farming

Farm Science Review

A breed apart

sbradford — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 17:18:19 +0000

A breed apart

August 1, 2025

Rachel LaRue grew up in the suburbs of Columbus, an area not generally thought of as “farm country.” Despite that, she says, she was involved in 4-H and “I always wanted to have a homestead with animals.”

So while her pathway to farming may not have been typical — she earned a degree in chemical engineering from Ohio University and still works as a chemical engineer — she’s living the life she loves on her Fleece and Feather Farm in Ashville, where she’s a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company.

But she says it was only a fluke that led her to become a member of the Livestock Conservancy.

That organization, based in Pittsboro, North Carolina, keeps track of rare breeds of sheep, horses, cattle, chickens, and other types of livestock — researching populations of dozens of breeds and rating their viability from “critical” (fewer than 100 annual U.S. registrations) to “recovering” (over 2,500 annual U.S. registrations, but still in need of monitoring).

There are 77 Livestock Conservancy members in Ohio. LaRue got her start when she moved to her farm in 2018 and decided to acquire chickens as her first kind of livestock. She replied to an ad she found on Craig’s List for a seller who bred show-winning Dominique chickens.

He patiently explained to LaRue why he chose the heritage breed. “Dominiques are America’s oldest chicken breed,” LaRue says. “They came here from England with the Pilgrims.”

The Livestock Conservancy puts Dominiques in its “watch” category, meaning there are fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the U.S. LaRue, who serves as secretary of the Dominique Club of America, keeps a flock of 20 Dominiques, including two roosters. “I use them primarily for eggs, but they are suitable for meat, too,” she says. She has found her chickens to be “super-hardy, smart, easy to keep, great mothers. They’re friendly and gentle around people, even the roosters.”

She says that people would be surprised “how hardy heritage breeds are. Even the first-time mothers are so protective of their babies. They’re very resilient against parasites. They’re not labor-intensive and they’re self-sufficient.”

Not long after, LaRue fell in love with Shetland sheep — a breed that goes back over a thousand years in Ireland and Scotland — when she saw the beautiful fleeces of their wool. Shetlands are a smaller sheep breed and provide both wool and meat, and LaRue has since learned to spin, crochet, weave, and knit. She currently serves as secretary of the Fine Fleece Shetland Sheep Association.

The Livestock Conservancy also puts the Shetland on its watch list, and LaRue’s Shetland flock numbers 53, including two rams, which come from four different bloodlines. She selectively breeds for horned ewes, a less common trait within the rare breed.

LaRue says her sheep are friendly and follow her around like dogs do. “They will do anything for a treat. They are like pets, but being a wild-raised breed, not domesticated, they have a bit of a wild streak.”

LaRue’s third heritage livestock breed is her geese — four Pilgrims, a breed that the Livestock Conservancy classifies as threatened, with fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the U.S. “Their primary purpose is serving as a predator deterrent for the chickens,” LaRue says. “They’ll go after a raccoon or a possum.”

Besides helping to preserve heritage livestock breeds, LaRue is proud that her farm has earned the Animal Welfare Approved certification from A Greener World. The label means that the animals are raised by the highest humane and sustainable farming methods.

The other livestock residing at Fleece and Feather Farm are not of heritage breeds. The Toggenburg dairy goats provide milk for drinking and making cheese (she also makes soap with it). Her guinea fowl “are great for tick control, and they act as watchdogs. They’re mostly quiet, but they sound the alarm if a hawk or a delivery truck arrives.”

For more information about the Livestock Conservancy, visit https://livestockconservancy.org.

CORRECTED: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Rachel LaRue is secretary of a different national Shetland sheep organization.

Tags

livestock

South Central Power

Get it while it's fresh!

sbradford — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 14:46:39 +0000

Get it while it's fresh!

April 1, 2025

Theresa Ravencraft

Mitchell’s Berries and Blooms

9331 Mitchell-Dewitt Road, Plain City, OH 43064.
937-243-0635, www.mitchellsberries.com

Do you love strawberries? Paul and Shelly Detwiler sure do! Better known as Farmer Paul and Berry Girl, the Detwilers, members of Marysville-based URE–Union Rural Electric Cooperative, have offered U-pick experiences at their 200-year-old family farm for 19 years. Each year they welcome visitors to pick daffodils and asparagus in April, peonies and juicy strawberries in May and June, red and black raspberries in July, and wildflowers and edamame in August. Their Facebook page has details on more unique events, such as a Bridgerton garden party and cooking classes.

