A Message from your President, Robert Luther – reprinted from the 2010 Winter print newsletter*
My mirror tells me that my face of agriculture has changed over the years.
I’ve gotten older, and so has the average age of farmers across the country. I’m very fortunate because I have a son and a nephew working with me. They are the future of our agricultural face.
Not only are the faces of farmers changing, so is the total picture of agriculture, especially in Summit County.
Sixty years ago, Summit County was one of the top dairy counties in Ohio. Close to the Cleveland market, with good land for grazing and raising hay, dairy cows were a good way to farm in our area. Our farm, and many Summit County farms, had a productive dairy herd.
Today, we have one dairy herd left in the county – and it is within the Green city limits.
Seventy years ago, just before World War II, workhorse teams were still a common sight. Tractors were important, but farmers didn’t have to buy gas to run a horse, hay and oats kept him working just fine.
During the War, tractors were scarce and so were men to work the farms. Some went to war; others went to wartime factories and didn’t return to the longer hours and shorter pay of farm life.
The boom following the War brought higher crop prices and a way to pay for the new equipment coming off the peacetime assembly lines.
Again, the face of agriculture changed with larger farms, bigger fields and more mechanization.
At one time, Copley’s muck fields topped the state in vegetable production. The demand for housing in the 1950s and 1960s turned many of those very productive fields into houses.
Although we still have some wonderful local producers in the Copley area, we no longer send trains of vegetable crops to Cleveland. Instead, we have the opportunity to buy those crops locally at family-owned farm markets.
The Summit County farm economy has changed even more than the statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture show.
Home and farm gardens, so common years ago, have made a strong comeback. Families are growing vegetables and fruits for their own use. Chickens, goats, llamas and alpacas have become more common, providing meat, eggs and fiber for personal use and for sale.
We also have some very special niche markets filled by creative and innovative Summit County farmers. If you haven’t visited one of our Summit County wineries, you’ve been missing some beautiful experiences and some award-winning wines.
No matter how the face of agriculture has changed, a few things remain constant.
One is care for the land. With sound land conservation and soil management, we can preserve the precious top soil where healthy plants grow. If we don’t take care of the land, it can be washed away or become depleted.
When we lose the land, we lose agriculture.
The second constant is that in order to profit from animal agriculture, we must take good care of our animals. We call the care of livestock animal husbandry, and just like a good marriage, animal care requires daily attention.
It’s a relationship with our animals where our responsibility is to provide the right amounts of feed and clean water on a regular basis. We are also responsible for keeping them safe from predators and from themselves.
With the advice and guidance of specialists, such as being brought together by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, we can keep our animals safe and producing top quality milk, meat, eggs and fiber.
Yes, the face of agriculture has changed.
Summit County isn’t home to big farm operations, but we do have good farms and great farmers. Our members face changeable markets, uninformed neighbors and outdated rules along with unpredictable weather and hungry wildlife.
The forces that push us are far beyond our farm gate, and we need help to get the bigger job done. That’s where our individual memberships in Farm Bureau become so important.
Working together, we can be stronger than if we try to tackle our problems alone. That is the changing face of Summit County Farm Bureau. Through working together, farmers will continue to feed a growing population in this still emerging century.
Our vision statement calls for working to forge a partnership between farmers and consumers that meets consumer needs and ensures agricultural prosperity in a global marketplace.
Together we can do it, even as our faces change. I’m very proud to be a Summit County farmer, and happy that our Summit County Farm Bureau can represent all of our farmer members, whether they raise livestock, fruit, vegetables, grass, field crops, landscaping plants, trees or other agricultural crops on one or one thousand acres.
*The Summit County Farm Bureau mails out a print newletter to each of its more than 1,000 members each year. To become a member, apply online here.