Coshocton County honors Mizers

COSHOCTON, Ohio – Plain View Farm, originally signed as the 10th Coshocton District Cooperator, received the 2003 Outstanding Conservation Farm award at the 62nd annual Coshocton Soil and Water District meeting Oct. 21.
Present owners of Plain View Farm are Vernon and Diane Mizer who were married in 1964 and began their farming career together.
They became cooperators with the Coshocton SWCD in April 1981 and a conservation plan was developed for them in 1983.
Vernon’s parents, Ralph and Audrey Mizer, had signed up as district cooperators in June 1944, as the 10th cooperator of the Coshocton SWCD. They raised their family of six on the Mizer farm.
Audrey, who celebrated her 98th birthday Oct. 26, was present at the banquet.
The farm. The Mizers farm 220 acres in White Eyes Township, their crop farming operation consisting of a corn, hay and soybean rotation, along with some small grains.
Their main enterprise is dairy cattle.
Conservation practices include contour strips, five spring developments (two using the old round tanks back in the 1960s), a manure storage facility and a farm pond.
In addition, tile drainage on the farm was installed at two different times – in 1978 and in 1999.
They also installed a heavy-use area protection feeding pad using material from the power plant.
Big tree. Garry Derr, Coshocton SWCD chairman, presented the Big Tree Contest award for this year’s winning entry, an oak tree measuring 218 inches in circumference, with vertical height of 104 feet and an average crown spread of 97 feet.
It is located on Robert and Deborah Buker’s property.
Hay winners. The junior fair hay’s show winners were recognized and included Brandon Gosser, Ridgewood FFA, for light mixed hay; Jesse Wright, River View FFA, for alfalfa hay; and Kurt Wyler, White Eyes Livestock, for both grass hay and mixed hay.
Rob Totten correctly identified the John Stalder farm in the mystery photo contest, which was part of the SWCD display at the Coshocton County Fair.
Special recognition was given to Smurfit Stone Container for its continued support of the Area 3 Envirothon Competition.
Dedicated service. The supervisors also honored one of their own, Gerald Finlay, who received a plaque for his 21 years of dedicated service to the Coshocton SWCD.
Knox Porteus and Greg Waters were elected to three-year terms on the board of directors beginning Jan. 1.
Guest speaker, Jay Hendren, agricultural comedian, drew on some of his experiences as a farmer to entertain the audience.