The Blueberry Patch

1285 West Hanley Road, Mansfield, OH 44904
419-884-1797, www.theblueberrypatch.org

Visitors can pick blueberries from late June to mid-August at the Blueberry Patch, owned and operated by Lisa and Steve Beilstein since 1981. The plantation offers 37 acres of beautiful blueberry bushes, a coffee and tea bar, a gift shop that features blueberry-themed items, and the 1285 Winery — a must-visit destination that celebrated its 10th anniversary at the end of last year. Blueberry doughnuts draw visitors from miles around, and blueberries are also available to be purchased by the pound. Tip: Late in the season, the sunflower field is a fantastic selfie spot.

Lynd Fruit Farm

9399 Morse Road SW, Pataskala, OH 43062
740-927-1333, www.lyndfruitfarm.com

Lynd Fruit Farm has been a favorite U-pick destination since 1919. Andy Lynd and Debbie Patton’s family-owned farm and market is best known for its 27 varieties of apples among its three orchards, but visitors can also pick berries and peaches in the summer or pears and pumpkins in addition to apples in the fall. During the busy fall season, guests can also take a wagon ride, make their way through the corn maze, and shoot a bucket of apples with the apple cannon. Tip: Come early to get some fresh-baked apple cider doughnuts; the line can get long.

Karnes Orchard

8200 Worley Mill Road, Hillsboro, OH 45133
937-763-8250, www.karnesorchard.com

Steve and Zelda Karnes are the seventh generation of their family to own Karnes Orchard, established in 1876. The farm, which is a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company, offers tart cherries in June, peaches from late July to early September, and apples from August through the end of October. Families come from near and far to pick from 60 varieties of apples and grab some apple cider. The most popular varieties of apples are Honeycrisp, Gala, Red Delicious, Winesap, and Evercrisp, with the different varieties ripening at different times through the late summer and fall.

Legend Hills Orchard

11335 Reynolds Road, Utica, OH 43080
740-892-2498, www.legendhillsorchard.com

The original 168 acres of Doug Hoar, Susan Hatch, and Debbie Seibel’s 340-acre farm have remained in their family for over 100 years — five generations. U-pick season begins in July with peaches and summer apples, then fall apple-picking starts in early September. The market, a member of The Energy Cooperative in Newark, is open year-round and features a variety of cheeses, jams, and gluten-free products — and sells fresh, non-pasteurized cider all year long. Beginning in late November, the farm becomes a popular destination for cut-your-own Christmas trees.

Looking for more?

We know this isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are a few more U-pick farms around the state in case you’re looking for one closer to you:

Rainbow Farms
2464 Townline Road, Madison, OH 44057
440-259-4924, www.rainbowfarmsonline.com
U-pick is available for strawberries, raspberries, currants, blueberries, blackberries, tomatoes, and peppers. Visit the website for picking dates.
Rittman Orchards and Farm Market
13548 Mount Eaton Road, Doylestown, OH 44230
330-925-4152, www.rittmanorchards.com
The U-pick season begins with asparagus in May, but check out the “What’s Ripe?” section of the website to see what’s coming when.
Sunny Slope Market and Orchard
14960 Millersburg Road SW, Navarre, OH 44662
330-833-9415, www.sunnyslopeapples.com
Apple picking starts in August, but the market is open year-round, offering fresh baked goods.
Irons Fruit Farm
1640 Stubbs-Mill Road, Lebanon, OH 45036. 513-932-2853
This family farm is located halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati. Find them on Facebook to learn about U-pick opportunities.
Stacy Family Farms
27515 State Route 7, Marietta, OH 45750
740-374-2371, www.stacyfarm.com
In operation since 1899, the farm offers U-pick strawberries, blueberries, sunflowers, and pumpkins.
Jutte’s Fruit Farm and Landscaping
3460 State Route 49, Fort Recovery, OH 45846
419-375-2304 or find them on Facebook
Lots of U-pick strawberries, plus loads of other seasonal fruits and veggies available at the roadside market.
Apple Hill Orchards
1175 Lexington Ontario Road, Mansfield, OH 44903
419-884-1500, www.applehillorchards.com
With two locations, this farm is always a family-friendly destination. Check the website for availability of peaches, pears, and apples.
Lohstroh Family Farms
15632 State Route 56 SE, Mt. Sterling, OH 43143
740-869-4208, www.lohstrohfamilyfarms.com
This family farm has been growing pumpkins for more than 40 years, and is open for the season on Labor Day weekend.

