually, they movedon from sheep.

“The boys just lost in-terest,” Loudon said.“They started raising goatsand they got into cattle,too.”

And eventually, the Nu-bian dairy goats startedbreeding.

“We just started breed-ing them and we had littlekids,” Loudon said. “Thenwe decided to go moreinto the meat goats be-cause we weren’t milkingour dairies, so we’ve hadmeat goats ever since.”

Since 1995, the Loudonfarm has been all meat-goat. The Loudons preferto raise Boer goats. TheBoer buck was used tobreed the dairy goats, andthe operation has grownfrom one to almost 40goats.

“Right now we havenine does, we have 20 ba-

bies that have been bornsince Jan. 20, we havenine yearling does and onebuck,” Loudon said.

“Yearling” means theywere born last year at thistime. Out of the 20 ba-bies, 13 bucks were born.The baby bucks are re-ferred to as “marketweathers,” meaning cas-trated males.

“Those will all be soldfor 4-H projects within thenext couple months,”Loudon said. “And thenour baby does that wehave, we’ll decide whichones we want to keep forreplenishing our herd.”

The Loudons used Arti-ficial Insemination for awhile but got out of it

when it became too timeconsuming. Luckily, thejob was just as easily ac-complished by letting theBoer buck mingle with thedoes for a few weeks.

“Usually we put themout in the field together,”Loudon said. “I leave himin for at least five or sixweeks and then we takehim back out, but he usu-ally does his job in about10-12 days. And he was ayoung buck this year —he was only six monthsold when we used him.”

Loudon can tell whichgoats are pregnant due totheir size.

“They get very huge,”she said.

Because of the timingof the fair projects, theLoudons try to schedulethe breeding to align withfair clients.

“It takes five monthsfor them to have their ba-bies,” Loudon said. “Weusually don’t breed untilLabor Day weekend —that puts us to having Feb.1 babies — but my buckjumped the fence thisyear.”

4-H clients have to gettheir goats by early sum-mer.

“Usually by the end of

April and first of Maythey’ll be coming to pickout their goats and theyhave to have them in theirpossession by June 1,”Loudon said. “Then theykeep them and feed themout for the fair.”

“They’ll come and pickthem up and take them totheir farm or house, andthey’ll have a pen forthem,” Loudon said. “Usu-ally with a goat, you playwith it, you run it and getmuscles built up on them.”

The lifespan of a Boergoat is usually 10-12years.

In September, studentswill take the marketweathers to the fair, showthem, and then sell themthrough the fair sale.

And when their 4-Hcustomers do well at thefair, the Loudons benefitas well.

“We benefit if theyplace first in their class orget grand champion, andthat comes back reflectingon our herd, that we havegood stock,” Loudon ex-plained.

And the goats have wonmany times. In fact,Loudon has a nephew in 4-H who got first place intwo of his classes.

“He was very excited,”Loudon said. “We’ve hadgrand champion four orfive times over the years.”

Although the Loudonsdo not slaughter theirgoats, many are eventuallyused for their meatthrough the fair sale.

“The goats that go for4-H, the kids understandthat they have a termi-

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See LOUDON/13A

‘I just fell in love with it’ Goat farmer never expected to be … a goat farmer

SusanLoudon bottle feedsa newlyborn goat.

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nated project and thatthey’re raising this forsomebody to eat down theline,” Loudon said. “For usto sell to a meat producer,no, we don’t do that. Wehave a tremendous amountof calls — people wantingto get started in the goatherd, or who want does,and we’ve provided sev-eral does for people to getstarted.”

As for the does, they tryto sell them and advertisethem for sale, which keepsbusiness pretty steady.

“We usually don’t havea problem getting any ofthem sold,” Loudon said.“We do keep some of ourlittle does. Those will be

used to replace anythingin our herd that we don’tfeel is good enough anylonger.”

But not everything inthe process was so easy.

“When I first got intothis, yes, it was very hardto see them go,” Loudonsaid. “But you kind of getit in your head that you’vegot to let them go becauseyou would have so manyanimals that you couldn’ttake care of all of them.”

Except for the timewhen they used artificialinsemination, the Loudonsuse no technology in theirgoat farming.

Their 44-acre farm waspart of Keith Loudon’schildhood farm. When hisparents passed away, itwas divided between him

and his brother. Keith andSusan Loudon took oneside of the road whileKeith’s brother has theother side. An average dayon the Loudon goat farmis much different than acattle operation.

“For me, the goats aresmall, they’re easier forme to handle, where cattleare larger and they some-times scare me,” Loudonlaughed.

In the mornings it takesabout half an hour to do allthe feeding. “We havethree little bottle babies sothat takes a little bit moretime,” Loudon said. “Andthen my husband workssecond shift so when hegets up in the morning, hegoes to the barn and doesall the watering and taking

out of the hay, and then Ihave another half hour to45 minutes in the eveningof feeding and taking careof them.”

The feed is about 16percent protein, and iscorn and oat-based.

The Loudons have onebig barn and one smallerbarn that they call their“kidding shed.” For Susan,the most stressful parts ofgoat farming exist shortlybefore mothers have theirkids.

“The hardest part iswhen they get ready to kidand the weather is socold,” Loudon said. “Wehave to be at the barn a lot,and we have an intercomsystem so we can listen forthe babies being born andget there and get them

dried off so they don’tfreeze.”

When the goats havetheir babies, the Loudonsplace them in the kiddingshed to watch them, tomake sure that they’renursing and to make surethat their mothers are sta-bilized and doing well.

Another stress are thechanges in the industry, es-pecially the rising cost ofmaterials.

“The feed is very ex-pensive, the price justkeeps going up,” Loudonsaid. “And then you haveto increase the price ofyour goats and you hatedoing that to the kids in 4-H because you want togive them a chance.”

But there is a big pay-off.

“My favorite part’swhen you go to feed themand you get to watch thebabies jump around in thepen and play on theirmommies,” Loudon said.“Goats have such a sweetpersonality and they loveto be played with. Themore attention they get themore they want.”

Susan Loudon doesn’tknow how long she’ll stayin the goat business, butrecommends goat farmingas a great way to farm on asmaller scale, especially ifthose who are interested init already have primarycareers.

(Carly Tamborski is areporter for the News De-mocrat and Ripley Bee, lo-cated in Brown County.)

LOUDONContinued from page 12A

Susan Loudon said raisinggoats can be very rewarding,though the cost of feed andother necessary pieces ofequipment has increased inrecent years.

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By ADAM [email protected]

With another month all butin the rear-view mirror with lit-tle to no outside work being ac-complished it was nice to seethe floaters out this morningmaking the 28 percent applica-tion to local wheat fields. Theapplication window was shortwith the sun coming out theground started to get greasyshortly before lunch. At thecounty farm we were fortunateenough to get the nitrogen ontoday so hopefully the weatherwill warm up some and thewheat will take off. As I makemy rounds throughout thecounty I’ve noticed numerousshops being filled withplanters, ammonia applicators,and field cultivators. While allof the equipment we deal withis full of potential dangers thereis one product some of us usethat requires some special at-tention and precautions.

Anhydrous Ammonia tanksand applicators will soon berolling once the soil dries and

warms up. Every year as wehook to the first tank we haveto remind ourselves as to thedanger and hazards associatedwith using this source of nitro-gen. With ammonia being oneof those products which we useone time a year then forgetabout it until the next spring wetend to forget the potential dan-ger and amount of respect weshould give this product. Withammonia application on every-one’s mind I felt this a neces-sary time to review someinformation about ammoniathat will help applicators andthe general community under-stand the risks associated withthis product.

Anhydrous Ammonia istransported in liquid formunder pressure so the tanks andwagons we see on the road aremanufactured to handle pres-sure and reduce the risk of rup-

tures or breaks. When the am-monia is introduced into the airit vaporizes and moves throughthe atmosphere. Ammonia ab-sorbs moisture so the real haz-ard becomes when one isexposed to ammonia it will ab-sorb moisture from the bodyand cause severe burns to anypart of the body in which itcontacts. This is not limited toexterior exposure, the ammoniacan also cause severe burns tointerior organs and vital bodystructures such as lungs andwindpipes can become severelyburned and can also lead todeath. Ammonia gives off a dis-tinct odor when exposed to theair which can make breathingdifficult for those exposed. Theodor is often strong enough toburn your eyes and cause a lossof breath.

While most of the dangerassociated with ammonia

comes during the filling of thetank and making the applica-tion itself we also hear of acci-dents while the product is beingtransported to the field. Whenyou see the tanks being movedon the road make sure and givethem plenty of room and assureclear distance when passing thevehicles. Applicators should beserviced and made sure allhoses, connections, and valves

are in good working order andpressure tested before taken tothe field if possible.

More information about am-monia safety can be found at:http://www.extension.org/pages/63196/anhydrous-ammonia-safety.

(Adam Shepard is OhioState University Extension Ed-ucator, Fayette County.)

Beware the dangers of anhydrous ammonia

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By Lovina Eicher

The Amish Cook shares a dayin the life of herself and herfamily:4:50 a.m. - My husband Joe

didn’t have to work today, so wewere able to sleep later thanusual. I get up as daughter Eliza-beth is awake and packing herlunch for work.

