I’ve heard many wives’ tales, most not exactly true.

One is you can tell how much snow we will get by how high hornets build their nests. That is not true! However, hornets do use an incredibly complex mathematical equation, far beyond the scope of human understanding, to chose where they build their nest. Wherever they built it, just leave it alone! It might have an important part to play in the natural cycles of the universe. You never know.

Another tale is that the pattern of the woolly bear caterpillars fur coat will predict the winter. That is also not true! But, if you see a nightcrawler jump out of the ground and steal the fur off of the woolly bear, you know it’s gonna be a bad winter!

There are a couple of other sure-fire ways to predict the severity of the winter.

If you see beagle dogs carrying jumper cables around to get the rabbits started, it’s gonna be a bad winter! However, this is rare.

Another way to tell is come February with snow as deep as the axle on a Ferris wheel, and you come to the conclusion that the term all-season radial is rather misleading. Sure enough it’s a bad winter.

The best way, though, to tell is what my father-in-law would tell people if he was asked what kind of winter it was gonna be: “I will let you know come May.”

Gordon Meeder
Midland, Pennsylvania

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Once a month it was required that he have a safety meeting. He told me the following story.

The crew is called to gather round and listen while the foreman reads from a safety pamphlet. (I can only imagine the foreman droning on in a monotone reading it. I’ve been there).

This particular month it was about safety around insects. I reckon they were learning about bees, ticks, poisonous spiders and maybe dust mites? Everything was going as normal until the foreman got to a chapter titled: When Caterpillars Attack!

At this point, my son and others lost it and broke out laughing. My son said all he could think about was millions of woolly caterpillars swarming across the land all predicting a bad winter!

That ended the meeting!

Gordon Meeder
Midland, Pennsylvania

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During those 42 years, I saw a lot of stuff and had lots of unnecessary adventures, mostly caused by me. This brings to mind an incident that I witnessed not long before I retired.

It had been a dry September, beautiful weather with low humidity. This is important because I believe it had something to do with what I experienced.

A customer had brought a New Holland backhoe to the shop with the complaint of a noise at the front of the engine. I mention New Holland because some of you readers may have New Holland equipment with the same engine. But this could pertain to any engine

I did a visual check of the engine; nothing was visibly awry. Starting the engine, I immediately heard a clicking/snapping noise. Looking at the front of the engine I was baffled by what saw: a blue electrical arc, almost like a welding arc, jumping from the outside of the fan belt/damper pully to the bolt that holds the damper to the crankshaft. I didn’t stick my hand down there!

At first, I thought maybe the damper pully was wearing out. They are two pieces with the inner and outer sections bonded together with rubber (I think). Maybe slipping caused a buildup of static electricity which in turn caused the spark. But I’d never seen a damper pully worn out. I did see one that had come off of a V12 Cummins. It made a mess!

Note: If I was rebuilding an engine (which I have no intent to ever do again) with a zillion hours on it, I’d replace the damper pully!

Really looking at it, I noticed the fan belt, although tight, was adjusted to the maximum. Checking further, I figured out that the customer had installed the wrong belt. Replacing the belt with a factory belt corrected the problem.

I have to wonder if this would have been noticed if there had been damp weather, the moisture giving the static electricity somewhere go with out the buildup? Maybe I did learn something in school after all!

Anyhow, if this spark would occur in say a combine or other field equipment with dry chaff or other flammable material building up, it could start a fire, probably ruining someone’s day.

Since no one is able to predict the weather, make sure your equipment has the right tight belt.

It’s a lot cheaper than me diagnosing the problem and replacing the belt!

Gordon Meeder
Midland, Pennsylvania

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I respectfully submit an opinion with disappointment in what seems to be an unbalanced presentation of the changes to the Medicaid system on the front page of the Aug. 14 edition.