Tags

Ohio activities

fruit

On the moo-ve

sbradford — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:39:19 +0000

On the moo-ve

March 1, 2025

Ohio State University’s herd of Jersey dairy cows will soon have a permanent new home. The cows, currently in temporary housing at OSU’s Wooster campus, should be back in Columbus in a new $6.2 million facility by the end of the year.

Part of the new $52 million Multispecies Animal Learning Center within OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, the new dairy building replaces the outdated Waterman Dairy Center, which was built in 1972. Construction began in February 2024, and if it continues to stay on track, the herd should be back in Columbus by this November.

The dairy’s prime location just off of Lane Avenue, near the main entrance to the Columbus campus, reinforces the importance of agriculture to the university and the state, says Maurice Eastridge, senior associate chair of animal sciences and dairy extension specialist at Ohio State, and the new dairy was designed with education of students as the top priority. “Public education and research needs are its second and third missions,” Eastridge says.

Into the modern era

Eastridge, a member of Marysville-based Union Rural Electric Cooperative, grew up helping on his parents’ and grandfather’s dairy farms in Kentucky. He knew from an early age that he wanted to work in agriculture with farm animals. Now he’s helping bring the profession into modern times.

Labor shortages on farms and the increasing number of farmers reaching retirement age, Eastridge says, have necessitated the development and adoption of automatic, or robotic, systems, which require knowledgeable workers skilled in agricultural technology to install and maintain them. The new dairy will include a state-of-the-art Lely robotic milker, which will give students hands-on experience with the latest technology so they’re qualified to fill those evolving, high-paying jobs.

Eastridge says plans had been in the works for years to upgrade the dairy, but were scrapped when engineering studies revealed that it would be cheaper to build a new one.

At one time, Ohio State's dairy herd had cows from the five major dairy breeds. Eventually, with campus space at more and more of a premium, the decision was made to pare the herd to only Holsteins and Jerseys, and in 2009, the Holsteins were sold and only the smaller Jerseys were kept.

The process to upgrade the dairy took a major step in 2023, when the university sold off some of the remaining Jerseys so that the entire herd could be accommodated at the OSU facility in Wooster.

An entire dairy ecosystem

The new dairy will have three parts: the robotic milking system, a feeding robot and automatic feed kitchen, and robots to manage manure.

The cows wander at will into the milking parlor, two or three times per day. Eastridge says the grain the cows get to eat while being milked serves as “a carrot” to draw them into the barn. When a cow moves into a milking station, gates in front and behind her shut to keep her in place and prevent another cow from getting in the way. Each cow’s ID tag, read by a scanner, tells the automatic feeding system how much food to dispense.

The amount of milk each cow produces at each milking is automatically recorded. If a cow isn’t coming in to be milked or is producing less than the normal amount, the herdsman checks her for illness or some other problem.

The Lely milker can accommodate 60 cows at a time, and while the new dairy will have only one of them when it opens, space will be available to add another if and when it's needed.

Future plans for the dairy also include a milk processing plant. Once that’s in place, visitors will be able to see the complete process of milk production — grain grown in a pasture nearby used to feed the cows, which are then milked automatically, and the milk sent directly to the processing facility and into cartons, ready for the consumer to purchase.

Click here to watch a video on a Lely robotic milking system.

Tags

Ohio State University

dairy

Gathering what's left

sbradford — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:29:45 +0000

Gathering what's left

October 1, 2024

It’s a good kind of problem for farmers to have: After an unexpectedly seasonable winter and growing season, the Champaign Berry Farm in Urbana produced an unexpected bumper crop of one of its mainstays this year.

“Peaches are very weather-dependent,” says Cathy Pullins, co-owner of the farm and a member of Pioneer Electric Cooperative. “This year we had such a warm winter that the crop was way larger than we had anticipated.”

Obviously, an unexpected bounty is preferred to the alternative, but it still presents some issues to deal with. The farm often donates food to local churches and food banks, but this year’s bumper crop called for something more, and Pullins knew right away what to do with the extra peaches.

“We saved a certain section of the orchard for the gleaners,” she says. “I told the [professional] pickers not to pick those peaches. We like to give back to the community and to those in need. That’s one of our purposes in life.”

Gleaning, described in the Bible’s book of Leviticus, is the practice of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested. Sometimes farmers will intentionally leave a portion for gleaners, though sometimes a farmer can’t find enough workers to pick the produce, or a wholesaler orders less produce than the farmer anticipated.