5:15 a.m. - Elizabeth leavesfor work, Joe gets up to checkon the coal-stove while I fix us apot of coffee.

6 a.m. - I wake up the rest ofthe children. They want coffeesoup for breakfast while they getdressed for school. Seems thishour always goes fast. Usuallysomeone can’t find their shoe orsomeone else has forgotten to dotheir homework so that it is rush,rush to get ready for the bus. Joeis outside cutting a quarter offthe 1,740 pounds of beef wedressed Friday night. The boysgo outside to help push the ponywagon that Joe put the beef ondown to the basement where wewill cut up the beef. It is nice tohave walk-out doors so that theycan pull the wagon up to thetable. The quarters of beef areheavy so just lifting them fromthe wagon to the table was hardenough.

7 a.m. - The bus comes andthe children are off to school.Daughter Susan doesn’t have tobabysit today so I will be gladfor her help. We get some moretables set up in the basement andget everything ready to cut up allthat beef.

8 a.m. - Sister Emma and herdaughter Elizabeth arrive to helpus.

8: 15 - We have breakfastwhich is Egg Dutch, bacon,toast, cheese, sliced tomatoes,coffee, and juice.

9 a.m. - We are ready to starton the beef. Joe cuts out thesteaks while the rest of us work-

ing on cutting up strips of ham-burger for the grinder. We alsocut the meat into small chunkswhich I will process later.

Noon - Emma’s son Stevencomes off the bus here fromschool.

1 p.m. - We finally take abreak and eat grilled cheese forlunch. I also fixed some “rarebeef” for us all.

1:45 p.m. - We are almost fin-ished with the second quarter. Ittakes a lot of time to trim all thebones and cut all that meat. I amalso slicing some of the steaks.

3:30 p.m. - The rest of thechildren are home from school.

4 p.m. - Jacob and his chil-dren come over to help. Ourfriend Dan also comes in andgives us a lift. It helps that hekeeps our knives sharpened too.Working around the bones theknives get dull fast.

5 p.m. - Daughter Elizabethis home from work. She is work-ing 10 hour days which gets tire-some. Elizabeth’s friendTimothy also comes to help withthe beef. Things are movingfaster with so many people help-ing with cuts of meat. The boysgo outside to do the chores. Eliz-abeth makes supper for every-one.

6:30 p.m. -We are almostdone and the hamburger is beingput through the grinder. All thecut up meat is carried out to thetool shed. It will stay cold whilewe work on getting bagged andprocessed for the freezer overthe next few days.

7:30 p.m. - It is late to eatsupper and we wanted to finishup first. The younger childrenate while we are finishing up.Elizabeth made spaghetti andmeatballs, potato soup, alongwith cheese and crackers forsupper. While we start eating Ifixed rare beef. It is best to eatright out of the skillet.

It is also time-consuming

since we only make one piece ata time. It just wouldn’t be thesame to not get to taste rare beefon butchering day.

8:30 p.m. - Dan, Jacob, andEmma all leave for home. Weappreciated everyone’s help. Itwas really windy and snowywhen they left. The children arehoping for a snow day and noschool tomorrow. I am also hop-ing they will have off so I willhave more help with the meat.

9 p.m. - Timothy leaves andwe are all ready for bed. It hasbeen a long, tiring day.

God’s blessings for all.

The Amish Cook

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Ohio farmers commit $1 million to phosphorusresearch study

Clean water is everyone’s businessWhile many factors and sources

affect water quality, Ohiocorn, soybean and wheat

farmers want to be part of the solutionand do their part to maintain and im-prove the health of Ohio’s waterways.Ohio farmers share the same environ-mental priorities as their fellow citizensand are committed to doing the rightthing for their farms, their families andall Ohioans.

As a result, farmers and other agri-cultural organizations are investing over$1 million to commission a study to in-vestigate phosphorus use in farming.This three-year project, led by The OhioState University (OSU), OSU Extensionand the U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) Agricultural Research Service(ARS), will determine how phosphorusis used in agriculture, how it leaves farmfields and how much of it is actually en-tering Ohio waterways.

How phosphorus moves from fieldsto waterways has never before been ex-plored in such detail in Ohio.

“Farmers have answered the call toaddress water quality challenges in thepast and they are committed to do soagain,” said Terry McClure, Ohio farmerfrom Paulding County. “However, theissues we face with phosphorus todayare different than those in the past. Thatis why research is a vital part of devel-oping the necessary tools for every re-gion, every farm and every watershed.”

Equipment has been placed in strate-gic locations at the edge of farm fieldsthroughout the state to collect continu-ous and extensive data. OSU scientistswill examine previous water qualitystudies, collect new data and providefarmers the information they need tomake the right decisions for the environ-ment and their farms.

Farmer and agricultural organizationsthat have provided funding for the re-search include Ohio Corn MarketingProgram, the Ohio Soybean Council,Ohio Small Grains Marketing Program,The Andersons, Deerfield Farm Serv-ices, DuPont Pioneer, Luckey FarmersCooperative, Nachurs, Ohio Farm Bu-reau Federation, Paulding County Farm

Bureau, Schlessman Seeds, TrupointeCooperative and the United SoybeanBoard.

To date, all funding partners havecommitted over $1 million to supportthe project. In 2012, the initial researchfunding was matched when OSU re-ceived a Conservation Innovation Grantof $999,987 from USDA.

“While this research project will pro-vide tools for farmers, it’s important toremember there are multiple sourcesthat contribute to the water quality prob-lem that are beyond farmers’ control, in-cluding private septic systems, urbanstorm runoff, industrial pollution andmunicipal waste from failed sewer sys-tems,” said Mark Thomas, Ohio farmerfrom Stark County. “Ohio’s corn, soy-bean and wheat farmers are dedicated todoing their part to improve Ohio’s wa-terways because clean water is every-one’s business.”

The Ohio Corn Marketing Programwas approved by an affirmative vote ofOhio’s corn producers. The voluntary,self-help program allows for the collec-tion of a half cent-per-bushel assessmentby all first purchasers of the grain.Funds from the program can only be in-vested for research, market develop-ment, education and promotionpurposes. Visit www.ohiocorn.org formore information.

Headquartered in Worthington, theOhio Soybean Council is governed by avolunteer farmer board, which directsthe Soybean Promotion and ResearchProgram. The program’s primary goal isto improve soybean profitability by tar-geting research and development, edu-cation and promotion projects throughthe investment of farmer-contributedfunds (checkoff). www.soyohio.org

The Ohio Small Grains MarketingProgram Board works to improve wheatproduction, wheat qualities and tostrengthen markets for wheat in Ohio aswell as wheat export markets. OSGMPsupports educational programs in thestate and funds research programs tocreate better crops and open new mar-kets. For more information, visit ohios-mallgrains.org

By TONY [email protected]

Fruit and vegetable pro-ducers of all sizes nowhave the option of partici-pating in a voluntary foodsafety certification pro-gram in Ohio. The OhioProduce Marketing Agree-ment (OPMA) offers pro-ducers food safetystandards and an opportu-nity to attain food safetycertification through thirdparty inspections. Bornfrom growing concernsabout fruit and vegetablecontamination outbreaks,the OPMA takes an ag-gressive yet voluntary ap-proach to addressing foodsafety risk.

The OPMA is the first“agricultural marketingagreement” developedunder a new law in Ohio.The agricultural marketingagreement law allows agri-cultural commodities tocreate voluntary marketingprograms to expand or im-prove the market for theircommodity. Marketingprograms may promote thesale and use of products,develop new uses and mar-kets for products; improvemethods of distributingproducts to consumers orstandardize the quality ofproducts for specific uses.To create a voluntary mar-

keting program, the com-modity group must obtainthe approval of both theOhio Department of Agri-culture and producerswithin the commoditygroup. A summary of theagricultural marketingagreement law can befound at:

http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses129/12-sb309-129.pdf

The voluntary advisoryboard that governs OPMAis preparing the programfor final approval, whichshould occur within thenext few months. Produc-ers may begin participatingin the program now, how-ever.

OPMA offers producersthree levels or “tiers” offood safety certificationbased on types and scaleof produce sales. All tiersrequire membership inOPMA, annual trainingand demonstration of thecore food safety standardsvia an inspection. The corestandards address waterquality, inputs and com-posting, traceback andgood handling practices. Afarm that completes thecertification process maymarket itself as an OPMAcertified farm and use theOPMA logo for marketingpurposes.

While OPMA will cer-

tainly provide marketingadvantages, fruit and veg-etable producers shouldconsider the program’slegal benefits. Adoptingthe recommended re-search-based food safetystandards, participating inregular training and pass-ing an OPMA inspectionwill reduce the risk of afood safety incident andresulting liability. Givenrecent outbreaks resultingin sickness and deathsfrom produce consump-tion, food safety is a seri-ous issue for producefarmers. OPMA certifica-tion gives producers an op-portunity to minimizeexposure to food safety li-ability.

