The Ohio Forages and Grasslands Council Annual Conference will be held February 3, 2017 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Ohio Department of Agriculture in Reynoldsburg, OH. 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. 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 Dr. Mark Sulc and Dr. Dave Barker (The 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.
Details of the program and a registration form will be available at http://www.afgc.org/ohio.php.
Registration will be due by January 27, 2017. For more information contact Gary Wilson at osuagman@gmail.com and (419) 348-3500, or Mark Sulc at sulc.2@osu.edu and (614) 292-9084.