The spring of 2010 has been exceptional. It has been great to see the progress our farmers are making across northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania. This spring has just been tremendous! Today, I would like to remind producers about four great OSU Extension resources which are helping farmers keep their management skills on the cutting edge.
Producers can sharpen their management skills by subscribing to the Ohio Ag Manager electronic newsletter. This newsletter, published monthly, delivers information relevant to the management of profitable agricultural businesses.
Each month seven to 10 articles are written and published on the Ohio Ag Manager website at: http://ohioagmanager.osu.edu. These articles are on a variety of issues ranging from tax tips and labor management to legal liability to financial benchmarking.
Delivery
Producers can access the newsletter online or elect to have the newsletter sent directly to their e-mail account each month. Each edition is archived on the website and a search feature is available, allowing producers to search for answers to their management questions.
I encourage each of you to bookmark the Ohio Ag Manager website on your computer today. I am sure that you will find the Ohio Ag Manager to be a valuable member of your farm management toolbox.
Another great website for producers to access is OSU Extension’s Agronomy website located at: http://agcrops.osu.edu/ This website features the Crop Observation and Recommendation Network newsletter. This weekly newsletter is written by the agronomy team and highlights the hot disease, insect and growth issues of the growing season.
Content
The website also contains in-depth information on corn, soybean, wheat, forages, weeds, diseases, insects, crop injury, fertility, equipment, precision agriculture, markets, weather and soil management.
There are tons of great pictures to help producers identify insects and diseases. Producers can also subscribe to have the CORN newsletter sent directly to their e-mail accounts. This award-winning website helps producers manage their crops during the growing season.
The OSU Extension offices in northeast Ohio invite agriculture producers to log on and check out the new Northeast Ohio Agriculture Blog located at http://northeastohioagriculture.wordpress.com/
The goal of this blog is to provide timely updates in farm management (business planning and succession planning), small farmer education and production agriculture (dairy, beef and grapes) in northeast Ohio.
Anyone interested can subscribe and get an e-mail notice of each new blog entry to their computer or cell phone as soon as it is posted. This allows for producers to stay current on agricultural topics in northeast Ohio. I encourage you to check it out.
Another blog producers will want to check out is our OSU Extension Agricultural Law Blog written by Peggy Hall, attorney and director of the OSU Agricultural & Resource Law Program.
This past week, Hall provided an update on a legislative proposal in the Ohio House of Representatives that would include on-farm bioenergy production activities in two key provisions of Ohio law: qualification for differential tax assessment under the Current Agricultural Use Valuation program and exemption from local zoning authority.
Details
This bill would benefit our local agricultural producers who are exploring bio-energy systems. It will be interesting to see the progression of this bill through our state legislature. The goal of this blog is to updated producers across Ohio on the legal issues affecting agriculture.
This blog can be accessed at: http://ohioaglaw.wordpress.com/.
I hope each of you will check out these great OSU Extension resources. Best of luck as you finish planting, make silage and gear up for a great summer across the region. Have a good and safe day!
(The author is an assistant professor and Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension educator in Ashtabula County. He can be reached at 440-576-9008 or marrison.2@osu.edu.)