Another benefit for pro-ducers is the voluntary,self-regulating nature ofthe program. High partici-pation in OPMA indicatescommodity willingness toaddress food safety prac-tices and ensure safe foodproducts. A sound volun-tary program with highparticipation rates maynegate the need for regula-tory action or meet re-quirements of thestill-evolving federal FoodSafety Modernization Act.

For more informationthe Ohio Produce Market-ing Agreement, visitwww.opma.us.

Source: This post is areprint of a post by PeggyHall that originally ap-peared at Ohio Agricul-tural Law Blog.

(L. Tony Nye is OSUExtension Educator, Clin-ton County, Agriculture &Natural Resources.)


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By LORA [email protected]

Kimberly Bucy said she had learnedenough within the first few min-utes to make her trip to Wilming-

ton worthwhile.Bucy, from Kettering, was one of

more than 200 people who turned outfor the 2013 “Opening Doors to Suc-cess” Small Farm Conference andTrade Show held Friday, March 8 andSaturday, March 9 at WilmingtonCollege.

The event, sponsored by The OhioState University Extension office,gives small farm operators the oppor-tunity to learn from Extension profes-sionals and industry leaders to betterequip themselves in their farmingbusiness.

Friday night’s session included apanel of three area producers who ad-dressed issues such as labor, financ-ing, land, customer relations andagritainment.

Saturday’s events included a tradeshow followed by several work ses-sions. Participants learned about beekeeping; vermiculture, vegetable nu-trient management; generating energyfor a small farm, utilizing maps andapps technology to market their busi-ness, Christmas tree production;

cover crops; grafting of trees; cheese;lavender production; raised bed pro-duction; pasture management; select-ing a livestock enterprise for a smallfarm; fertigation of tomatoes; green-house/tunnel production; food safety;agricultural law considerations; de-veloping water systems for pastures;growing hops; marketing, financialmanagement and disease manage-ment of fruits and vegetables.

Bucy said she and her husband,Master Sgt. Clay Bucy, currentlyhave two gardens: one in their back-yard and one in a separate property.They are currently looking to consoli-date and purchase one single lot onwhich to grow their farm.

She said her husband has been de-ployed overseas three times and thatfarming “has been a real source ofconnection for our family as well aspeacefulness for him.” The couplehas two children, 17-year-old Andreaand 13-year-old Noah. Further, theyanticipate being able to use the farmas part of a newly forming militaryministry with their church, DaytonVineyard.

“We want a location that’s verypeaceful, out away from the city, tobring other military families just todo whatever, to come out and have afun time with their family, to learn

gardening if they want to, or to justhave a meal and an afternoon picnicwith their family,” Bucy said.

Supplementing income and look-ing for a different way of life aresome of the reasons there is an in-crease in small farm operators likeBucy, said Tony Nye, the Extensionagent for Clinton County and organ-izer of the conference.

“A lot of these folks are just get-ting started in their farming opera-tions,” Nye said. “Some of theoperations have been working towardthings, and the different courses thatwe provide and the different subjectmatters can give them some special-ization on a specific topic.”

Nye said that a growing number ofsmall farm operators are interested inproducing goat’s milk soap andlavender.

Kim Prell said she and her hus-band Mike, the owners of PeacefulAcres Lavender Farm Market in Mar-tinsville, enjoy educating others.They, along with Extension educatorBrad Bergefurd, spoke about lavenderfarming during a work session Satur-day morning.

“We really love to share what weknow, and just kind of help other peo-ple, so this kind of thing is just reallyfun for us,” Prell said.

Though there is an increase in thenumber of small farm operators, themajority of production still comesfrom large family and commercialfarms, Nye said.

Small farms, however, are invalu-able to their local economies, espe-cially through their participation infarmers markets, he added.

“You may have some of those pro-ducers that may hire one or two peo-ple,” he said.

The local food movement hasspurred growth for small farm opera-tors and farmers markets becausemore people want to know who isproducing their food and from whereit is coming, Nye added.

Nye said he is passionate aboutseeing these small farm operatorssucceed. Instead of reinventing thewheel, he said that Extension oftenpartners with and helps promote otherorganizations who may provide dif-ferent types of information for farm-ers.

“We want to make sure that ifwe’re going to help people grow theirbusiness, that we help identify thoseopportunities,” he said.

(Lora Abernathy is Editor of theWilmington New Journal in ClintonCounty.)

Strong turnout at Small Farm Conference and Trade Show

OPENING DOORSTO SUCCESS

More than 200 peopleturned out for the 2013Small Farm Conferenceand Trade Show held atWilmington CollegeMarch 8 and 9.

Photo by Lora Abernathy

Volunteer for food safety certification

LIBERTY TOWNSHIP– There’s a revolution setto explode across an Ohiofarmer’s field on May 11.Who will survive as themega clash between hun-dreds of paintball enthusi-asts simulating America’sCivil War?

Survival is symbolic toNiederman Family Farmand those fightingleukemia & lymphomacancer. This special eventis the second annual BobNiederman Memorial Sce-nario Event. A large scale

war will wage across morethan 40 acres of Nieder-man’s 210 acre farm,spanning fields, woods, acreek and more.

Portions of the pro-ceeds will be donated toThe Leukemia & Lym-phoma Society.

Bob Niederman, farmowner, passed from lym-phoma cancer. The familyis committed to its fight tokeep all that Bob hashelped create to continueserving the public withspring farm tours, fall fes-

tivities and year-roundpaintball. This second an-nual event in his honorsimulates the Civil War –America’s 3rd revolution!Sign-up to play in theCivil War - The ThirdAmerican Revolution:Bob Niederman MemorialScenario Game athttps://www.facebook.com/events/453371828045925/.

The Niederman FamilyFarm is being saved onepaintball game at a time.

What began with ahandful of locals asking toplay paintball in an oldcow pasture on a 210 acrefarm has turned into ninesophisticated paintballcourses attracting several

hundred players forsome games.

The early daysin 2000 required acomplete familyeffort. The Nie-derman childrenwere occasionallysummoned to playa game of paint-ball when teamsneeded an extraplayer to haveeven sides. Play-ers must be at

least ten years oldand everyone partici-

pating has to sign awaiver.

The paintball venturesnowballed.

Niederman FamilyFarm has everything any-one needs to play paint-ball: Safety goggles, guns,paintballs and anythingelse to suit up and join thefun. Those players areadded to groups on vari-ous courses throughoutthe farm according to skilllevel. Any size group canreserve a field of play.Group events includechurch outings, bachelorand birthday parties, andcorporate team buildingexercises, family reunions,youth day camps, andsports teams.

This working farm islocated between Cincin-nati and Dayton. In itsfourth generation, the Nie-derman’s have diversified

parts of theirfarm in orderto surviveand pre-serve theirway of life.

Ongo-ing activi-tiesfeaturebonfire pits,barn rentals, primi-tive cabins (with heatand air conditioning) andmany seasonal events plusgroup tours. Group ac-commodations are rou-tinely made for families,mom clubs, school groups,day care centers and homeschool groups. The Nie-derman’s also accommo-date large family reunionsand corporate events in a

restored 1890s barn withmodern amenities.

Niederman FamilyFarm is located at 5110LeSourdsville-WestChester Road in LibertyTownship. Call 513-779-6184 or visit www.nieder-manfamilyfarm.com.

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By PAT [email protected]

For some people, opportunityknocks, but for Beth Ellis, it trilled,cooed and crowed. Beth managesthe daily operations of CherrybendPheasant Farm, a 640-acre licensedhunting preserve just a few mileseast of Wilmington. It’s hardly whatshe was anticipating when she gother bachelor’s degree in radiologyand not what she expected after es-tablishing a career in interventional

radiology and ultrasound at ClintonMemorial Hospital. She says, “Itwas very hard to walk away frommy career. It was a life-changingdecision, but if I hadn’t made thechange, I’d have never met so manyinteresting people, never become apilot, never been able to spend somuch time with my family. It was abig change, but that kind of oppor-tunity doesn’t come often. I had totake it.”

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They came from all parts ofOhio from all walks of life. Butthey all shared one thing incommon - agriculture.

More than 80 presidents orvice presidents of countybranches of the Ohio Farm Bu-reau traveled in March to Wash-ington D.C. for the annuallegislative meeting with federallawmakers, national Farm Bureauofficials and agriculture experts.

The three-day meeting wasaimed at both giving input to thefederal officials from local farmbureau representatives and hear-ing from Ohio’s lawmakersabout what they are doing forOhio’s farmers.

And in a year when OhioFarm Bureau representatives hada lot of questions about agricul-ture, those interviewed byACRES of Southwest Ohio saidthey were pleased by what theyheard.

“I learned more about ourelected representatives and howthey feel about agriculture is-sues than anything else,” saidAdams County Farm Bureauvice president Emilee Arthur.This was her first trip to Wash-ington D.C. for the legislativemeetings, and she said she wasimpressed by how much atten-

tion the Farm Bureau represen-tatives were given by the Wash-ington representatives, and howmuch they listened to what thelocal farm representatives had tosay.

She said she was very inter-ested in the stalled federal FarmBill and what officials had to tellthem about it.

