LONDON, Ohio -- The soaring cost of crop insurance and the move away from direct payments to farmers in favor of risk-management measures will shape the future of the Farm Bill, according to Ohio State University agricultural economists who shared their perspectives with farmers and other attendees Sept. 18 on the inaugural day of the 50th Farm Science Review in London, Ohio.
The panel featured farm policy expert Carl Zulauf and international trade and policy specialist Ian Sheldon, both from the university's Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. They were joined by Katharine Ferguson, legislative aide to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, who is a member of the agriculture committee. Matt Roberts, who specializes in risk management and commodity...
System is being tested Sept. 10-21 at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Say you are on Mars and fancy a salad. Unless the Curiosity rover can make an unexpected find of fresh romaine somewhere on the dusty Red Planet, you are looking at a nine-month trip to the nearest produce aisle on Earth. A better option? Grow the salad yourself.
That's exactly the approach NASA is taking as it plans for future manned expeditions to places like the moon or Mars, where food availability will be a significant challenge. Joining this mission is a team of Ohio State University researchers and students who are helping NASA figure out the best way to grow food aboard space exploration units.
The team, from the university'...
WOOSTER, Ohio -- The state of Ohio's Office of Budget and Management has allocated $6 million in emergency funds to assist with the reconstruction of a building at Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), which was severely damaged as a result of a Sept. 16, 2010, tornado that struck the Wooster campus.
The announcement was made Aug. 29 by State Rep. Ron Amstutz during a meeting of Ohio State's Board of Trustees at OARDC. Amstutz, whose 3rd House District includes Wooster and who chairs the Ohio House of Representatives’ Finance and Appropriations Committee, has been a strong supporter of OARDC over his three decades of service in the Ohio...
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Better education regarding the nature of influenza viruses and how to prevent infection, along with stepped up efforts to keep sick pigs away from agricultural fairs, are the best ways to minimize risk of human disease and any potentially adverse impact on the country's pork industry as a result of the current outbreak of influenza A H3N2 variant virus, Ohio State University animal virologists say.
According to the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (10/10), the H3N2v virus (called "variant" because it has some unique genetic changes compared to typical swine H3N2 viruses), has infected 153 people since July of this year. All but two of these cases occurred in...
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University today named alumnus Bruce McPheron vice president for agricultural administration and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
McPheron is currently dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University and will start his new appointment on Nov. 1, 2012, subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.
He will succeed Bobby Moser, who has served as dean and vice president since 1991. Moser announced his retirement in September 2011.
“Dr. McPheron is an Ohioan by birth, an Ohio State alumnus, and spent three years working as a county Extension educator in the state,” said Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee. “He brings a global view and worldwide experience back to...
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Now you can get a free wallet-size ID card for spotting thousand cankers disease, which is a new, deadly walnut tree illness. It’s close to but not in Ohio yet.
And while state officials hope it never gets here, they want to find it quickly if it does. At risk: $1.2 billion -- the estimated value of lumber from Ohio’s black walnuts -- and tons of edible nuts.
By using the new card, “Landowners can help us find infestations early,” said Kathy Smith, forestry program director for Ohio State University Extension.
“Early detection hopefully means that an infestation would be found inhabiting a smaller area and would be easier to eradicate.”
OSU Extension co-produced the card with the Ohio Division of Forestry and Ohio Department...
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Jack pines, which are common in parts of the northern Great Lakes, need fire to thrive.
So does the rare and endangered Kirtland’s warbler, which nests only in burned or otherwise disturbed young jack pine stands in a handful of locations in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario -- and nowhere else on Earth.
Both are part of the same “fire-dependent ecosystem,” a type of biological community that needs occasional fires in order to persist.
And both and more should benefit from a new federal project based at Ohio State University in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station.
The Lake States Fire Science Consortium, a knowledge exchange network, has been started to connect scientists who...
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Even a garden in the middle of a parking lot can have a problem with rabbits.
“They were coming through part of the gate,” said a rather amazed Joe Kovach, an Ohio State University scientist who has set up a lushly growing and ostensibly fenced-off fruit and vegetable test garden on an old asphalt parking lot in Wooster in northeast Ohio.
“I actually saw one leave (the garden),” Kovach said. “It pushed its way right out. They were using the wire on the gate as a trap door.”
He fixed the hole with some Plexiglass. The rest of the fence, meantime, is working, he said. Deer and woodchucks, too, have lately been spotted around but not inside the garden.
As Kovach talks, a wren sings from a tree nearby. A robin chirps in apparent alarm...