Rather than leave the perfectly good, but unharvested and unsold, produce to spoil or plow it under, the farmer offers it to volunteers who come and pick it and then transport it to a food bank for distribution to hungry clients.

Pullins called Sue Plummer, program coordinator at the Ohio chapter of the Society of St. Andrew in Cincinnati. The interfaith, nonprofit Society of St. Andrew is the largest field-gleaning organization in the country, mobilizing 30,000 to 40,000 volunteers each year to gather unharvested crops. In Ohio, St. Andrew volunteers gleaned more than 60,000 pounds of food from fields and orchards in the first half of 2024 alone. Plummer arranged for some volunteer gleaners to come to the Champaign Berry Farm, pick the peaches, and then transport them to a food bank. They’ve made several return trips throughout the growing season.

“St. Andrew’s is very nice to work with,” Pullins says. “Sue takes care of everything.” When Plummer hears from a farmer that produce will be available for gleaning, she schedules a picking time, then posts that information online for volunteers, who sign up to go to the farm and do the gleaning. Picking shifts last two to three hours.

When Plummer first heard about gleaning, she was running a community garden in Walnut Hills. In 2019, she began working part time for a grant project on gleaning. In 2022 she started working in her current full-time position. Plummer often gets to help with the gleaning. “If I’m needed, I go. I really love it.”

She says that people who volunteer to do gleaning “tend to be individuals, rather than in groups. We get short notice from growers that a crop is ready for picking, maybe only a couple of days. Then it’s a scramble to get people who can show up then.”

Many volunteer gleaners are retired, because they have the most flexible schedules, though plenty of college students come out, mostly in the summer. Older children are welcome if they are supervised by their parents. Fortunately, Plummer has a lot of regular volunteers, but she can always use more, and more farmers donating food, too.

Plummer says the general public would be surprised “at the amount of food we end up getting, at all the beautiful produce we can deliver to hungry people.” In Ohio, most gleaning work begins at the end of June, and then can go
into December for potatoes, root vegetables, and apples.

“The connections I make with farmers, volunteers, people at agencies, that’s the best part of my job,” Plummer says. “Farmers’ work is so hard, to grow what they grow. They don’t like waste. They’re so grateful when they come [to learn about gleaners], because farmers are some of the most generous people I’ve met.”

Tags

vegetables

Pioneer Electric Cooperative

Still smiling

sbradford — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 18:30:47 +0000

Still smiling

September 1, 2024

Damaine Vonada

In 1772, four years before the start of the revolution that wrested control of the colonies from Great Britain, the British king, George III, gave hundreds of acres of land in what was then the Colony of Virginia to an Englishman named Alexander Smiley, for the purpose of farming the land and helping to “civilize” the Northwest Territory.

Soon after, of course, came the Declaration of Independence, and not long after that, the Northwest Territory was divided and those same 500 acres became part of the county of Adams in the new state of Ohio in 1803. And there remained the Smiley farm.

Today, 252 years after that original deed from King George, John Smiley, a member of Adams Rural Electric Cooperative, is the seventh generation of his family still farming on that acreage in the rolling countryside near Seaman.

Smiley, with help from the eighth and ninth generations of Smiley farmers — his son, James, and two grandsons, John and Alexander — raises corn, soybeans, hay, and Charolais beef cattle on 100 acres of the original Smiley farm, plus additional farmland they either own or lease.

“The deed from King George was for at least 500 acres, but might have been for more than 1,000 acres,” John says. “We’re just not sure because parts of it were parceled off when people got married, and lots of the property records were destroyed in a courthouse fire.”

More than 2,000 farms that have been in the same family for at least 100 consecutive years are registered in the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Historic Family Farms program, and according to its records, the Smiley farmstead is the state’s oldest continuously operated family farm. In 2022, the Department of Agriculture presented John with a certificate commemorating his remarkable heritage and ownership of the state’s first sestercentennial (250-year-old) family farm.

To the best of John’s knowledge, it’s also Ohio’s only remaining historic farm that began with a land grant from George III. (Interestingly, his father’s extensive research into their family history during the 1970s hints that the 1772 deed was written on sheepskin.)