“(House Speaker John)Boehner promised us that wewould have a farm bill this year,so I was very happy to hearthat,” said Nathan Brown, High-land County Farm Bureau vicepresident.

Like Arthur, this wasBrown’s first trip to WashingtonD.C. for the conference. “It wasa very humbling experience forme. Especially humbling be-cause these elected officialswere there to listen to us, to hearand discuss the issues wewanted to talk about.”

Brown said he was impressedby the fact that these electedrepresentatives like Boehner,Paul Ryan and others “took thetime out of their busy schedulesto meet with us.”

Brown, who farms about 900acres in Highland County, said itwas a great experience to talkfarm issues in Washington.

Fayette County Farm BureauPresident Andy Dill said thethree-day conference was

“packed” with meetings and dis-cussions. He also expressedpleasure at how many Ohio andnational elected Congressmenand Senators met with them.

“We had a chance to meetwith Mike Turner (new 10thDistrict Congressman represent-ing part of Fayette County), andhe seems very agriculture-friendly. He is aware of the im-portance of agriculture in hisdistrict,” Dill said.

Dill also was optimistic aboutthe chances of the Farm Billpassing this year. “The people inWashington know it is needed.”

This was the second timeBrown County Farm BureauPresident Chris Rogers has at-tended the annual conference inWashington. What he noticedmost about the event “was thatthis time everyone was very up-beat. There was a very positivefeeling from all of the legisla-tors.”

Rogers added that he wassurprised at how positive every-one was about passage of aFarm Bill this year. “They werevery positive about that,” hesaid.

He was also impressed bynew Congressman Dr. BradWenstrup. “It was good to seethat he was very interested inour farming issues.”

Butch Schappacher, Warren

County Farm Bureau president,said he has gone to several ofthe annual farm Bureau trips toWashington over the years. “It isreally good to see that we (farm-ers) really mean something tothe legislators, and that the farmBureau plays an important rolein getting our message out.Meetings like this give us achance to be heard and to getour message out,” he said.

He said he was also im-pressed by his local representa-tive, Congressman Dr.Wenstrup, who talked to thegroup about health care costsand insurance companies. “Thehealth care system is reallyscrewed up,” he said.

Regarding the Farm Bill,Schappacher said the farmers inattendance were pretty much inagreement that funding forfarmers will be cut. But no one

knows how much. “America’sfarmers just need the safety net.”

The county farm bureau rep-resentatives met with the Foodand Drug Administration regard-ing food safety issues. Theythen met with legislators onCapital Hill.

At the annual Ohio Farm Bu-reau Legislative Forum. U.S.Rep. Bob Gibbs hosted withguest U.S. Rep. John Boehner,U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, U.S. Rep.Wenstrup, U.S. Rep. DavidJoyce, and U.S. Rep. Bob Good-latte, as well as Rep. Turner andRep. Steve Chabot.

On the final day of the con-ference, the bureau representa-tives met with both Sen. SherrodBrown and Sen. Rob Portman todiscuss farm issues.

(Gary Brock is editor ofACRES of Southwest Ohio.)

WWaasshhiinnggttoonn ttrriipp ppoossiittiivvee eexxppeerriieennccee ffoorr OOhhiioo ffaarrmmeerr lleeaaddeerrss“Meetings like this give us achance to be heard and to

get our message out.” — Butch Schappacher,

Warren County Farm Bureau president

Beth Ellis walks away from a career into a new life, with no regrets!

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OP E N H O U S E N EW L I S T I N G N EW L I S T I N G

N EW L I S T I N G

N EW L I S T I N G N EW L I S T I N G

2B April 2013 ACRES of Southwest Ohio

By BRYAN [email protected]

Roger and Juanita Barricklow,of Sardinia, had humble begin-nings in the world of raisinghorses, which eventuallybranched into a nationally recog-nized endeavor. The Barricklowspurchased their first horse in thelate 1960s, as Roger Barricklowsaid he felt that raising horseswould be a great activity for hisfamily to get into.

The Barricklows’ first horse,however, left a bit to be desired.

“We bought out first horse in1969 or 1970,” Barricklow said.“At that time our children werestill small and I always had a lovefor horses, so I thought we couldget our kids involved. So, webought a crippled pony. Shecouldn’t walk very well.”

“She was okay, she just could-n’t maneuver very well,” JuanitaBarricklow said.

Roger Barricklow said he didnot get into raising horses untillater, after a discussion with hisfriend, Steven Feike. At that time,Barricklow and Feike started tolook at the possibility of raisinghorses, and began to researchwhich breed they wanted to focuson. Barricklow said Morganhorses stood out above the rest.That was 44 years ago, and RogerBarricklow said he has beenworking to improve the breedever since.

“Steven (Feike) and I startedlooking at horses and we decidedthat Morgans were intriguing.”Roger Barricklow said. “Wethought they seemed like they hada lot of sense and did what we’dlike to be able to do with a horse.We were also swayed just asmuch by the people. The ownersof Morgan horses seemed likepeople we could relate to and talkto, and they still are.”

After selecting Morgan horses,Roger Barricklow said the nextstep was to purchase horses with abit more quality and breed them.The Barricklows foundation mare,Shakers Ann Lee, was purchasedshortly after. Shakers Ann Leewas already in foal when the Bar-

ricklows purchased her, and soongave birth to Wind Blu Don Lee,a stud colt.

Horse names can often becomplicated, though Juanita Bar-ricklow said there is usually amethod at work behind them. TheBarricklow farm is named WindBlu, in reference to the harshwind storms that frequentlysweep through the area. Everyhorse that is born on the Barrick-low farm is prefaced with WindBlu.

“There’s a pine tree on thefarm that grows almost flat to theground, and if you look at thebarn there’s a tree, that’s a markerfor one of our mares who isburied there, and it’s leaning wayover, looks like its blowing downbecause the wind comes throughthere all the time,” Roger Barrick-low said.

Each horse name is a referenceto the mare that produced it. Forexample, the Barricklow’s mareWind Blu Park Avenue eventuallygave birth to a number of foals,including Wind Blu Roadmasterand Wind Blu Mustang Sally.Juanita Barricklow said if they de-viate from this method, they havea hard time remembering the line-age of their horses.

“Even the ones you think arestrange probably have some rea-soning behind them,” Juanita Bar-ricklow said.

Raising horses has been goodto the Barricklows. Roger andJuanita Barricklow originally metat Blanchester High School. Witha small class size of 35, the twoknew each other, and both servedas officers of their class. RogerBarricklow was the president, andJuanita Barricklow was the treas-urer.

After graduating, the Barrick-lows lived around the Blanchesterarea, where Roger Barricklowworked for the SB Craig com-pany, a fertilizer and grain eleva-tor. In 1963 the company built agrain elevator in Sardinia and theBarricklows were moved toBrown County. At that location,Roger Barricklow was the man-ager, and Juanita Barricklowworked as a part-time secretary

for the next 40 years.In 1992, the SB Craig

grain elevator shut down andBarricklow went to work fora fertilizer company inMowrystown until his retire-ment. Of course, Roger Bar-ricklow doesn’t see it thatway.

“They closed in 1992,and in that time I went toMowrystown for a fertilizercompany,” Barricklow said.“I stayed with them until Iquit working. I don’t say Iretired, I just tell people Iquit my paying job.”

Raising horses takes upmost of Roger Barrick-low’s time now. He has 14stalls and has between 10to 15 horses on average,and jokes with his friendsthat he keeps in shape bydoing “stall aerobics” bycleaning out the horses’stalls frequently.

The Barricklow’s de-cision to raise horsesworked out well for theirfamily. They have threechildren, Rick Barricklow, LanaRichey and Stormy Barricklow,and each of them has become in-volved in horses over the years.Rick Barricklow, the oldest of thethree, still raises horses occasion-ally, as does Lana Richey. Addi-tionally, Richey’s son is now aprofessional horse trainer.

Stormy Barricklow took thehobby in a new direction. JuanitaBarricklow said he was not as in-terested in showing horses, butwas more interested in ridingthem. Stormy Barricklow, alongwith his sons Cord and Strand, arenow major players in the world ofrodeo.

“His oldest son was the na-tional junior rodeo president,”Juanita Barricklow said “It’s kindof gone from buying the littlecrooked legged pony to our grandkids that are really expandingwith horses.”

Richey’s son, Reese Richey,has also taken home equitationawards for showing and ridinghorses raised on the Barricklowfarm. Every time the Barricklow

farmproduces a world champion horse,it helps to get the Wind Blu nameout more and increases businessto the farm.

“We took (Reese Richey) toOklahoma City for a nationalshow and he was undefeated insix classes,” Juanita Barricklowsaid. “He had three world champi-ons with a horse we raised, and Ithink that was the best advertisingwe could do.”

“We usually have one or twowe try to keep for family use, butthe primary motive is to sell themso we have some income,” RogerBarricklow said. “The worldchampion equitation horse thatReese rode we sold for a lot ofmoney. That makes you think, canwe do it again? Can we produceanother one?”

