For Abbey Garland, the combination of agriculture and electric cooperatives has shaped not just her interests, but also her future.
Abbey has spent much of her life discovering, through an agricultural lens, how leadership and service can work together, and she says the co-op has been instrumental in her personal and educational development.
Farming has long been the backbone of Ohio’s economy. Even if you don’t farm today, you likely have friends or family who do, or ancestors who once did.
Ohio’s electric cooperatives have a long history with the farming community. Years ago, rural residents (many of them farmers) worked together to bring electricity to their homes and towns, changing life in the countryside forever.
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.
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.
It’s not unusual for the crew of lineworkers from Lancaster-based South Central Power Company to hang around and make small talk with attendees after they’ve finished their hourly live-wire safety demonstrations at the annual
“Our guys are really good about making sure they answer everyone’s questions, and they’ll stick around as long as they need to,” says Candi Fisher, member engagement coordinator at South Central Power, who coordinates the mobile safety demonstrations for the co-op. “They could tell this older gentleman wanted to talk to them and so they went over to say hello.”
“You saved my life,” the man said.
“That’s not something you hear every day,” Fisher says. “But he was very insistent. He made a special trip there that day to thank the guys who had saved his life.”
As the Farm Science Review celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, the state’s premier agricultural education and industry event will both highlight its own history and keep its focus on educating for the future.
Eventually, the electric cooperative tent got so popular that the co-ops decided to pool their money and erect a permanent structure on the grounds in 2008.
Cathann Kress’ introduction to American life and American agriculture didn’t happen until she was well into her teenage years. Before then, her family lived wherever her parents’ Air Force careers took them — mainly the Middle East and Brazil.
Kress took to farm life right away after she moved to Iowa. She enjoyed baling hay and all the chores required for raising hogs, sheep, corn, and soybeans. Like many farm kids, she belonged to 4-H, where she showed sheep and did public speaking.
From an early age, Jennifer Osterholdt recognized the importance of farming and agriculture. She lived on a livestock and crop farm and participated in 4-H, where she learned to cook.
Along the way, Osterholdt realized that there was a lack of both understanding and positive information available about farming and agriculture. So she decided to start a blog dedicated to her life on the farm.
Eventually, she began sharing recipes, which she says afforded her the opportunity not only to share her love of cooking with the world, but also to offer that positive information about farming and agriculture.
On any given day, 360,000 chicks roam the high-tech henhouse at Meiring Poultry Farm in Fort Recovery.
The four-story henhouse uses an elaborate lighting system that Knapke can control from his smartphone to simulate dawn and dusk. The system controls individual lights within the building, creating total blackness to bright-as-daylight and back again so the chicks become adjusted to the “natural” dawn and rising of the sun to a sunset that draws them into the roosting module where they nest for the night.
Roger Rank has grown popcorn on his fields near Van Wert for almost 40 years. For much of that time, the early part of each harvest has had to go to waste in order to comply with some of the regulations and demands of the distributors who bought the crop.
But lately, he’s found a use for those first kernels of the season. Instead of disposing of them, he donates a portion of that crop to various organizations.