The densely wooded territory north of the Ohio River was occupied by Native Americans when Alexander Smiley settled there in the 1700s, and John vividly recalls finding arrowheads in freshly plowed fields during his boyhood. The Smiley farm’s first dwelling was a log cabin that sat high on a hill on the ancestral 100-acre parcel, where John has lived his entire life. After a fire razed the cabin, his forebearers constructed a 1.5-story limestone house on the same location in 1813.

“My dad told me they quarried the rocks for the house on the farm and hauled them in a four-team wagon every day for six weeks,” John says. Covered with white stucco, the 1813 house had three double chimneys and hand-hewn 8-by-8-inch timbers on 16-inch centers. John was born in that house in 1952, and he and his late wife, Debra, also raised their son, James, and daughters, Sherry and Nancy, there.

In January 2004, a fire damaged the nearly 200-year-old house so badly that it had to be demolished. The flames also consumed treasured family antiques including a three-corner cupboard first used in the log cabin; a spinning wheel that belonged to John’s great-great-grandparents; and a Jenny Lind-style spindle bed in which generations of Smiley children had slept. “Losing the stone house and all its antiques was hard, but I realized they were just things and was very grateful no lives were lost,” recalls John.

He soon replaced the stone house with a four-bedroom brick home with double front porches that not only afford panoramic views of his farmland but also give a nod to Virginia’s traditional Southern-style architecture. The home’s interior features an oak staircase and trim that came from trees on the farm that were cut down and milled into lumber decades ago. “I didn’t just build this house for myself,” John says. “I hope others in the family might want to live here someday too.”

Although John considers himself “just an ordinary farmer,” he’s proud that his people have always farmed and that they kept their land and their lifestyle through two and a half centuries of good times and bad. Over the years, Smileys raised tobacco; milked Holstein cows; did custom threshing with a steam engine; ran a sawmill, a gristmill, and a sorghum cane mill; and even made maple syrup. The farm’s oldest structure is an early-1800s horse stable that John now uses for storage, and one of his prize possessions is a John Deere 520 tractor his dad bought new in 1957. John once rode the 520 through Moline, Illinois, during a John Deere heritage tractor event, and he intends to ride it again in this year’s Seaman Fall Festival parade.

“Ever since I was a little tyke, I wanted to be a farmer,” says John. “I’m blessed that I was able to do it here on the Smiley farm.”

Tags

Ohio history

Resilience and rebuilding

sbradford — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:07:51 +0000

Resilience and rebuilding

September 1, 2024

Amy Howat

Power Lines

In the early morning hours of February 28, an EF2 tornado ripped through London, Ohio. Winds as high as 130 mph tore off roofs, snapped trees, and battered barns and outbuildings. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

At the Molly Caren Agricultural Center, home of the annual Farm Science Review, 42 of the 62 structures on site were damaged or destroyed — including the iconic building on Wheat Street owned by Ohio’s electric cooperatives.

In the aftermath of the storm, about half of the great metal roof, clearly identified by the “Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives (Your Touchstone Energy Cooperatives)” painted on top, was lying battered in a nearby field, surrounded by debris. Whimsically waving Willie Wiredhand, the smiling co-op mascot who had greeted visitors for years, was, well, worse for wear. And the machine that had dependably produced piles of popcorn over the years had been pummeled.

While Willie won’t be resurrected, the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives Education Center — free popcorn and all — will be back, joining hundreds of farm-focused exhibitors September 17 to 19 for the 2024 Farm Science Review.

“It may look a bit different, but we’ll be there,” says Missy Kidwell, manager of cooperative development for Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, noting that a new building, still under construction as of early August, was expected to be finished and ready to go in time.

Nick Zachrich, Farm Science Review manager for Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, says the farm show is on schedule as well — though preparation for this year’s event has been anything but usual.

“There was extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure,” Zachrich says. “We’ve been working on the electrical lines and water over the summer, and we’ve had to repair or replace structures, including buildings that weren’t hit directly but were damaged by debris.

“We are fully committed to hosting this year’s show and coming back stronger than ever, which is in our nature as a farmer-focused facility and event,” Zachrich says.

Visitors who have attended FSR in prior years will notice some changes, Zachrich says. “We lost the antique building and a building that hosts 10-by-10 exhibitors. Some of those may be moving to new locations, so we encourage people to use the program and digital directory to find exhibitors.”

As it has for more than 60 years, Farm Science Review will feature a wide variety of commercial exhibitors, ranging from trailer dealers and companies showcasing large farm equipment like combines and sprayers, to livestock systems and feed companies, Zachrich says.

