Featured News
State-inspected meat plants may soon, finally, have access to interstate sales
By Kyle Sharp The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a final rule April 19 that will broaden the market for smaller state-inspected plants. By participating in this voluntary cooperative interstate shipment program, select establishments will have the option to ship meat and poultry products, bearing an official USDA mark ...
Zeedyk’s custom manure application venture stems from necessity
By Kyle Sharp About 2001, Visser Dairy with about 1,600 cows started up next to the crop farm of the Zeedyk family in Defiance County. At the time, Roger Zeedyk Jr. farmed the land along with his sons Roger IV, Mike and Adam. An arrangement between the two farms soon materialized, with the Zeedyks supplying ...
Between the Rows-April 25th
“To be honest, I quit checking the rain gauge. It really doesn’t matter because there is another rain coming behind it the next day it seems. It looks like it is going to rain all week. It is just wet. “I’m not concerned yet. In ‘98 our best crops were planted between the 10th and ...
Earth Day principles apply every day on farms
On Earth Day today, many Ohioans will be cleaning nearby highways and streams or recycling to help preserve the environment. However, for Ohio’s farmers, it’s just another day of doing what they always do to be environmentally responsible. The occasion presents opportunities for farmers to share with other about agriculture. Here is a link from ...
Like A Punch In The Gut
By Ty Higgins Sometimes that line between farm broadcaster and farm boy is hard to see. This thought comes to me as I watch something else that is hard to see, the new undercover video from Mercy for Animals from a livestock operation in Texas. It is not for the faint of heart, but the ...
Ohio fish farms growing quickly
Two years ago, Dave Lemke lost his job so he netted a new one. Fish farmer. Today the Wayne County man works — will even expand soon — in a small but fast-growing industry in Ohio whose jobs have doubled in the past 10 years and whose economic impact has more than tripled in that ...
Wall Street Journal gets the story wrong on antibiotic use
By Doc Sanders Bill Towson of The Wall Street Journal reported March 16 on a recent USDA hearing about the supposed overuse of antibiotics by hog farmers. He reported that the USDA’s Edward Knipling testified that the alleged overuse posed a human health threat. Towson went on to report that the situation could be exposing ...
Harvest more solar power by planting early
By Dave Nanda, agronomic crops consultant and Director of Genetics and Technology at Seed Consultants, Inc. There are very few things in life that are free. Sunlight is one of those free things, but only a very small percentage of the solar energy is captured by the plants. Most of it is either wasted on ...
New seed corn technology comes with risks
Bags of corn seed that mix genetically modified hybrids with and without Bt toxins that kill insects provide farmers easier compliance with federal regulations but could, over time, hasten insect resistance to Bt, a Purdue University entomologist said. Although “refuge-in-a-bag” seed technology has been approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, questions still ...
Tax time is upon us
By Tim Reeves It’s April, the month of showers and new growth. It’s the month when God reminds us that winters don’t last forever and that spring will chase away the cold and harshness of wintry times. That’s what makes April the “best of times,” but since it’s also the month for paying taxes, it ...
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