OSU Extension to offer soil health tour
VW independent staff/submitted information
Ohio State University Extension and The Nature Conservancy are partnering for the second year in a row to provide a self-paced tour of farms around northwest Ohio, including Van Wert and Paulding counties, utilizing soil health-promoting practices.
In addition to showcasing practices in Ohio, this year’s tour will also include tour stops in northeast Indiana and southeast Michigan and also new this year will be the addition of virtual tour stops. These virtual stops will also showcase soil health-promoting practices but will not require attendees to leave the comfort of their homes. Videos, pictures, and write-ups of the practices will paint a picture for participants while being accessible 24/7 during the course of the Soil Health Tour.
The tour will open at 8 a.m. Monday, September 19, and will close at 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 28. Paulding County will be hosting an event to close out the self-paced Soil Health Tour at the OSU Extension Office in Paulding from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, September 29.
Along with a guest speaker, farmers who provided sites on the tour will be invited to speak with attendees about their practices and answer any questions that may have come up during the ten-day tour.
Call the Paulding County Extension Office or visit go.osu.edu/soilhealthtour to register for this meeting. Dinner will be provided with a $10 registration fee. Registration is required to attend the Wrap-Up Event, but not required for the tour.
Soil Health is becoming an increasingly important topic within agriculture, and there are many different practices and methods that can be used to promote it. This tour is designed to showcase what local farmers are doing on their farms and how these practices have affected the health of their soils and their farming operations.
The speaker for the Soil Health Event, Hans Schmitz, is an agronomist for Indiana’s Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI). At this event, he will be speaking on Soil Health and Climate Interactions.
To view the map of site locations around Northwest Ohio, Northeast Indiana, and Southeast Michigan and get information about the Soil Health Tour and Soil Health Event, visit go.osu.edu/soilhealthtour. Be sure to fill out the survey at that link to let the organizers know where you went on the tour, and to register for the door prize drawing on September 29th at the wrap-up event.
For additional information on soil health or other best management practices, to register for a program or receive additional education, contact Sarah Noggle, Paulding County Extension Educator, Ag and Natural Resources, at noggle.17@osu.edu, or Rachel Cochran, CCA, Water Quality Extension Associate for Paulding, Defiance, and Van Wert counties, at cochran.474@osu.edu. Individuals can also walk in the OSU Extension Office at 503 Fairground Drive, Paulding or call 419.399.8225.