In addition to the recognitiongained by horses raised on theBarricklow farm, Roger Barrick-low was named American Mor-gan Horse Man of the Year in2010, an award that is given tothose who have made great strides

inbreeding Morgan horses, and forwhat they have given back to theMorgan world.

As he gets older, Roger Bar-ricklow does not show horses atequitation matches as much,though he has gotten into carriageriding as the years go on. His cur-rent goal is to compete while driv-ing four horses at the same time.

The Barricklows currentlyfarm 30 acres of hay to supportthe horses, and have an additional20 for pastures.

Roger Barricklow recom-mended getting into the horsebreeding business to anyone look-ing to establish great work ethicinto their children.

“It’s kind of expensive, but ex-tremely rewarding, especially ifyou have children,” Barricklowsaid. “It really gives the childrenresponsibility.”

(Bryan Peck is the editor of theNews Democrat and Ripley Bee,in Brown County.)

Barricklows love raising Morgan horsesRoger Barricklowrubs the nose of oneof his family’s horses.

Beth and Matt Ellisshare the ownership ofCherrybend with Matt’sbrother, Scott and his wifeMelissa. “It’s such a pleas-ure. From the beginning,we’ve all been on the samepage about how thingsshould be done.” Thebrothers take care of themore demanding physicallabor but they also farm anadditional 5000 acres andMelissa is a teacher, soBeth handles the day-to-day business of the pheas-ant farm. “The Hollistersstarted the preserve in1953 on their propertyneighboring the Ellis fam-ily farm. Matt worked onthe preserve while he wasin college. He told them ifthey ever wanted to sell it,he would want it. In 2006,when the Hollisters wereready to retire, they sold itonly with the understand-ing that it would remain ahunting preserve. We ran itpart-time in the beginning,but we got too busy. Itneeded full time attention.I had to make a decision.”

Pheasant farming is afull time undertaking. Dur-ing hunting season, fromSept. 1 through March 31,Cherrybend is open sevendays a week. “Weekendsare busiest, but hunters ar-rive daily,” Beth says. Shewelcomes hunters,arranges their field assign-ments, coordinates theguides, dogs and the re-lease of birds. If a guideisn’t available, she’ll takethe hunters herself.“Safety is our first priority.I’m not a control freak, butwhen I have people out, Iwant to know where theyare and what they’redoing!” She answersphone calls till 8PM frompotential customers orpeople who have questionsabout hunting and eventhose thinking about rais-ing their own birds. Shealso manages the website,newsletter, membershipand marketing activities.“I’ve learned a lot in thelast few years, but Ibrought some skills withme, like understandingcustomer service and em-pathizing with differenttypes of people.”

Beth says, “Therehasn’t been much of a wildpopulation of pheasantssince the blizzard of 1978.It devastated the pheasantpopulation. They aren’tnative to Ohio, plus, theirhabitat has changed andfarming has changed.There’s less open rangeand fewer fence rows,where the birds could hidefrom predatory hawks. Wereally hope some re-popu-lation will occur from thebirds we release.”

Around May, Cherry-bend will receive their firstpheasant chicks. Bethsays, “We get them inbatches of 2,500 and putthem in a climate-con-trolled environment. At sixweeks, we put ‘spectacles’on their noses becausepheasants are very territo-rial and will peck at eachother. People used to trimtheir beaks, but spectaclesare very effective. We snipthem off before we releasethe birds.” Quail andchukar partridge are alsoreleased, though Beth ad-mits a special affection for

the quail. “They’re not asbeautiful as pheasants, butthey’re such nice birds andI love how they sound. Weget them when they’re aday old; they comethrough the US Mail.Nothing is as cute as aquail chick! We get inabout a thousand - theylook like popcorn - andimmediately put themunder a heat lamp. Theystart eating and drinkingright away, and grow intohardy, social birds. We canhear them all year round.”

Cherrybend hunters payabout $115 for half a day’shunt and four birds are re-leased for each hunter.Beth says, “Forty yearsago, it cost about a dollar abird to raise. Now its about$12 a bird. We have a lotof time, labor and feed inthem. We house and feedthem for six months. Thequail are very neat, butpheasants scatter their corneverywhere - it takes a lotof feed to keep them alive.I don’t know how peoplecan afford to raise birds ifthey don’t also raise theirown corn. Each kind ofbird has it’s own extensivebarn, and the adjoiningflying pens, 10-12 feet tall,allow them space to spreadtheir wings. We leavegrass and weeds in theflight pens so they canpractice using them ascover. For winter, we herdall the birds into the barns.A big snow may collapsethe nets and the birds canget frozen in the mud.When breeding season be-gins, we keep the barnsdark; it keeps them fromfighting as much. Thepheasants are beautiful somany hunters want theirbirds mounted later but ittakes a lot of effort to keepthem looking beautiful.”

The hunting fields areplanted in food plots ofsorghum and corn. “Thebirds like sorghum to feedon and to take cover.” Al-though quail are essentiallyearth-toned, chukar havezebra-like stripes and redbeaks and the pheasantsare strikingly colored. Still,Beth says, “Hunters canwalk right past them. Weput them out in the fieldwhile the hunters are sign-ing in, but they hide. It’snot that easy; not everyonemakes their shot!” Hunters get help from

hunting dogs, usuallymanaged by the guides,though some hunters bringtheir own dogs. Beth says,“Dogs are really an inte-gral part of the hunt-they

find the bird, flush it andgo get it when it’s shot.Hunters really enjoywatching the dogs work.”There are seven dogs intraining on site, EnglishPointers and Setters, in ad-dition to the two black labslounging at the lodge,“Lou, who is fully trained,and Cooper, who is fullyspoiled! Labs are flushingdogs. In windy conditions,people often use a flushingdog with a pointing dog.”

In addition to standardmorning and afternoonhunts, European hunts, andan all-women’s pheasanthunt organized by theOhio Department of Natu-ral Resources, Cherrybendoffers an eight-stationsporting clay course cir-cling a grove at the centerof the farm. Beth says,“It’s year-round, weatherpermitting, by appoint-ment. Each station simu-lates a bird huntingsituation and a total of 50shots once around thecourse. People mostly doclay in the summer; it’s agreat alternative to golf.”And, every other Fridaynight, “we’ve been open-ing the lodge for ‘openmike jam night’ for anyonewho wants to come andplay music. It’s a fun, fam-ily friendly gathering.”

One feature unique toCherrybend is the on-siterunway. Hollister Fieldprovides a 3300-foot grassrunway for fly-ins. Bethsays it presented anothercompelling opportunity.“Matt is a pilot, he had aCessna, we had the run-way, it was natural to takeadvantage of that. I got mylicense last May. It’s anamazing feeling the firsttime you fly by yourself.”

If the Hollisters hadn’tbegun the pheasant pre-serve, Beth says, “Wewouldn’t have done this.But, we’re carrying on alegacy that’s been appreci-ated for 60 years. It wouldbe a tremendous loss to thestate if there weren’t pre-serves.” Still, she says, “Ittakes tough decisions andjuggling to be farmers,conservationists, businessowners and parents. Thistime of year most farmersare taking vacation. Wegave that up.” Duringspring and summer’s lessdemanding schedule, Bethtakes time “to do funthings” with Carlie, 10,and Nathan, 7, but there’salways Scouts, gymnas-tics, basketball and soft-ball. “You learn the hardway when you’re in busi-

ness for yourself. It’s achallenge dividing yourtime. You don’t want tomiss a customer, but some-times you’re in the middleof homework! I thoughtI’d be working in the med-ical field, with regularhours and benefits, not ris-ing early to feed pheasantsand greet hunters. I walkedaway from a career into acompletely different lifebut I don’t regret it at all.”

Walking the preserve inthe quiet of evenings, Bethsmiles at the coos and trillsof quail scattered across thefields, hearing a promisefor the future and undeni-able proof that, indeed, noteveryone makes their shot.

(Pat Lawrence is a contributor to ACRES ofSouthwest Ohio.)

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April 2013 3BACRES of Southwest Ohio

Exporting to China:What Ohio Farmers Need to Know

Read more atwww.acresmidwest.com

2378034

ELLISContinued from page 1B

Above: Pheasants areshown in 10-12 feet tall fly-ing pens adjoined to barns.The pens allow the birdsspace to spread their wings.

Left: At six weeks, the Ellis-es put ‘spectacles’ on thebird’s noses becausepheasants are very territori-al and will peck at each oth-er. People used to trim theirbeaks, but spectacles arevery effective.

Photos by Pat Lawrence

Cherrybend offers an eight-station sporting clay coursecircling a grove at the center of the farm. Each station sim-ulates a bird hunting situation and a total of 50 shots oncearound the course.

By OSU Extension Service

COLUMBUS – ByNew Year’s Day this year,graduating senior LinseyHowell already had fivejob offers.

Although the 21-year-old double major inagribusiness and appliedeconomics in Ohio StateUniversity’s College ofFood, Agricultural, andEnvironmental Sciences(CFAES) won’t receiveher degree until graduationday May 5, Howell al-ready has a start date forher new job working ingrain merchandising forThe Andersons: June 3.

