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ABOVE: Two of the four 2011 inductees to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame, Tom Turner (left) and Fred Yoder.
COLUMBUS — Four Ohioans who committed their lives to Ohio’s farm community will be inducted to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame Aug. 5 by the Ohio Agricultural Council.
This year’s inductees include the late Edwin J. Carey of Marion, Lester Lynd of Pataskala, Thomas B. Turner of Somerset and Fred Yoder of Plain City.
Enshrinement ceremonies will be held during a special breakfast ceremony at the Ohio State Fair Aug. 5 in the Rhodes Youth Center.
Edwin Carey
Edwin J. Carey of Marion, now deceased, began his life’s work at age 7, taking care of the family’s poultry flock.
Over the years, Carey Farms grew to include a 250,000-egg capacity hatchery and 1,400 crop acres.
Carey devoted more than 65 years to improving the genetic capabilities of laying hens and was considered by many as one of the leading poultry breeders and innovators in poultry housing and development.
In 1936, he had the highest production pen and individual hen in the United States. In the early 1950s, he started offering a franchise program of his breeding stock to other poultry producers. This resulted in the sale of thousands of Carey-Nickability bred white Leghorn chicks nationally and world-wide.
At the time of his death in 1988, he had just developed a strain of white Leghorn chicks that could be sexed by color as opposed to the time consuming wing length method.
Lester Lynd
Lester Lynd, of Pataskala, earned his first gas money by pulling sprouts off apple trees. Since then, Lynd has been an integral part of the Lynd Fruit Farm evolution — from working at the roadside stand that provided ‘all you can drink’ cider for 10 cents to becoming the largest apple wholesaler and pick-your-own apple operation in Ohio.
Lynd brought the controlled atmosphere storage process to the farm, making Lynd Fruit Farm the first to bring this technology to central Ohio.
Today, the farm produces nearly 12 million apples yearly, and also grows pumpkins, cherries, plums, peaches and daylilies.
He was also instrumental in the success of the Agricultural Clearance Program through the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
Tom Turner
The impact Dr. Thomas B. Turner, of Somerset, has had on the Ohio beef industry, students in animal sciences at Ohio State and youth is far reaching. During his tenure at Ohio State, he coached 32 intercollegiate livestock judging teams that included 266 students, and is the longest serving coach in the 105-year history of the program at Ohio State and the second longest in the U.S.
Turner was instrumental in developing an endowment program to secure the longevity of livestock judging program at Ohio State and raised more than $1.5 million — by far the most successful judging team endowment in the nation.
Turner has also judged livestock across the country and around the world including at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, Australia.
Fred Yoder
Fred Yoder, of Plain City, has distinguished himself as a state and national leader in the corn industry.
He has farmed for 38 years and grows corn, soybeans and wheat, and also operates a retail farm seed business.
Yoder was a member of the Ohio Corn Growers Association Board for 18 years, two of those years as the president. He also served as president of the National Corn Growers Association and continues as an adviser to the association.
Yoder has testified on behalf of farmers before Congress and serves as an advocate for agriculture locally, nationally and internationally while working to advance grain farming and opening world markets.
For further information about sponsorship in honor of the inductees, or to obtain tickets to the Agricultural Hall of Fame induction ceremony, contact the Ohio Ag Council at 614-794-8970 or via email at info@ohioagcouncil.org.
