June 24, 2025
CFAES Wooster and Green Fields Farm
OSU Agri-Insights & OPGMA Summer Tour
Attend sessions to help you learn how to expand your market opportunities through working cooperatively and adding value to your produce and tour specialty crop research plots with OSU’s Specialty Crop team members who are conducting the research. Then visit Green Field Farms, a certified organic cooperative established by Amish farmers and businessmen who value sustainability, culture, and community. You will have the opportunity to hear from the farmers, learn how their cooperative functions, and learn about their fertilizer division. Then tour one of their member farmers to see how they make their products.
Cost: $30 per session or $50 for both!
Agenda
OSU Agri-Insights
Shisler Conference Center 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, OH 44691
8:30-9 a.m. Doors open & Registration
9-9:10 a.m. Welcome -The Arden Ballroom; Large Conference Hall Rooms 130A, B, and C
9:10 a.m. For those who are interested, travel to research plots (expand for list of sessions)
OSU Field Talks
- David Francis (tomato breeding/genetics) - resistance as the first tool in combating soilborne disease
- Melanie Ivey research team (fruit pathology) - a new strawberry disease and biological control of apple scab
- Matt Kleinhenz (vegetable production) - uses for farmer-controlled, on-demand, solar-powered motors
- Ashley Leach (entomology) - best practices in integrated insect pest management in specialty crops
- Diane Miller (pomologist) - new apple varieties in a U-pick orchard system
- Francesca Rotondo (plant pathology/plant and pest diagnostic clinic) - correct diagnoses for successful responses
- Andres Sanabria-Velasquez (vegetable pathology) - best practices in integrated vegetable disease management
- Maria Smith (viticulturist) - grape research in support of the Ohio grape/wine industry
- Ram Yadav (weed science) - multipronged approaches to weed management in specialty crops
- Heping Zhu (ag engineering) - smart sprayer for efficient pesticide application
9:15-10 a.m. Farmers Working Together: Collaborations in Marketing, Purchasing, and Equipment to Improve Your Farm’s Bottom Line, Melissa Whitt, Program Specialist, Ann Luther, Program Coordinator
Attendees will be presented with a framework that identifies and discusses challenges that farmers face in marketing, distribution, and acquiring their supplies and equipment, as well as discussion of collaborative approaches to help farmers resolve those challenges and struggles. Farmers and service providers with some experience in agriculture will have the working knowledge to identify and understand these challenges as well as ways to pursue strategies that are essential to an already functional farm business.
10-10:50 a.m. Dealing with local government on agritourism, Peggy Hall Attorney and Director, OSU Agricultural & Resource Law Program
Under Ohio law, local governments have limited authority to regulate agritourism. In this session, learn about Ohio’s agritourism laws, the role it allows local governments to play in regulating agritourism, and strategies for dealing with local governments as they interpret and implement the law.
11-11:50 a.m. Value-added products as a diversification strategy for fruit and vegetable growers - A session focused on “value-added products as a diversification strategy for fruit and vegetable growers” with Glass Rooster Cannery. Walt Bonham, Richland Grow-op
Noon-12:45 Lunch - The Arden Ballroom; Large Conference Hall Rooms 130A, B, and C
12:45-1 p.m. Travel in your own vehicle to Green Field Farms, 6464 Fredericksburg Rd, Wooster, OH 44691
OPGMA Summer Tour
1-2:30 p.m. Welcome to Green Field Farms and tour
2:30 p.m. Travel to Green Field Farms’ member farmer to tour their operation
3:30 p.m. Adjourn and safe travels home
Sessions and speakers subject to change
Questions?
Call Christie Welch at 614-247-9725 or email welch.183@osu.edu