“Thanks to the degreesI’m earning from OhioState and the internshipsI’ve had, I was able to takethe time to really considerthe job offers and decidewhich one would be thebest fit for me and what Iwant to do in my profes-sional career,” theDanville, Ohio native said.“There are a lot of compa-nies looking to hire agri-culture graduates.

“The opportunities arenationwide and world-wide, if you are open tothem. A lot of students inthe college (CFAES) havejob offers at the end oftheir junior year and a lotof students had jobs by thefirst career fair, and the

ones who aren’t lookingfor jobs have already beenaccepted into graduateschool.”

Howell is among agrowing number of recentagriculture graduates andgraduating seniors who arereporting strong jobprospects with their agri-culture and natural re-sources degrees in Ohioand nationwide thanks tothe growing world-widedemand for food and anincreasingly strong agri-culture industry, expertssay.

In fact, recent agricul-ture and natural resourcesgraduates with bachelor’sdegrees have the third low-est rates of unemployment(7 percent), according to a2012 study by GeorgetownUniversity’s Center on Ed-ucation and the Workforce.The same study found thatrate even lower for gradu-ates with advanced agri-cultural degrees (2.4percent).

This, as net farm in-come is expected to reach$128.2 billion this year,according to the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture.That’s a 14 percent in-crease over last year’s$112.8 billion and thehighest figure since 1973,USDA said in a statement.

Strong future employ-ment prospects ring true

for many recent CFAESgraduates and graduatingCFAES seniors, said BruceMcPheron, vice presidentfor agricultural administra-tion and dean of CFAES.

Consider the following:• Some 92 percent of

CFAES graduates are em-ployed or are attendinggraduate school within sixmonths of graduation.

• CFAES graduates re-port an average startingsalary of $39,024

• Some 72.1 percent ofCFAES graduates reportedemployment within Ohio.

• More than 200 com-panies and organizationshired CFAES graduateslast year.

“We focus on providingnot only the best possibletechnical education for ourstudents but also help themgain leadership, communi-cation, and teamworkskills,” McPheron said.

Job postings by em-ployers received in theCFAES career services of-fice increased in 2012compared to 2011, saidAdam Cahill, career devel-opment manager forCFAES. And the college ison pace to see continuedgains so far in 2013, hesaid.

“We have always hadhigh involvement fromagribusiness and seed-

based companies at our ca-reer expos,” Cahill said.“Businesses see the valuein our graduates which haskept them coming backevery year.

“When we look at thefall semester interviewsheld at the college, 68 per-cent were from companiesfocused directly in seed in-dustry and agribusinesssectors.”

The college is also see-ing an increase in com-pany interaction withCFAES student organiza-tions and in the classroomas guest speakers, he said.

“Companies likeCargill, Archer DanielsMidland, Pioneer, FarmCredit Services of Mid-America, John Deere andnumerous others have in-creased their presence andphysical time on campusso that they can interactwith and recruit studentsfrom multiple avenues out-side of the traditional ca-reer fair,” Cahill said.

Kristen Johnson agrees.She is one of four re-cruiters employed by FarmCredit Mid-America, a$19 billion agriculturallending cooperative pro-viding farm and home fi-nancing to more than100,000 agribusinesses,farmers and rural residentsthroughout Indiana, Ohio,Kentucky and Tennessee.

Farm Credit Mid-America recruits on cam-puses at more than twodozen colleges and univer-sities that offer four-yeardegrees in agricultureacross our four states, in-cluding CFAES, Johnsonsaid, noting that there is“increased competition forthe best and brightest”agriculture and natural re-sources graduates.

“There’s been a sub-stantial increase in thenumber of businesses par-ticipating in campusevents seeking employeesfrom agriculture’s talentpool,” she said. “A careerfair that might have had 20companies last year mayhave 60 this year.

“At the same time,those interested in agricul-tural careers are reallystepping up to the plate.They’re coming in withdefinitive career plans andhave done their researchon the companies at theevent.”

In response to thegrowing demand of theagricultural financing mar-ket, Farm Credit Mid-

America experienced a 27percent jump in employeenumbers in the last threeyears, and expects to addmore than 100 sales andcustomer support positionsin 2013, Johnson said.

“That level of studentprofessionalism is extend-ing into our internships,too,” she said. “This year,we’ll add 40 interns to ourprogram, up from justeight or 10 interns a fewyears ago.

“Like a lot of othercompanies, our intern pro-gram is an important partof our strategic hiringprocess and often leads tolong-term careers and evenleadership positions.”

For Howell, the knowl-edge that she is graduatingwith a high-demand de-gree and the completion oftwo agriculture-related in-ternships, allows her tofeel confident in her short-term and long-term careerprospects.

“I’m so excited,” shesaid. “I know I’ve madethe right job decision and Ican’t wait to start my newcareer.”

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Ohio hog farmers havebeen actively involved inthe fight against hunger foryears, donating more than750,000 meals of nutri-tious pork to Ohio food-banks since 2009. ThisEaster, the Ohio Pork Pro-ducers Council (OPPC) ismaking it easy for every-one to do their part tomake sure that no child,adult or senior in Ohiogoes without the basic ne-cessity of food.

OPPC would like tocelebrate “The Year of theFarmer,” along with gener-ous supporters like theOhio Corn Marketing Pro-gram, Farm Credit Serv-ices of Mid-America andmany Ohio hog farmersand businesses. OPPC hascommitted to honoring“The Year of the Farmer”in the state of Ohio. Eachtime someone visits Ohio’shog farmers on YouTube to

watch the fun “Pork fromFork to Farm” video,OPPC and its partners willdonate one pound ofground pork to Ohio’sfoodbanks.

“We can’t say enoughabout what this supportmeans to the hungry peo-ple our foodbanks serve,”said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt,executive director of theOhio Association of Food-banks. “By taking a fewmoments to view thisvideo, you will be helpingus to provide Ohio-raised,Ohio-produced pork to

people in need, some ofthe most protein-packedfood we are able to pro-vide all year. Plus, you willbe supporting our state’soutstanding agriculture in-dustry—the people whowork hard to feed all of us,every day.”

Thanks to the donationsfrom Farm Credit Servicesof Mid-America, the OhioCorn Marketing Program,and many other farmersand businesses, OPPC canprovide up to 35,000pounds of ground pork tofoodbanks in Cincinnati,Cleveland, Columbus,Dayton and Toledo. OPPCis proud to continue itscommitment to fightinghunger in Ohio and en-courages other agriculturalleaders and everydayOhioans to join them. Takeaction against hunger withjust one click by viewingthe video today.

Hog farmers, partners to put porkon the table for hungry Ohioans

St. Louis, Mo. – Theselittle piggies went to mar-ket – international markets,that is, and in record num-bers. Despite challengingissues, such as the strug-gling global economy andtrade barriers, U.S. poultryand livestock farmers en-joyed a record year in 2012for meat exports, whichhelps keep domestic de-mand for U.S. soy strong,according to the UnitedSoybean Board.

U.S. poultry, egg andpork shipments exceededprevious highs for valueand volume set in 2011. In-ternational beef salesdipped slightly in volumebut broke the previousvalue record. GrowingU.S. meat and poultry ex-ports reinforce demand for

U.S. soy since soy mealconstitutes a significantportion of animal feeds.Domestic animal agricul-ture uses about 98 percentof the domestic supply ofU.S. soy meal, making itthe U.S. soy industry’s No.1 customer. “Exportingmeat and poultry is a bigissue for U.S. soybeanfarmers,” says John Butler,a farmer-leader from Dy-ersburg, Tenn. “If we canfeed animals soybeans hereand sell them abroad,we’re creating a value-added product. Adding thatvalue here has a tremen-dous positive impact onnot only the U.S. soy in-dustry but the nationaleconomy as well.” Poultryand hogs remain thebiggest users of U.S. soy

meal. According to themost recent statistics, poul-try consume roughly 12.9million metric tons annu-ally. That’s the meal from601 million bushels of soy-beans. And hogs accountfor 6.8 million metric tonsof U.S. soy meal, or themeal from 318 millionbushels of soybeans. Tosupport U.S. soy meal’slargest customer, the soycheckoff partners with or-ganizations like the U.S.Meat Export Federation(USMEF) and USA Poul-try and Egg Export Coun-cil to market U.S. meat andpoultry abroad. A recentcheckoff and USMEF ef-fort helped increase con-sumption of pork back ribsin Japan from zero to 4.5million pounds over the

last three years. The U.S.meat and poultry exportfigures for 2012 include:Pork exports nearlyreached 2.3 million metrictons, valued at over $6.3billion. Broiler meat ex-ports, excluding chickenpaws, reached 3.3 millionmetric tons, valued atnearly $4.2 billion. Beefexports reached 1.1 millionmetric tons, valued at $5.5billion. Turkey exportsreached 361,597 metrictons, valued at $678 mil-

lion. Chicken paw exportsreached 363,974 metrictons, valued at $450.1 mil-lion. Egg exports, tableeggs and processed eggproducts in shell equiva-lents reached 274.1 milliondozen, valued at $263.7million. The 69 farmer-di-rectors of USB oversee theinvestments of the soycheckoff to maximizeprofit opportunities for allU.S. soybean farmers.These volunteers investand leverage checkoff

funds to increase the valueof U.S. soy meal and oil, toensure U.S. soybean farm-ers and their customershave the freedom and in-frastructure to operate, andto meet the needs of U.S.soy’s customers. As stipu-lated in the federal Soy-bean Promotion, Researchand Consumer InformationAct, the USDA Agricul-tural Marketing Servicehas oversight responsibili-ties for USB and the soycheckoff.