Obviously there are many who will likely lose Medicaid services, but it’s also true that there are many who are receiving services that should not be. I’m all for having a safety net for those who despite their best efforts need assistance in day-to-day living cost and healthcare (I am a healthcare provider myself.) But to make the headlines convey a message of governmental indifference to those in need without more emphasis on the necessity of having a solvent and justified system with reasonable required qualifications to be in the program comes across as biased and irresponsible reporting. To assume the worst that hospitals are likely to close, etc., accentuates that message.

To be fair, the last number of paragraphs in the article did include the federal initiative to help states where states have the most need and providing necessary care. That’s a significant important part of the equation. I simply suggest that should’ve gotten equal coverage on the front page as the challenging and painful adjustments that will need to be made. Changes that I believe have to be made to to keep the program sustainable when it is fraught with fraud and waste.

This program and the people that depend on it needs a fair and sustainable program that’s predictable and reliable. People that are able to work, but choose not to should not be taking funds from those who cannot.

Thank you for the work that you do.

Bob Miller
Louisville, Ohio

The post Reader: Medicaid coverage lacked context appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

The guys had just unloaded a load of hay off a wagon. They had pushed the wagon out of the barn and were waiting for the next load.

They noticed that a wagon tire had split and the tube was bulging out of the side wall of the tire.

About this time, a chicken came along pecking at things, as chickens do. One of the guys said, “I wonder what would happen if that hen pecked that …” KAWOOM!

That hen pecked that bulging tube before he got the word tube out. After the chaff, dust and feathers cleared, there was that hen across the lot looking back.

I can’t help but wonder what that hen thought about getting her feathers ruffled that way?

Gordon Meeder
Midland, Pennsylvania

The post Reader: Ruffled feathers appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

I had hauled down a half-worn-out Farmall A tractor and a single-bottom drag plow that I owned to plow up a place for a garden. The trouble was, I didn’t have a disc. I thought I could buy a disc cheaply somewhere down there, but no such luck. Most folks in West Virginia used Ford 8Ns and such. They all had three-point hitch stuff. I was jealous.

Anyhow, I had brought with me an old, worn-out Gilson front tine tiller and started to till up what I had plowed. Did I mention that the creek bottom was full of rocks? But that garden would grow anything!

I was beating that tiller and me to death when a neighbor stopped up on the road. He watched me from up on the bank (here, I will mention it was a 10-, maybe 15-foot steep bank up to the road). I hadn’t met this guy yet. He got out of his truck, half slid down the bank and without introducing himself said, “Why don’t you let me bring my team and disc and work up that mess ya got there?”

I really can’t remember if that is what he said, but folks down there were always colorful and blunt in their speech.

I asked him how much? Fortunately, he figured I was “green” to the culture down there. He answered, “You are a neighbor now. We don’t trade money. We trade help.”

Sometimes that trading business didn’t always turn out square! I said, “Bring your team!” Really, I think he just wanted to show off his team. He finally told me his name was Don.

The next day, about mid-morning, he shows up with a beautiful team of stoutly built small horses and a well-cared-for, horse-drawn disc. The seat on the disc was the original cast iron with the manufacturer’s name cast into the seat. I wish I could remember the brand. He was sure proud of that seat!

The horses were a cross between a Percheron and a pony. He explained that, for working in small areas, you didn’t need the expense of feeding big horses.

As he was discing, my wife had made some lunch. She called us to lunch. He dropped the reins on the ground, saying Those horses won’t move. While up on the porch, something startled those horses. They took off, yes, dragging that set of discs. There was no catching them. They got to the end of the field. Making the turn at a high rate of speed, the disc flipped over. Yep, that seat got broken pretty bad! The team came back down the field, made another turn and went straight up that bank, breaking off my gas meter in the process. They were stopped when they straddled a locust fence post at the top. Good post.

Fortunately, the shut-off valve for the gas meter was intact, so I could shut off the gas. We got the horses untangled and the disc down off the hill and turned it upright. Don finished discing, walking behind the disc.

That disc did a good job working up the ground, especially, when it came back up the field upside down at a high rate of speed with what remained of the seat and the seat mount, scattering dirt clods and rocks in its wake!

