Newsletter: Autumn 2024

The Pastures for Profit Grazing School classroom sessions were held on the evenings of July 23^rd and 25^th with a pasture walk day on July 27^th.

Pastures for Profit is an educational course providing science-based pasture management information to Ohio farmers. Throughout the course, participants learn how to provide and maintain healthy and sustainable forage systems for the animals in their care. Participants of our grazing school learned about goal setting, soils, soil fertility, plant physiology, animal needs, paddock design, fencing options, extending the grazing season, and the economics of grazing operations.

Thank you again to Randy & Eileen Eisenhauer for allowing us to use their pastures to educate the participants! The pasture walk day was a hot one, but that didn’t stop farmers from asking great questions and prompting great discussions! Thank you to all our participants and presenters for making this a great event! We all profited from the conversations and knowledge shared.

Pastures for Profit was a combined effort of the following entities: The Ohio State University, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, USDA-NRCS, and the Ohio Forage & Grasslands Council.

H2Ohio Wraps Up for 2023 Program Year

In H2Ohio, verifications for one year of the program don’t wrap up until halfway through the next. That is why we are sharing 2023’s impact instead of 2024’s.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture designated over $2.7 million for Richland County farmers in H2Ohio. 2023 appropriated cost share alone totaled nearly $700,000.

Our participating farmers worked hard in 2023 as you can see from the impact infographics below.

Overall, H2Ohio farmers received north of $320,000 in cost share last year. The total cost share paid to date totals over $700,000.

As we look ahead to the coming years we are excited to announce that 11 new producers were signed up for H2Ohio this year! This brings the total cropland acres enrolled through Richland County to 25,500, the most we have had since the program began!

All numbers are approximate

For more information on H2Ohio, visit these links!

Agriculture Best Management Practice Highlight: Grassed Waterways

Ever pass a farm field and wonder why a seemingly random strip of grass runs through the middle of it? Chances are, you are looking at a grassed waterway.  

When a whole field is tilled and planted, there may be areas where two hill slopes come together (called a swale). When it rains, water will naturally flow to these swales and eventually to a stream or creek.

In conventional cropping and tillage systems, these areas can erode into gullies and are difficult or impossible to cross with farm equipment. Furthermore, they will continue to erode as water carries the soil away.

Grassed waterways are engineered, shallow grassed channels designed to handle concentrated water flows. The grass slows water down so it is less likely to carve gullies and the grass’s roots help keep the soil in place.

If you think your field could benefit from a grassed waterway or two, we can help. Give our office a call at 419-747-8686.

Seeing Conservation in Action

Over the spring/summer, Richland SWCD technicians helped our USDA-NRCS partners by performing practice check-outs. In other words, these practices were completed and needed to be verified that they were done correctly. As a result, our technicians saw some conservation practices in action!

Technicians verified 7 acres of Grassed Waterways, 4 acres of Quail Buffer, 5 acres of Hardwood Tree Planting, and 25 acres of Tall Grass Prairie. The practices our technicians verified encompass nearly 40 acres and are helping to reduce soil erosion and promote wildlife habitat and diversity.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) offers and administers a wide variety of voluntary, cost-shared conservation practices for farmers to implement on their land and homestead.

Richland SWCD technicians assist USDA-NRCS with technical assistance and administrative efforts and are available to help producers interested in programs and practices offered in Richland County. Our technicians also assist those who do not wish to be enrolled in government programs but want to implement conservation practices.

Ohio’s Historic Family Farm Program

Has your farm been in your family for more than a century? Would you like to preserve and honor that history? If so, Ohio’s Historic Family Farm Program might be a good choice.

There are three designations for historic farms in Ohio: Century Farms (in the family for 100-146 years), Sesquicentennial Farms (in the family for 150-199 years), and Bicentennial Farms (200+ years in the family).

For more information, you can call the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) at 614-752-4505 or email them (see below).

Farmland Preservation Program

Do you want to preserve your farmland as an agricultural asset in your community, in perpetuity? If so, look into the Farmland Preservation Program offered by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and sponsored by your local Soil and Water Conservation District.

This program has two options for preservation:

1. Clean Ohio Local Agricultural Easement Purchase Program (LEAPP) where you compete in a ranking process to enter the program.
2. Agricultural Easement Donation Program (AEDP), which includes some tax benefits.

There are similar programs offered by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS). You can enroll in them at the same time as ODA’s programs. Contact us or the Farm Service Agency for more information.