“We’ve got a pretty good lineup, including 50 new exhibitors,” he says. “One of the trends we see is growth in drones and robotics, including previous and new exhibitors.”

Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives has played a key role in Farm Science Review for most of its history, and the co-ops’ building is one of the highest-traffic areas each year.

The building destroyed by the tornado was built in 2008; before that, cooperative exhibits were housed in a large tent. The move to a permanent building was driven by a major storm that hit FSR one year, damaging the displays in the co-ops’ tent.

“Our new building will be essentially the same structure, but with some upgrades,” Kidwell says. “Once we saw the way the tornado destroyed the old one, we decided to update the building method.”

The new building, expected to be completed by Sept. 1, will allow Ohio’s electric cooperatives to once again showcase advances in efficiency, safety, and renewable energy.

“One of our goals is to promote energy efficiency,” Kidwell says. “We’ll have vendors demonstrating geothermal energy solutions, insulation, heat pump options, and other products and services to help people be more efficient.” In addition, energy advisors from several Ohio co-ops will be available to answer questions, and co-op lineworkers will provide popular live-line safety demonstrations. Visitors will have a chance to learn about youth programs and test their knowledge about electricity and cooperatives to receive useful prizes like rain gauges — and co-op members can drop off the entry form in the back of this magazine for a chance to win a $100 credit on their electric bills.

“We are working hard and we’re committed to getting the building and displays completed, to represent cooperatives and be there for members and the public,” Kidwell says.

This year’s Farm Science Review will emphasize the message of resilience, Zachrich says. “As we rebuild, we’ll be making improvements in infrastructure, planning for the future and not just today,” he says. “Our educational efforts from OSU and extension educators will look at what farmers can do to prepare themselves as we see more and more tornadoes, and if it does happen, how to respond so their business isn’t majorly affected.

“Resiliency is real life for farmers and this year, we’re right here experiencing it, too.”

Farm Science Review, Molly Caren Agricultural Center, 135 St. Rte. 38 NE, London. 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Sept. 17–18 and 8 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 19. Tickets are $10 online, at county OSU Extension offices, and at participating agribusinesses and $15 at the gate. For more information, visit fsr.osu.edu.

Tags

Farm Science Review

Hops to it

sbradford — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:05:52 +0000

Hops to it

August 1, 2024

According to the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, there were 434 craft breweries in the state of Ohio at the end of 2023. More are opening all the time.

And that gigantic growth curve has created an equally growing opportunity for a number of Ohio farmers: Those breweries need hops.

Hops add bitterness to balance the sweetness of malt in beers. Different varieties of hops contain varying levels of oils and acids, and those are what give beers their distinct flavors.

“Different breweries want different varieties of hops,” says Amy Berridge, a member of Kenton-based Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative. Berridge, her mother, Rubiana Berridge, and her sister, Lori Tucker, own Three Chicks Farm in Morral, in Marion County. In 2014, Three Chicks added hops to its lineup of crops, which also includes soybeans, wheat, alfalfa hay, and Christmas trees.

“When we were considering growing hops, they told us that it would be easy and make a lot of money,” Amy Berridge says. “It is neither.”

Logan Minter, associate professor and extension and field specialist for specialty crops at Ohio State University’s South Center, says hops grew wild in Ohio until Prohibition, but then hop production shifted to northwestern states. Part of Minter’s research now involves finding and cultivating wild hop plants. He hopes to find strains that are more resistant to insects or have other beneficial properties.

Minter confirms that, while hop acreage in Ohio has increased in the last 10 years, the number of those growing the stuff has declined despite the demand. “First, it’s a labor-intensive crop,” he says. “Then there is a relatively high installation cost, and a significant annual operations cost after that.”

Minter says with all that initial investment, it takes about three years for a farmer to break even, and only then will most farmers begin to make a profit from their work; Berridge says that was her experience as well.

The hop yard at Three Chicks Farm measures three-quarters of an acre. They began with small, established plants their first year, and those plants took about three years to develop enough roots to produce a full crop. They’ve since added a second variety. Once established, Minter says, hop plants will produce a crop for 25 years or more, though they are susceptible to various diseases and pests and require a certain vigilance.

The plant itself is referred to as a hop; its flowers are the hops that flavor your brewski. Hops flowers are referred to as cones, because they look like small green pine cones. The cones grow on bines (bines, not vines) that are supported on strings. Some growers use strings made of coir from coconuts, but Three Chicks uses special hop strings made of paper. Metal cables hold the strings to wooden poles or trellises that stand 16 to 20 feet tall.

