Organic Workshops Shine
Light on Grain, Livestock Enterprises
With commodity prices stagnant, many Ohio
crop farmers, like their counterparts across
the country, are eagerly weighing the profit
potential of transitioning to organic production.
After Ohio State University Extension and
other state educators reported an increase
in organic farming inquiries, the nonprofit
Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association
(OEFFA) held a series of Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education (SARE)-funded workshops
and farm tours for agricultural professionals
to illuminate some of the key strategies
for successful transition from conventional
to organic production. Spanning 2 years,
the educational effort focused on organic
grain and livestock production, two key systems
in Ohio.
Organic is “a growing business here,
and more and more people are interested,” said
Margaret Huelsman, an OEFFA educator who
planned the professional development project. “Extension
agents can be the bridge for people thinking
about organic and actually implementing it
on their farms.”
Workshops with scientific presentations
were augmented by tours featuring some of
the state's most successful organic producers.
More than 80 people, including area farmers,
attended a tour at the Spray grain farm near
Mount Vernon, and more than 50 enjoyed a
day of multiple farm stops throughout central
and northern Ohio.
The tours had a great impact, Huelsman said. “You
can talk and read about things, but once
you see, feel, and touch something, it becomes
more real,” she said. “A lot
of these [educators] have never been on an
organic farm, and to see that [these practices]
actually do work is very important.”
The comprehensive information was put to
good use by Mike Hogan, an Ohio State University
extension educator, who presented his own
set of farmer-oriented workshops a year after
the OEFFA experience using many of the same
materials. Some 40 growers attended the university
training, and at least two grain farmers
from Carroll and Stark counties have begun
transitioning acres to organic.
Their switch “came from the workshop
we taught, and we were able to teach it because
of the professional development workshop
we participated in,” Hogan said.
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