Gordon Meeder
Midland, Pennsylvania

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Summer is here, and with that comes policy development! Yes, summer is when county farm bureaus prepare for the upcoming annual meeting in late summer. Farm bureau has a grassroots structure, which means the organization’s policies and activities are led from individual member action that is carried up through the federation: county farm bureau to Ohio Farm Bureau to American Farm Bureau.

Farm Bureau’s policy development process

This process happens year-round with an emphasis on collecting feedback in the spring and early summer. County Farm Bureau policy development committees host local resource meetings with elected officials and county leaders to discuss community issues. Members are also sent a survey to submit their concerns directly to the committee. The policy development committee meets several times throughout the summer to prepare policy recommendations for the county farm bureau annual meeting.

One of the topics raised at several community meetings this year has been property tax reform. Our policy development committees are carefully reviewing current policy and considering implications of such reforms to funding for townships, schools and local services. We invite members to attend their county Farm Bureau’s annual meeting later this summer to participate in policy discussion on this and other important topics.

Once policies are approved at the county farm bureau’s annual meeting, state and national policies are proposed for consideration by the more than 350-member delegate body at the Ohio Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in December. National policies that are approved at the state annual meeting are then advocated for at the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention in January.

Advocacy in action

Approval of policy is a very important first step to the advocacy process. County farm bureau leadership and OFBF’s Public Policy staff engage elected officials and legislators, when necessary, for policies that require legislative action. Both OFBF and AFBF are often asked to take positions on proposed legislation. Before any position is considered, the first step is to review the policy books that the delegate body put together and approved. Existing policy will dictate what position, if any, the organization will take.

Ohio Farm Bureau also has an action alert system that allows members to advocate directly to their legislators. A notable example of such action took place in June. After a version of the Ohio Senate‘s budget was released that removed a multitude of state sales tax exemptions across the board, including the exemption for field tile and grain bins, Ohio farmers worked quickly to make their voices heard. Within 24 hours, OFBF members generated more than 1,000 emails to their senators through our action alert system, a number that ultimately increased to more than 1,700 emails, asking for the exemption to be reinstated. Through those emails, and additional touch points via phone and text, the field tile and grain bin sales tax exemption were both reinstated to the Senate’s final version of the budget.

Conclusion

Member engagement throughout every stage of the advocacy process is critical to ensure that there is well-thought-out policy to address the variety of issues that agriculturalists are facing across Ohio. One of the biggest benefits of farm bureau membership is having a say in issues that are impacting Ohio’s producers across the state.

If you are not a member and would like to have the opportunity to participate in our advocacy process, join us online at ofbf.org or call our office. If you are already a member and would like to get more involved with advocacy, give our Wooster Farm Bureau office a call at 330-263-7456.

(Lindsay Tournoux is the Organization Director serving Ashland, Medina, Summit and Wayne County Farm Bureaus.)

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There’s plenty of debate in Washington about energy policy, but here on the ground in Ohio, one thing is clear: Our farmers need reliable, affordable fertilizer to stay in business — and hydrogen is a key ingredient that makes it possible.

That’s why preserving the current 45V hydrogen production tax credit deserves strong, bipartisan support from policymakers in D.C. who care about protecting American agriculture, rural economies and our nation’s energy independence.

Here’s why this matters to Ohio: Hydrogen is essential for making ammonia, the backbone of nitrogen fertilizers. Without it, we can’t grow the local corn, soybeans and wheat that feed America and the world. Fertilizer alone can represent up to 45% of total operating costs for many Ohio farmers. When global energy markets swing or conflicts erupt abroad, fertilizer prices skyrocket, and it’s our family farms that pay the price.

Today, most hydrogen is made from natural gas — something Ohio has in abundance, thanks to our skilled energy workforce and our role as a leading natural gas producer. The problem isn’t the fuel; it’s that too much downstream fertilizer production has shifted overseas, making American agriculture vulnerable to foreign instability and adversarial regimes.

China, for example, produces more than three times the ammonia that the United States does. If we care about American food security, we need to care about fertilizer security — and that starts with stable, affordable domestic hydrogen production.

