Ohio lawmakers tour northwest Ohio farms using conservation practices to improve water quality

Ohio legislators joined the Ohio Agriculture Conservation Initiative (OACI) on a farm tour earlier this month in Findlay, Ohio, to hear firsthand how local farmers are leading the way in conservation and protecting water quality.

Held on June 9, the tour highlighted three Northwest Ohio farms implementing science-based conservation practices and demonstrated the real-world impact of the H2Ohio program.

“H2Ohio funding is critical for farmers who are just getting started in implementing conservation practices,” said Jeff Duling, grain and livestock farmer from Putnam County and OACI Chairman. “Farmers need time to understand how these systems impact their own operations before fully committing. Without sustained funding, we risk slowing down or even reversing the adoption of these practices.”

The farms included on the tour are part of the Blanchard River Demonstration Farms Network, a 10-year, $2 million collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. The Demonstration Farms aim to help producers find the right combination of practices to reduce nutrient and sediment loss, while considering financial inputs. 

Over thirty tour participants witnessed a variety of conservation strategies in action, including cover crops, no-till and strip-till systems, two-stage ditches, land buffers and advanced manure management.

Over the past several years, OACI has worked to benchmark agricultural best practices and establish a framework for voluntary farm certification, all in support of healthy waterways across Ohio. The initiative is focused on understanding current conservation and nutrient management efforts and in encouraging farmer participation through OACI’s certification program.

OACI’s core components of assessment, verification and certification, along with robust research, provide critical tools for evaluating the impacts on the state’s waterways and identifying comprehensive solutions to address algal blooms and nutrient reduction to improve Ohio’s water quality.