The 2018 Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series will begin on Tuesday, January 9 at the Plaza Inn Restaurant in Mt. Victory. Each session will start at 7:30 am with complimentary buffet breakfast followed by the program at 8:00 am. Other sessions will be held on January 23, February 6 and 20.
On January 9, the program will feature Mike Bacon and Andrea Weaver, CAUV Property Tax Changes. Bacon is the Hardin County Auditor and Weaver serves as the Union County Auditor. They will be joined by a panel of other property tax and conservation experts. As county auditors, they have sent out notices of changes and held meetings with landowners, local schools, and farm groups to help explain how changes brought about by the Ohio Department of Taxation will affect them. The presentation at the Conservation Tillage Club breakfast will focus on the most recent changes in the CAUV formula in regards to conservation lands and what landowners must do in order to see possible reductions in their property taxes for coming years.
The January 23 program will feature Ben Brown, Worldwide Grain Markets 10 Year Forecast & Farmers’ Grain Marketing Toolkit. Brown is the program manager of the OSU Farm Management Program. He has previously worked at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, where he also received his M.S. in Agriculture and Applied Economics. Previously, he earned his B.S. in Agriculture Economics and Agronomy at Kansas State University. His previous work looked at supply and demand in regards to grain prices over a 10 year worldwide forecast and is currently creating a grain marketing toolkit for farmers to assist them with this aspect of their business.
February 6 Dr. Aaron Wilson will speak to the Conservation Tillage Club. He will be presenting Climate and Weather information and how it has affected crops over recent years. Wilson is an Atmospheric Scientist at The Ohio State University, holding a joint appointment as a Senior Research Associate at the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center. He is also a contributing member to the State Climate Office of Ohio. He helps coordinate the state’s weekly contribution to the U.S. Drought Monitor activities at the National Drought Mitigation Center, and helps Ohioans understand how changing weather extremes are impacting their lives. His outreach activities include presentations at county events, field days, and the Farm Science Review.
The February 20 program will feature Dr. Elizabeth Hawkins, Field Specialist, Agronomic Systems with OSU Extension sharing her Soybean Populations information. Hawkin’s research interests include using on-farm research to identify methods to increase farm profits including improved crop yields, better management of resources, and the employment of effective precision agriculture technologies. She is using on-farm research to better understand how to make precision technologies like site-specific and prescriptive agriculture work, both agronomically and economically. Before coming to The Ohio State University to specialize in in Precision Agriculture, Agronomic Crop Production, On-Farm Research, Hawkins earned degrees from Purdue and the University of Illinois.
The Conservation Tillage Club breakfast program series is jointly sponsored by OSU Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Hardin, Logan, and Union Counties, and in cooperation with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Breakfast is provided by the generous support of agricultural lenders and agricultural businesses. All events are open to the public and no advance registration is required. Continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers is pending.