For the September harvest, “we cut off the bines close to the ground and untie them from the trellises,” Berridge says. “Then the bines and strings go through a mechanical harvester that separates the cones and sends them out the side.”

Berridge says that most breweries want the cones in pellet form for efficiency and consistency. So after the cones are removed from the bines, they are sent away to be dried, converted into pellets, and then put in bags to be sold.

While breweries are the major customers for hops, there are other uses. The citrus-like scent of the cones makes them suitable for some cosmetics. Tea made from hops (Berridge’s verdict: “not bad”) can promote sleep. Hops can be used to flavor food as well.

“We made some macaroons with hops,” Berridge says. “They were really good and won first place at the Marion County Fair.”

As labor-intensive as it is to grow hops, Berridge says, selling them is even harder. “You have to sell directly to your customers, to build relationships with them, because there is no central marketplace for hops,” she says. To that end, Berridge is also a member, and treasurer, of the Ohio Hop Growers Guild, which has about 70 members who can lean on one another for help with everything from pest control to sales and marketing. The guild connection led Three Chicks to an arrangement with another hop farm to sell its hops.

And even with cooperation among the guild, Minter sums up hop growing and beer production: “It’s a lot easier to drink beer than it is to make it.”

Tags

Good shepherds

sbradford — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:34:39 +0000

Good shepherds

March 1, 2024

Beth Murray didn’t quite know what she was getting into when she adopted her first border collie, a rescue, from the Parkersburg (W.Va.) Humane Society. “At the time, I had a horse, and since (the dog) was young and wanted to herd something, she herded the horse,” says Murray, a retired veterinarian and a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company. “The first time she was kicked, I thought she would smarten up.”

After a couple more incidents, however, Murray decided she’d better divert the dog’s attention, or else. While border collies are even-tempered and eager to please, Murray says that they don’t always make good household pets, because if they don’t have another outlet, they will herd household pets or children (or horses).

So Murray soon had a small flock of sheep on her farm near Lynchburg, and after watching their interaction, she decided to get into competitive sheepdog trials, a sport in which handlers direct their dogs to move sheep around a field and into enclosures.

The breed’s natural herding instincts are sharpened by training and practice in herding sheep or cattle. Murray says that “some people send their dogs to trainers, but I really enjoy training them myself.”

She now has five smooth-coated border collies — and a bevy of awards and recognitions. Three of the dogs — Rena (the youngest, named for Murray’s sister because “they share the same temperament”) and littermates Audrey and Petra — participate in trials with Murray, and all three qualified to participate in the national championships last year. Her two oldest dogs have retired from top-level competition, but since Pi, now 12, can still do the easier novice-level classes, the dog has a special role: giving Murray’s handler student an experienced dog with which to learn the skills. For a beginning competitor, Murray says, “training is hard with a puppy. You know nothing and the dog knows nothing.”

She says it takes about four years for a dog and handler team to be good enough to compete in open classes, the most challenging.

There are five commands a sheepdog must learn: basically, go left, go right, stop, go to the sheep, and a recall signal meaning “That will do.”

While handlers are permitted to use voice commands, they typically use whistles or hand signals to direct the dogs. “If the dog is far away, he can’t hear your voice unless you yell, and yelling sounds to him like anger,” she says. “He thinks he has done something wrong and gets anxious or confused.”

So five different whistle sounds convey the commands without causing stress. Murray says that the dogs “learn your style, read your body language, predict what you want them to do.” But she also notes that some sheep are smart enough that “they can size up dogs. They learn what they can get away with.”

In each round of competition, the dog must, within a certain time frame, move a herd of sheep from one pen to another, driving the sheep around a post or two on the way. In the more advanced classes, the dog must also separate one sheep, marked by a ribbon or a spray of paint across its fleece, from the rest of the herd and get it into a different pen.

Murray says there are lots of variables that can make a difference during competition; sometimes a competitor’s turn comes in the afternoon when the sheep are hot and tired and therefore less cooperative, or other times you just have bad luck. Usually, though, when a team makes a mistake, “99% of the time it’s the handler’s fault, not the dog’s,” she says.

Murray says competing in sheepdog trials requires a lot of learning for both handler and dog. The process involves training, watching successful handlers, and, through persistence, finally being able to compete with top handlers and their dogs. “There’s nothing like that moment when your dog gets it, when they’re really partnering with you,” she says. “Dogs have such a desire to do what you want them to, and on a day when you and your dog work well together, get a good group of sheep, and the stars are aligned just so, you can actually beat that top handler that day. But the big prize is always going home with your wonderful dogs.”

