November 2013

Page 1

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID COLUMBUS, OH PERMIT NO 1070

$1.00 November 2013

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11

Q Miam Miamii Count ty County ccouple ouple rreopen eeopen d distillery iistillery P age a 4 Page

QA Auglaize uglaize l i man an orchestrates or rchestrra ates poultry show

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Inside THIS HIS EDI EDITION TION

Cooper er Farmss one of largest independent pendent turkeyy suppliers pplierss Ryan R yan Carpe

Page P age 2

Q Cook ffinds inds Yummy Yumm my Dessert Dessert is just that Page Page a 7

QS Shelby helby mar rkket h market ggoes oes global with ith jer rky jerky Page P age 6

SHARE YOUR IDEAS Editor Jeff Billiel welcomes suggestions from readers of My Own Rural Life of West Central Ohio. Forward your comments and/or story ideas to him online at jbilliel@civitasmedia.com. Letters to the editor will also be considered for publication in My Own Rural Life and may be emailed to the same address. Letters and comments may also be sent via USPS to Editor, Rural Life of West Central Ohio, c/o Sidney Daily News, 1451 N. Vandemark Road, Sidney, OH 45365.

Speaking ng of turkey… … Ohio O hio T Turkey urkkeeyy FFacts actts E^_e E ^ _ e hhWdai W d ai ninth na nationally tionallyy in turkey tur key production production tion moree than 219 with mor million poundss of turkey produced. tur rkey pr oduced.. J J^[ ^ [ llWbk[ Wb k [ e\ tturkey urkey p produced roduced iin n was Ohio in 2012 w as moree than $158 milmor million. E^_eÉi E^_eÉÉi jkh jkha[o ha[o \\beYai b i Yedikc[ ceh beYa ceh[[ j^Wd *$* c_b c_b-lion bushe ls of corn n each yyear, ear,, with a weight weight equiv uivabushels equivalent of 252 million pounds.

National al T Turkey urke urkey Facts Facts K K$I$ $I$ jkh jkha[o a[o Yed Yedikcfj_ed dikcfj_ed ^Wi __dYh _dYh[Wi[Z [Wi[Z '&( f[h-cent since 1970. ?d (&''" (&'' jkha jkha[o a[o mWi mWi j^[ \\ekhj^ ekhj^ ceij ceij#fefkbWh #fefkbWh fh fheetein choice for for American erican consumers, consumers, who consumed consumers med nearly nearlly 16.1 pounds per person person on average. pers average. J^[ WWl[hW][ l[hW][ \Wc \Wc_bo c_bo ^Wi [W [Wj[d j[d jkha jkha[o a[o ceh ceh[[ j^Wd j ffour our times in the last st 12 months. J^[ jef j^h j^h[[ [[ hh[Wiedi [Wiedi \\eh eh fh fh[fWh_d] [fWh_d] jkh jkha[o a[o WWjj home ar aree ttaste aste (69 per percent), cent), nutrition (52 per percent) cent) ent) percent). and vvalue alue (44 per cent). ent). ?d (&''" K K$I$ $I$ ]h ]hem[hi hem[hi hhW_i[Z W_i[Z ceh ceh[[ j^Wd (*. c_b c_b-lion turkeys turkkeys with a vvalue alue of nearl nearly ly $5.0 billion. 7bj^ek]^ +& f[ f[hY[dj [hY[dj e\ Wbb jkha jkha[o a[o Yedikc[ Yedikc[Z Z _d 1970 w was as during the he holida holidays, ys, s toda todayy tha thatt number er is only 29 per percent cent as mor moree people enjo enjoyy tur turkey key yyearear-rround. ound. Jkha[o Jk kha[o fh fheZkYj_ed eZkYYj_ed _d j^[ Kd_j[Z Ij IjWj[i Wj[i ^Wi increased incr eased mor moree than n 110 per percent cent since 1970, meeting eting consumers’ consumer s’ demand d as mor moree people choose tur turkey. key e .

