The Ohio Department of Agriculture is rolling out the H2Ohio plan this month at eight meetings in the Maumee River Watershed. Farmers living in the following 14 northwest Ohio counties will be eligible to apply for funds at their local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) starting this week: Allen, Auglaize, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Lucas, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, Williams, and Wood. Soil and water Conservation Districts will be the first contact for farmers interested in the available funding.

There have been a few phone calls from farmers calling about needing to get their fertilizer license in order to receive or spread poultry litter. This has been the law in Ohio for several years since Senate Bill 1 was passed. Any farmer handling, receiving, or applying poultry litter (or any other manure) from a permitted farm in Ohio must have either a fertilizer license or a Certified Livestock Manager certificate or be a Certified Crop Advisor. Most poultry farms in Ohio are permitted so nearly all the poultry litter available to farmers is from permitted farms.

Do you apply fertilizer (other than manure) to more than 50 acres of land on crops grown primarily for sale?  If so, the Ohio Department of Agriculture requires that you complete a three-hour fertilizer certification training.  Even if you apply fertilizer to less than 50 acres and/or feed all of your crops to livestock, you are encouraged to become certified.  The Tuscarawas County office of Ohio State University Extension will conduct a fertilizer certification class for anyone who is not certified.  This is NOT for recertification.  The training will be held April 9 at 7 pm at the Commun