Tags

South Central Power

co-op member

Cream of the crop

sbradford — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 21:25:26 +0000

Cream of the crop

January 1, 2024

Damaine Vonada

Logan County Electric Cooperative

When Colleen Jackson instructed her children’s homeschooling group in the early 2000s, she prepared a lesson featuring milk straight from the Holstein cows lolling in the pasture on her family’s 180-acre dairy farm near DeGraff.

“I scooped the cream off the top of the milk, then put it in a jar with some clean marbles and let the kids shake the jar,” she recalls. “They turned the cream into butter.”

She didn’t know it then, but Colleen and her husband, Ray, would later carve their own niche in Ohio dairying in 2019.

Like many dairy farmers in recent years, the Logan County Electric Cooperative members found themselves struggling with high production costs and low milk prices. Ray helped keep the farm afloat by working for a bovine genetics company, but things were tough. Faced with losing the farm and the way of life they love, Ray and Colleen converted an outbuilding into a licensed creamery named for the stream that crosses their land, and Indian Creek Creamery was born. They began producing and bottling non-homogenized milk crowned with a layer of cream, wagering that consumers would thirst for their minimally processed product.

“We started the creamery because we needed to be able to sustain our farm and pay our bills,” Colleen says. “We also wanted people to know what real milk tastes like.”

The Jacksons know a thing or two about “real milk” because they both grew up on dairy farms. He is from the Wellington area, and she was raised near Urbana. They met at Ohio State, where Colleen majored in business and Ray, a self-described “cow nerd,” studied dairy science. After marrying in 1990, they rented acreage from Colleen’s father until Ray found an affordable farm about 5 miles north of DeGraff. Though run-down, it had a functional milk house and an early 1900s farmhouse, which they moved into in 1995.

Today, Ray and Colleen have 140 Holsteins, and keeping the herd happy and healthy is their top priority. They grow their own crops for feed; use sand as dairy cow bedding to cushion the stalls (they say it’s the gold standard); and maintain a free stall barn where the cows can come and go as they please. “The single biggest thing we do for our cows’ comfort is let them leave the barn and go outside into the pasture,” Ray says. “They enjoy the pasture so much that they’ll even lay down in the snow.”

The Jacksons breed their cows via artificial insemination, and because cows instinctively seek a quiet place to give birth, they put expectant moms into a special “maternity ward” pen three weeks before they’re due to calve. Getting the newborn calves off to a good start is all in a day’s work for Colleen. “I hand-feed them with either bottles or buckets for two months,” she says.

Ray and Colleen milk 70 cows daily and process the raw milk into Grade A milk that’s sold in half-gallon, BPA-free plastic bottles. They only offer three products: regular whole milk, chocolate milk made from a recipe Colleen developed, and A2/A2 whole milk.

Cows have two variations — A1 and A2 — of the gene that forms protein in milk, and Indian Creek Creamery’s A2/A2 milk comes solely from DNA-tested cows possessing two A2 genes. Since it requires laboratory analysis and separate processing, A2/A2 milk has a premium price, yet is gaining popularity because many people who have difficulty digesting A2/A1 milk can drink the A2/A2 version.

Their method preserves the flavor of raw milk, but they never homogenize because, Colleen explains, “We provide milk as nature intended, with nothing added and nothing taken away.” Although butterfat naturally floats on raw milk, large-scale milk producers both fragment the fat to make a uniform liquid (homogenization), and also remove some of the butterfat to meet federal standards. “Typical whole milk is 3.25% butterfat,” notes Ray. “Our milk tastes richer because it’s 4.2% butterfat.”

The creamery’s initial production run was just 83 half-gallons, but now the Jacksons turn out 4,000 bottles weekly and deliver them to customers ranging from chefs and baristas in Cincinnati and Columbus to independent grocers and specialty shops in small towns. Before homogenization took hold in the 1920s, every bottle of milk had a top ring of cream, so when Ray gave milk samples to prospective buyers, he had to teach them something that their great-grandparents did routinely: shaking the bottle to mix in the cream. His personal touch paid off. “People love it when a farmer shows up, looks them in the eye, and tells them the milk is so fresh that it was in the cow the night before.”

To find locations that sell Indian Creek Creamery products, visit www.indiancreekcreamery.com.

Tags

dairy