GREENVILLE GREE NVILLE — With With i Thanksgiving Thank sgiving this month, onth, visions of mouth-watering mouth-watering ering tturkey urkkey dinners dinners dance dance in in the heads of many people. ople. And in many cases,, the celebrity ce lebrity holiday holiday bird bird will from come fr om nearby nearbby Darke Dar Darkke County. County y. The rrecent ecent 2013 Darke Darkke Dar Agricultural County Agricultur al Tour Toour several ffocused ocused on se veral regionreggionoperations, al farm oper ations, includcludinclud thatt of Cooper F Farms, ing tha a arms, largest one of the larg geest indepenepenindepen turkey dent turk key providers providerrss in States. the United St ates. Farms started Cooper F arms st a arted oout ut as as a turkey turkey operaoperanow tion in 1938, but no w the operation oper ation ti xtends t d into i t eextends chicken, chick en, pork, porkk, table table eggs, egggss, more. feed and mor e. hatchCooper Farm’s atchFarm’’s ha produces around ery pr oduces ar ound d 15 million poults each yyear, ear,, which meets its oown wn allows needs and also allo w it ws provider to be a pr ovider to other companies. Cooperss contracts contracts with grow local family farms to gr ow Farms Cooper F arms turkeys turrkeys market to mark ket weight, weight , which w moree amounts to rraising aising mor than 185 million pounds unds livee turkeys of liv turrkeys each yyear. e . ear. turkey While the tur rkey busibusilargest ness consists of the lar rgest Farms portion of Cooper F a arms operation, oper ation, it also raise raise moree than 100 million livee mor n liv hogs pounds of hog gs and oover ver chicken 400 million chick en eggs egggs each yyear. earr. inte-As a vvertically ertically inte grated company,, Cooper gr ated company ooper Farms twoo F arms consists of tw divisions d ivisions involving involving ffour our locations, loca tions, the Live Live Animal nimal Food Division and the F ood Processing Pr ocessing Division. Livee The imal Liv Animal Division is rresponsible esponsible le ffor or caree off aniooverseeing versseeingg the car animals and manufacturing uring

Photo provided ided

Plump and ready for Thanksgiving sgiving is this flock of turkeys.

the feed, while the the Food F ood Processing Processing Division sion is rresponsible esponsible for for the propro packaging duction and pack agingg of meats. Cooper mea ts. aree All of its animals ar grain fed a gr ain diet grown grown and farmers. supplied by local farmer merrs. Farms proCooper F arms oa also pr vides feed ffor or dairy and cattle beef ca ttle as well spe well as specialty feeds. During the rrecent ecent agriagricultural cultur al tour,, visitors visitorrs were were treated treated to a tour of two two of of Cooper Cooper Farms’ Farms’ Live L i ve Animal nurseries: nursseries: young young o turkeys turkkeys and pigs. pig gs. At At the turkey turkkey nursery, nurrsery s y, the fowl ut 4 fowl were were about 1/2 pounds at at five five weeks. wee e ks. But But seven ey ’re seven weeks weeks they’re they around around 10 pounds. By By the time they leave may leaave they may be up to 40 to 45 pounds. nds. The double pens visited sited were were 20,000 square square feet et in area area and contained contained 12,000 ,000 birds birds in all, and each had enough room room to move move around around freely. freelyy. In a year, year,, Cooper Farms Farms a

raises raises about 5.5 million lion turkeys. turkkeys. The pigs’ pigs’ starting st arting ting weight weight is typically 111 to 12 pounds and their endending weight weight is around around 488 to 55 pounds. The pigs are piggs are normally normally in the the feeding feed ding barns for for o 43 to 46 days days to gain gain that that amountt of weight. weight . Consequently, Consequently, each pig will start bout start out eating eating about a pound of feed a day, day, but will often double that rate that rate through through its stay. stay. As a result, result , the pigs piggs in the nursery duce nursery produce prod approximately approximately 225,000 000 gallons gallons of manure manure annuannu nnually, ally, which is retained retained and applied after wheat soywheat or soybean harvest harvest and incorpoincorpo rpo rated rated immediately immediately into the soil to prevent prevent runoff. It’s It’’s also one way tha way that t t Cooper Farms Farms reuses reuses its resources resources and monitors monitor torss impact impact on on the the environenviron ment. ment. At At each site,, the anianimals had as much feed

and water water as they desired, desirred, and the temperature temperature was was consistently monitored monitorred by animal technicians to make make sure sure they were were comcom omfortable. fortable. Cooper Farms Farms also incorporates incorporates a misting ing system to system t t keep keep the anianiimals cool during the hothotter months. During the winter, winterr, the t enclosures enclosures are are pumped ped with heat. heat . So So while the operation operation ion seems fairly fairlly straightforstraightffor-ward, ward, its its requires requires conconstant stant supervision, attenatten t tion to detail detail and a level level of oversight that overssight g that translates translaates directly directly into quality of the product. product. And Cooper Farms oes Farms does more more than raise raise and propro vide food food o for for o a variety varietyy of markets. marrkets. It also sponsors sponsor orrs the annual Turkey Turk u key Trot Trot 5K Walk/Run, Walk/R Run, which was was held heeld for for the seventh No ov. seventh time Nov. 2 in St. St . Henry. Henryy. RRyan yan Carpe writ writes es for for The DDaily aily Advocate Advoccate Greenville. in Gr eenville.

