Agriculture briefs – July 18

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AUG. 6 FIELD NIGHT TO FEATURE VEGETABLE CROPS – Eating plenty of vegetables can help ward off disease. But what happens when the vegetables get sick?

How to deal with vegetable crop diseases is the focus of Vegetable Crops Field Night, 6-8 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s North Central Agricultural Research Station, 1165 County Road 43 in Fremont. Admission is free and open to the public.

Farmers, producers and industry professionals can learn what diseases have been prevalent this growing season, what past research trials have shown on those and other diseases, and what current control products are on the market and how effective they are, said Allen Gahler, an Ohio State University Extension educator.

“These topics can help growers improve efficiency and profitability on their operations as well as offer insight to educators and researchers for future projects,” Gahler said. “The program will also bring industry professionals into direct contact with growers in a setting conducive to sharing knowledge.”

The event will feature experts from OSU Extension, OARDC, the research station and industry.

OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

Additional topics that will be covered during the event include:

· Tips and tricks for setting up spray equipment.

· The genetics behind tomato disease resistance.

· The research station’s use of social media.

For more information, contact Matthew Hofelich, who manages the research station, at [email protected] or 419-332-5142; or Allen Gahler at [email protected] or 419-334-6340.

JULY 30 FIELD DAY TO FEATURE MUCK CROPS – Growing fresh lettuce, radishes, onions and more on high organic soils is the focus of Muck Crops Field Day, 10:30 a.m. to noon July 30 at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s Muck Crops Agricultural Research Station, 4875 State Route 103 S in Willard. Admission is free and open to the public.

The center is part of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

The station covers 15-plus acres of high-organic-matter muck soil in Huron County’s productive “salad bowl” region.

The event will share the station’s latest research findings on managing weeds, insects and diseases in muck-soil vegetable crops, said organizer Bob Filbrun, the station’s manager.

Also featured will be pest scouting, U.S. Department of Agriculture IR-4 pesticide trials for specialty crops and a demonstration of the station’s new electrostatic sprayer, Filbrun said.

The event is being held in collaboration with the Huron County office of Ohio State University Extension, the college’s outreach arm.

For more information, visit the station’s website at go.osu.edu/MuckCropsStation or contact Filbrun at 419-935-1201 or [email protected].

OHIO STATE IMPROVING WATER QUALITY, ONE FARM AT A TIME – Since last fall, 6,586 growers and producers responsible for farming some 1 million acres of Buckeye State farmland have gone through fertilizer applicator certification training offered by researchers from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University as part of the college’s efforts to continue to improve Ohio water quality.

Taught by Ohio State University Extension’s Agriculture and Natural Resources program staff, the training is designed to help farmers increase crop yields using less fertilizer more efficiently, thus reducing the potential for phosphorus runoff into the state’s watersheds.

The ultimate goal of the training is to keep nutrient runoff from fertilizers, especially phosphorus, out of Ohio’s waters, said Greg LaBarge, an OSU Extension field specialist and co-leader of Ohio State’s Agronomic Crops Team. OSU Extension is the college’s outreach arm.

The training, which meets the educational needs of Ohio’s new agricultural fertilization law, is just one aspect of the work Ohio State is doing to continue to improve water quality. The new law requires farmers who apply fertilizer to more than 50 acres to become certified.

The training supplements the college’s Field to Faucet water quality program announced in September 2014 and launched in March designed to ensure safe drinking water while maintaining an economically productive agricultural sector. The program already has five initial projects up and running, said Jay Martin, an ecological engineer in Ohio State’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, who was chosen to lead Field to Faucet.

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