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A standing room only crowd of more than 400 people attended the 2014 Farm Bill meeting at Versailles Schools. Attendees came from across Ohio and Indiana to hear from experts about how the bill will affect them.
Partners in sponsoring and hosting the meeting were: OSU Extension, Darke County; Farm Credit of Mid America; Ohio Ag Net – Ohio’s Country Journal; Versailles Ag Ed and FFA; USDA Farm Service Agency, Darke County; Ohio and Darke County Farm Bureau; and QBE NAU Crop Insurance.
Farm Credit of Mid America President and CEO, Bill Johnson, gave opening comments on the importance of the meeting and the bill. He had in attendance with him more than 30 Farm Credit Leaders from the tri-state area.
Members of the panel discussing the bill were: Adam Sharp, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation; Jon Coppess, University of Illinois and Art Barnaby, Kansas State University. Moderating the panel was Jeff Wuebker from Versailles.
Jon Coppess, a native of Darke County, brought to the panel a wealth of knowledge. He previously served as the Administrator for the Farm Service Agency at the United States Department of Agriculture, and wrote a great deal of the commodity language before leaving Washington D.C. and going to the University of Illinois.
Survey responses following the meeting indicated that over 500,000 acres of crop land was represented at the meeting and many of the participants indicated that they may see an additional return to their farm as much as $10 per acres as a result of them attending the meeting.
You can order a DVD of the meeting by calling the OSU Extension, Darke County, office at 937.548.5215 or by contacting your Farm Credit representative.
For more information about OSU Extension, Darke County, visit the Darke County OSU Extension web site at www.darke.osu.edu, the OSU Extension Darke County Facebook page or contact Sam Custer, at 937.548.5215.