Logan County woman man succeeds ds in farmingg Caroline McColloch QUINCY QUIN CY — One of the gr great eat hallmarks hallmarks of farming ng communicommuni ties is closely-knit family.. B Both closely-knit family oth within families and among them, the experiences Bambauer experiences of Lisa Lis a B ambauer and her dad, Richard, Richard, d are are a testatest ament to what what solid vvalues alues can lead to when ther theree is enduring love uring lo ve and the desir desiree to alw always ays help. help. Such S uch is the foundation thatt launched foundation tha this persevering persevering and d determined woman woman into the traditionally traditionally itionally malemale dominated farming.. dominated world world of farming When lightning struck an Auglaize Auglaize County dairy barn in 1959,, Richard Bambauer’s Richard B ambauer mbauer ’s plans p changed from changed rrather ather abruptly bruptly fr om dairying with his father faather to agriagricultural cultural studies; this is led to the long-time ownership ownership p of a seed, grain grain and fertilizerr business in Pemberton, Shelby County.. Lis Lisaa Pemberton, S helby County was fam-was brought brought into thee fold fold of a fam ily enduring not onlyy the hardship hardship of rebuilding Grandpa’s rebuilding G randpa’ dpa’’s barn but benefiting also from from a community’s community ’s values values put to action. Neighbors donated hay, N eighbors ighbors d dona t d ha ted h y, milled illed lumber from from their woodland woodland and helped helped one of theirr own own reconreconstruct his livelihood. Eventually, livelihood. d. E ventuallyy, the father’s father ’s eelevator levator business and grandfather’s dairy operation g ran d f at h er ’s d a ir y o pe rat i o n

became thee chance for for Lisa Lis a to strengthen strengthen family ties, learn about farming, then en start st art thinking of runrunning her own. own. w Her formative forma mative years years involved involved membership membersship p in a local 4-H conser-vation projects vation club, with pr ojects ranging ranging from habitat from soil studies udies and pond habit at to photography. photography phy. Also, a lot was ot of time w as spent hunting and d fishing with Dad and Grandpa, perhaps showGrandpa, per erh haps initially sho wing how how to push the boundaries of traditional walls traditional gender gender roles. roles. The w alls of her large larg ge farm shop are are adorned with an impressive impr mpressive collection of mounted buck trophies, uck tr ophies, photos of bear hunting stringers g in Maine or string gers of fish at lake. at a Canadian C lake. As often happens with serious hunters, appreciation hunterss, an n appr eciation ffor or the importance wildlife imp ort a nce of wild life habitat habi t at leads to a passion for conservafor conserv ation, something invested hing Lisa Lis a has in vested in on all her farms. Even Even outside of hunting, many farmerss ar aree lik likewise any farmer ewise sensitive thatt important sensitive to tha import ant balance between between using ing land and kkeeping eeping it healthy. healthy. Ms. has b been named M Bambauer B ambauer b bauer h d the 2013 Cooperator Year Cooperator of the Y ear by the Logan Log gan Soil S oil and Water Water Conservation District her Con servation on D istr ict for for h er use of practices employed practices ctices emplo yed under the Conservation Conserv ervation Stewardship Ste wardship

Program. fed-Progr o am. Sponsored Sponsored by the fed eral USDA eral a USD A Natural Natural Resources Resources c Conservation Service, compreConserv nservation S ervice, a compr pre hensive hensiv nsive farm plan is given given financial cial incentive incentiv entive to establish est ablish and maintain maint ain a wide managew vvariety ariety of land use manag ge ment aree all aimed nt methods. These ar med at preserving structuree aand at pr eserving soil structur fertility, fertility tility, protecting protecting water water quality, quality ity, and d providing providing wildlife habitat. habit at . Natural conservation Natural resource resource conserv ation n is an investment investment in the long-term erm capacity maintain pacity of farmland to maint ain its productivity, productivity, while still providprovid v ing agricultural livelihood. g an agricultur al liv elihood. This is the philosophy be behind federal hind feder eral policies programs licies and pr ograms used in partpart artnership water nerrship p with local soil and w ater conservation across conserv nservation districts acr oss the nation. nation. t Established pracE ablished in 2006, the pr Est ractices Lisa’s es in Lis a’’s farm plan are are related related t mainly grassland habitat inly to gr assland habit at aand careful management careful manag ement of fertilizers fertilizer erss and no-till d pesticides. She S he uses no -till methods m e t ho d s (meaning ( m e an i n g there t h ere iiss no no plowing; plowing; seeds are are planted with special preserves ecial machinery). This pr eservves thee soil’s critisoil’’s physical physical structure, structure, a criti riticall pr property water infiltration operty t ffor or w ater t iinfiltr filtration i ion and activity.. Blue Bluebird d biological activity b d bir houses hou uses and and acreages acreages planted planted in in native nativ t e grasses grasses provide provide habitat habit at ffor or songbirds, song ngbirds, quail, pheasant, pheas ant , and a deer. deer er..

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November 2013 by Acres Midwest - Issuu