REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — The Ohio Forages and Grasslands Council annual conference will be held Feb. 3 from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Ohio Department of Agriculture in Reynoldsburg. The program theme is “High Quality Forages.” The keynote speaker will be Dr. Kim Cassida, forage Extension specialist at Michigan State University, who will discuss “managing grass-legume mixtures,” based on extensive research and experience in Michigan and her prior work in West Virginia.
She and Dr. Jeff McCutcheon (OSU Extension, Southeast Region Director) will discuss “High Energy Pasture for Grass-Finished Beef,” and two Ohio producers, Bill Lawhon of Knox County and Jeff Ramseyer of Wayne County, will expand on that topic by discussing how they utilize annual and perennial forages in their grass-based beef operations. Lin Karcher, a dairy producer in Meigs County, will discuss the transition to grass-based dairy production.
Sheep and forages
Don and Megan Burgess, of Hancock County, will discuss how sheep breed affects utilization of annual forages in their operation. Todd Hager, of Allen County, will discuss his commercial hay operation that includes baling cover crops within grain crop rotations and reprocessing big square bales of alfalfa into small squares prior to marketing.
A six-state evaluation of “Reduced Lignin Alfalfa” will be discussed by Angie Parker (Ohio State University Graduate Research Assistant), and Mark Sulc and Dave Barker (Ohio State University) will provide a Research Update on several projects including optimizing animal intake on tall fescue pastures, revising potato leafhopper thresholds for leafhopper-resistant alfalfa and alfalfa-grass mixtures, and effects of different harvest schedules on alfalfa-grass mixtures.
To register
Details of the program and a registration form are available here. Registration will be due by Jan. 27. For more information, contact Gary Wilson at osuagman@gmail.com, or 419-348-3500.