Record year for meat, poultry exports bolsters demand for U.S. soy

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Preferred Sale 2013Pigs sell @12 noonLambs sell @ 1pmKids sell @ 2pm

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All animals will be available forviewing 2 hours prior to the sale.

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AApprriill 55:: Registrationdeadline for Landscapingfor Wildlife April 10 inSharon Center. Workshopby Ohio State UniversityExtension’s Ohio Wood-land Stewards Program.Registration $15. Regis-ter online at http://wood-landstewards.osu.edu/.Information:[email protected] or614-688-3421.

AApprriill 99:: ProduceSafety Training, 6-9 p.m.,Ohio State University Ex-tension’s CuyahogaCounty office trainingroom, 5320 Stanard Ave.,Cleveland. Workshop onpreventing microbial

contamination on fruitand vegetable farms, in-cluding the use of GoodAgricultural Practices.$10. Pre-registration re-quired; space limited; noregistration at the door.Send name, contact in-formation and registra-tion payment (makechecks payable to “OSUExtension”) to OSU Ex-tension, CuyahogaCounty, Attn: JacquelineKowalski, 9127 MilesAve., Cleveland, OH44105. Information: 216-429-8200, ext. 217.

AApprriill 1100:: Landscapingfor Wildlife, 6-9 p.m.,Wolf Creek Environmental

Center, 6100 Ridge Road,Sharon Center. Workshopby Ohio State UniversityExtension’s Ohio Wood-land Stewards Program.Registration $15; includesinformation packet. Regis-tration deadline April 5.Register online athttp://woodlandstew-ards.osu.edu/. Informa-tion: [email protected] 614-688-3421.

AApprriill 1133:: Guided BirdWalk, 9-11 a.m., SecrestArboretum, Seaman Ori-entation Plaza, OhioAgricultural Researchand Development Center,1680 Madison Ave.,Wooster. Led by mem-

bers of Greater MohicanAudubon Society. Free.Information:[email protected] or330-464-2148.

AApprriill 2244:: GuidedSpring Walk, 2-3:30p.m., Secrest Arboretum,Seaman OrientationPlaza, Ohio AgriculturalResearch and Develop-ment Center, 1680 Madi-son Ave., Wooster. Free.Information:[email protected] or330-464-2148.

AApprriill 3300:: Master Gar-dener Pollinator Training,10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Se-crest Arboretum, Jack

and Deb Miller Pavilion,Ohio Agricultural Re-search and DevelopmentCenter, 1680 MadisonAve., Wooster. Informa-tion:[email protected] or330-263-3723.

Included in OhioState’s College of Food,

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Upcoming Events

By DAVE [email protected]

Recently we concluded the2013 Beef School held through-out Ohio. We had a good atten-dance at the local location, NorthAdams High School, with an av-erage of over 30 producers forthe three sessions.

The program included severalthings of interest, with good dis-cussion following each night.One topic that was discussedwas the management of replace-ment heifers. With cattle andfeed prices being as high as theycurrently are, giving these fe-males that were selected to bereplacements their best chance isvery important. The discussionabout keeping your own heifersor buying replacement heiferscan be another discussion, butregardless of which route youtake, management is a key.

With the average herd size forbeef cows in Ohio being close to20, the management of heiferscan often be a low priority. Ifyou select 10 or 15 percent forreplacements, that would be ei-ther two or three heifers in aherd of 20. For larger producersit is less of an issue because ifyou are looking at 100 cow herd,keeping 10 to 15 heifers makes itmore logical to have theseheifers in a separate pasture vs.the two or three heifers.

Regardless of the numbers,for the good of the heifers, theyneed to be managed separately.They need more nutrients thanthe cows ranging from four yearsold to the more mature cows inthe herd. Older cows may needto be treated different than thebulk of the herd, too. That de-pends on how old “old” is. Youwill know the older cows thatneed just a little extra feed. Boththe heifers and the old cows tendto not be able to complete withthe majority of the cows, soextra management, or TLC, may

be needed.For heifers, the nutrients are

needed to continue the growth ofthe female herself, produce milkfor the first calf, and maintainthe young female’s body condi-tion so she will breed back in atimely manner. You are askingher to do quite a bit if feedingher like a mature cow in an envi-ronment that she may struggle tocompete in, if running with therest of the herd. If you feed theentire herd to meet the heifer’snutrient needs with $7 to $8 cornthat will get costly in a hurry.The bulk of the herd will notneed those additional nutrients ifyour forages are of decent qual-ity. Again, a forage test will an-swer how good your forages are,but the mature cow’s nutritionalneeds are less than the heifer’s.

By keeping these young fe-males, the two year olds andmaybe even the three year oldsin a separate pasture may paydividends in the long run. Theseyoung replacements can be man-aged to do just that, replace thecows that have been removedfrom the herd. The cost of re-placements, either home raisedor bought, is too much to not

manage them into production foryour herd. Yes, it is extra work.Another place to feed and evenanother bull, but this bull couldbe the next bull for your cowherd.

In smaller herds, if this justseems to be too much for just afew heifers, there are other op-tions. There are people who de-velop heifers. For small herdsthis option may be worth lookinginto. This option is availablehere in Southern Ohio.

Recently I announced this up-coming program with some ofthe soybean specialists fromOhio State. The program will beheld at the Ponderosa Steak-house on Tuesday, April 2, be-ginning at 10 a.m. With therecent weather, and the extendedforecast, I doubt anyone will bedoing much field work by nextTuesday. What a difference ayear makes. Last year, field workhad started and some plantinghad been done.

The program will discuss afew things with soybean produc-tion including some research thatwill be done on some local farmsin 2013. Dr. Laura Lindsey, Soy-bean and Small Grain Produc-

tion Specialist will be discussingthe project that will be done withthe Ohio Soybean Council to de-termine yield-limiting factors forOhio soybean production.

Dr. Terry Niblack, the Depart-ment Chair for Plant Pathologyat Ohio State University will bediscussing the issues with Soy-bean Cyst Nematode. Terry willcover some of the basics to man-aging SCN.

Dr. Anne Dorrance, SoybeanSpecialist for OSU/OARDC inWooster will be covering issueswith Charcoal Rot in Soybeansand discussing some planned,local trials with populationcounts and how it affects yields.

The program will be lunch onyour own at Ponderosa. We willmeet in the new restaurant. Theprogram begins at 10 a.m. andwill conclude after lunch around2:30 p.m. Please RSVP by call-ing Pam at the Adams Co. Ex-tension Office at 544-2339,Cindy at the Brown Co. Ext. Of-fice at 378-6716, or Tami at theHighland Co. Extension Officeat 393-1918. If leaving a mes-sage please leave your name,phone number and how manypeople will be attending. Youmay also register by sending mean e-mail at [email protected] the same information.

Dates to RememberPesticide License Testing Pri-

vate and commercial testing forapplicator license will be offeredon April 8 and May 13 at the OldY Restaurant. You are requiredto pre-register by calling theOhio Department of Agricultureat 800-282-1955 or online athttp://pested.osu.edu. Space islimited so register soon. Studymaterials are also available at thesame address or phone number.

Highland Co. Cattlemen An-nual Banquet is April 3.

(David Dugan is an OSU Ex-tension Educator, ANR, OhioValley EERA.)

Producers attend 2013 Beef School

Merchants NationalBank has announcedthe addition of RyanCorzatt to its commer-cial and agricultureloan team. Ryan’s of-fice is located at themain office, 100 N.High Street, Hillsboro.

With more than 20years of lending expe-rience in both com-mercial andagricultural lending,Ryan brings with hima great deal of knowl-edge and experience.Ryan is married towife, Christie and theyhave four children.Ryan has also servedas a Green TownshipTrustee in FayetteCounty since 2001.

Merchants NationalBank invites you tostop in to meet withRyan for your com-mercial and agricul-ture borrowing needs,937-393-7993.

Corzatt joinsMerchantsagricultureloan team

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� BEN HIGGINS AUCTION � BEN HIGGINS AUCTION �

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LARGE PARTHEMORE AUCTIONSaturday, April 20, 2013 • 10:00 A.M.

Located: Hardin Co @ 328 E. Taylor St. Mt. Victory,Ohio 43340, 9 mi. S. of Kenton.Selling due to the passing of my son & late husband whooperated an auto repair shop for 30 plus years. Many nicequality shop & service tools.JOHN DEERE GATOR-COMPACT LOADER/TRACTOR-ZEROTURN MOWER-IMPLEMENTS: JD 4x4 Gator, elect. dump bed,cab, heat, 6’ snowplow, 376 hrs., v.g.c; JD 650 dsl. compact,newer woods LS84 quick tach loader w/54” bkt., turf tires,1151 hrs., v.g.c.; 3 pt. JD I-Match ballast weight box. JD 757Z-Trak w/60” deck, 963 hrs., v.g.c.; Roto Mec 5’ 3 pt. pto ro-totiller; 6’ 3 pt. blade; Frontier GM1060R 3 pt. 60” finish mower;46” yard roller; Solar 25 gal., 3 pt. sprayer; 200 gal. pull typefuel tank; 2 wheel yard trailer. LARGE SNAP ON & MAC TOOLCHEST: 8’ wide x 6’ high Black 30 drw. roll around tool chestw/side locker & Special Ed. decals “Intimidator 11” Dale Earn-hardt; Mac Tools roll around 1 drw. mech. chest/cart. CAR LIFT:‘01 Bend Pak BP-12 (12,000 lb.) 4 post drive on high auto liftw/rolling bridge, 235” overall length.MANYMECHANIC & SPE-CIALTY SERVICE TOOLS-LOTS OF QUALITY WRENCHES-SOCKETS-RATCHETS-HANDTOOLS-FORKLIFT-SHOPEQUIP-OLD SERVICE SHOP COLLECTIBLES & CABINETS-AUTO SUPPLIES-PARTS-OFFICE-SHOP MANUALS-FOOTBALL MEMORABILIA - WOOD SHOP TOOLS - GUN SAFE-MIS-CANVIL-MISC. POLE BARN ITEMS-LUMBER: several hundredboard feet of asst. new shop lumber.

Please see www.higginsauctions.com for details

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OWNER: Mrs. Mildred L. Parthemore

BBEENN HHIIGGGGIINNSS RREEAALLTTYY&& AAUUCCTTIIOONN CCOO..,, LLLLCC..

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Freezer Beeffor Sale!

Call Jay Fannin740-505-0375

CNMP SERVICES LLCComprehensive NutrientManagement Plans

EQIP or Non-EQIP CNMPs

Roger L. Butts,TSPCertified CNMP Specialist

937-750-3202

AGRO-SERVE CONSULTING

Independent SoilFertility Recommendations

(No Product Sales)

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

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

Email: [email protected]

• OUTDOOR FURNACES •

Eliminate High Heating Bills!

Visit us at: EagleOutdoorFurnaces.com2372766

Call Jeff Huddleson at 1-513-638-5717

Instant Rebates up to $1,000 for a limited time.Don’t wait any longer! Start saving money on yourheating bill when you heat your entire home, waterand more with the safe, comfortable heat of aCentral Boiler outdoor furnace.

CLASSIC, E-CLASSIC &MAXIM FURNACES IN STOCK& READY FOR DELIVERY!

Eagle Outdoor Furnaces - Lebanon, Ohio

• DRIVE-THRU RECYCLING •

2373376

Bennett Recycling950 Delaware Street950 Delaware Street

Washington C.H., Ohio 43160Washington C.H., Ohio 43160

Drive-Thru Rec. FacilityDrive-Thru Rec. FacilityFor all your Recycling needsFor all your Recycling needs

740-636-1942740-636-1942

2373622

• QUALITY STOREFRONT SPACE •

Located on I-71, Exit 69to right of Jeffersonville, OH

Call 614-565-4688 or 740-426-6991www.jcohio.com

GREAT LOCATION!RETAIL/OFFICE SPACE

For LeaseVariety of Sizes

• PAINTING & POWER WASHING •

2377848

777744440000----666633336666----0000222222223333777744440000----555577772222----0000888877779999777744440000----555500005555----8888777700000000

R&R Painting andPower Washing

We paint grain bins, fences and houses.Also demolition of old buildings.

Also power washing of equipment.Free EstimatesLicensed and Bonded

• ROOFING & SIDING •

2377

849

Ratliff Roofing & Vinyl SidingAlso Continuous Gutter & Painting

Washington C.H., OH ~ Sabina, OHLicensed & Bonded

COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL• Roofing: Asphalt, Fiberglass,

Rubber, Metal Roofs• Power WashingCell: Office:

740-572-0879 937-584-2369740-505-8700 740-636-0223

PPRROOPPEERRTTYY MMAANNAAGGEEMMEENNTT

SENIOR CITIZENS& CHURCHDISCOUNTS

Billy & Patsy Parrish, [email protected]

1229 Robinson Rd. SEWashington C.H., OH 43160Ph. 740-335-9966Fax 740-335-0388

4087 Old 35 SEFrankfort, OH 45628

Ph. 740-998-6900

Southern Ohio’s Finest2 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU

ParrishParrish• TOWING & TRANSPORT •• TOWING & TRANSPORT •

2378144

FARMLAND WANTEDHIGHLY MOTIVATED PURCHASER

Contact Tina OrtizMark Fornes Realty, Inc.

(937) [email protected]

2377837

Portable Welding ServicesHillsboro, Ohio

937-780-4818

Knowles Welding

2377994

FABR ICATI ONand

www.redscc.comGARY BENSON

3558 Bush RoadWash. C.H., OH 43160

Phone (740) 335-3648Fax (740) 335-3670

Harley Davidson®

Sales & ServicesService • Repair • Parts

HOURS:Wednesday - Friday

9 am - 6 pmSaturday 9 am - 3 pm

Closed Sunday, Monday & TuesdayCall for Winter Hours

2378089

8936 N. St. RT 123, Blanchester

937-783-8330Multi Fuel

Pellet StovesCorn and Pellet Fuel

Available 2375811

DEADLINES/CORRECTIONS:Liner deadline 3rd Thurdsay of each month:

Display Deadlines:Mar. Edition: March 6 Aug. Edition: July 31Apr. Edition: April 3 Sept. Edition: Sept.5May Edition: May 1 Oct. Edition: Oct 2Jun. Edition: June 5 Nov. Edition: Oct. 23Jul. Edition: July 3 Dec. Edition: Dec. 4

.comworkthat

937-382-2574Wilmington News Journal

We Accept

PLACE YOUR CLASSIFIED AD ONLINE-24/7JobSourceOhio.com

POLICY: Please Check Your Ad The 1st Day. It Is The Advertiser’s Responsibility To Report Errors Immediately.Publisher Will Not Be Responsible for More Than One Incorrect Insertion. We Reserve The Right To Correctly Classify, Edit, Cancel Or Decline Any Advertisement Without Notice.

GENERAL INFORMATIONOffice Hours: Monday-Friday 8-5

wnewsj.comtimesgazette.com

recordherald.comnewsdemocrat.compeoplesdefender.com


700 Painting 700 Painting

710 Roofing/Gutters/Siding 710 Roofing/Gutters/Siding

635 Farm Services 635 Farm Services

515 Auctions 515 Auctions

577 Miscellaneous 577 Miscellaneous

T Adv tise in th S ice & Busine Dir ct le ll 937-372-9609 1-866-212-7355

ReachingElevenCounties!

Buy, Sell, Trade...in the

Classifieds!Reach Over 10,000

LandownersIn 11 Counties!

Also...Posted each month on these

highly visitedwebsites: newsdemocrat.com,

peoplesdefender.com,timesgazette.com,

recordherald.com andwnewsj.com

To place an ad Call:937-544-2391, 937-368-6161937-382-2574, 740-335-3611

or 937-393-3456

Growing Opportunities

of Southwest Ohio

535 Farm Supplies/Equipment

The Washington Town-ship Trustees of WarrenCounty are seeking bidsfor two items. One is aShaver Hydraulic PostDriver, Model HD-12-H;minimum bid is $3600.The second is a 2001John Deere Tractor, Mod-el 6410 with only 1080hours and new front tires;minimum bid is $30,000.Bids should be sent to9277 Arrowcreek Drive,Oregonia, Ohio 45054and will be opened at theTrusteesʼ meeting onMonday, April 8 at thetownship hall at 1271Ward-Koebel Road, Ore-gonia. Bids will beopened at 8pm and any-one who submitted a bidwill have the opportunityto raise bid until each itemis sold to highest bidder.For more information or toset up an appointment toview, call 937-481-1294.

545 Firewood/Fuel

Firewood-For Sale $140.All Hardwood. Ash, RedOak, Locust, Cherry,White Oak, Hickory. Sea-soned 1 Year. No Dirt,Very Clean and Dry. NoChecks. 937-509-3308SEASONED RED-OAK &MULBERRY FIREWOOD:$60/Half CordLarge Pieces,Can Deliver!Sell Any Amount,All YearLong!(740)463-8025Top Quality Split Sea-soned Hardwood. FreeLocal Delivery. Over 25mi3 Cord Minimum. $125.00Full Cord. Cash Sales On-ly. 937-763-8086

13 ft. John Deere 8300drill, 16 hole 10 inch spac-ing, working hydraulics.OBO $1500 argun-n e r @ h o t m a i l . c o m .(937)981-5159.

570 Lawn and Garden

2008 JohnDeere 5425 loader,

cab, heat, air, Price$8200, call or text614-547-9433 / [email protected].

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2373166


southwest acres april 2013

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