The 45V tax credit provides a practical solution, encouraging hydrogen production here at home using a range of methods, including natural gas paired with carbon capture, renewables and even biomass. This means we can produce the hydrogen we need right here in Ohio, supporting U.S.-based ammonia and fertilizer manufacturing while insulating our farmers from the price spikes driven by overseas turmoil.

Hydrogen and ammonia facilities are already being built in rural communities across Ohio, bringing good-paying jobs, infrastructure improvements and local tax revenue to counties that have too often been overlooked by policymakers in Washington. Supporting 45V is a direct investment in rural America, in real jobs, and in the future of Ohio’s farming families.

For Ohio, this is about self-reliance, economic resilience and keeping our promise to the communities that feed and fuel America. Supporting 45V means standing with Ohio farmers. It means strengthening America’s energy security and reducing our dependence on foreign fertilizer. And it means ensuring that rural communities in Ohio and across the nation can continue to compete and thrive.

As policymakers in D.C. weigh the future of hydrogen, we urge them to remember what’s at stake: the livelihoods of American farmers, the security of our food supply and the strength of rural economies that form the backbone of this country.

Ohio is ready to lead in producing the hydrogen and fertilizer America needs. We just need Washington to keep the door open.

(Shayna Fritz is the Executive Director of the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum, a non-profit that supports all of the above energy policies that prioritize lowering costs to consumers, free markets, national security and property rights.)

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Responding to the March 27 article “From deluges to drought” conclusion climate change warming is almost all due to human activity, I don’t take issue with the fact that the climate is changing, or that human activity has increased greenhouse gases. I do take issue with the conclusion that recent climate changes are caused solely (or mostly) by human activity. Before you label me an anthropogenic climate denier, let’s review a few facts:

In its climate reports, the United Nations Panel on Intergovernmental Climate Change removed from the analysis the medieval warm period around 1100 AD, the little ice age between 1400 and 1850, the warming period from 1880 to 1940, and the temperature decline between 1940 and 1975. These climate changes were replaced with 900 years of stable global temperatures, causing the analysis to inappropriately conclude temperature increases must human-caused.

The IPCC original peer-reviewed 1996 climate report stated no study shows clear evidence that climate change can be attributed to specific causes (including human activity); however, this was deleted in the version made available to the public.

More recent IPCC reports rely heavily on surface thermometers in urban areas, ignore cold weather locations, replace floating drifter buoys with water bucket sampling in commercial shipping routes and ignore solar energy increases from 1980-2000; thus, skewing the results to make the earth appear to be rapidly warming.

Contrary to the IPCC reports, satellite data for the lower atmosphere over both land and oceans, the most reliable global and precise measurement of global temperatures since 1979, show almost no warming.

The IPCC admitted in 2013 that the temperature rise it predicted from 1998 to 2012 did not occur, even though CO2 levels rose 7%.

Many climate models ignore the effects of solar activity, the role of ocean currents, unexplained historical sea level rises and lowering, and historical temperature variations.

Sea levels have been rising at a constant rate — 400 feet since the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago and, based on the last couple of centuries, an estimated 6 inches by 2100 — and cannot be tied to temperature changes or CO2 levels.

Historic data confirms CO2 concentrations in the past (before so-called human intervention) were up to 20 times greater than present value.

Historic data demonstrates CO2 increases follow warming trends, i.e., CO2 levels did not cause these warming trends.

Ice core data indicate historic climate fluctuations were much greater during periods when CO2 levels were lower.

Solar panels and windmills aren’t carbon neutral; they require resources to construct, transport and maintain.

Nuclear energy is the only currently available and realistic source that produces almost no greenhouse effect.

Unfortunately, climate policy has eclipsed climate science. Why? Climate policy is the source of money, power and control. In other words, if climate change is not human caused, we cannot regulate it; leaving politicians, academicians, influencers, and opportunists who benefit (economically, politically or professionally) from promoting anthropogenic climate change with no platform from which to shout regulate or perish.

We need to continue to study climate change, monitor human-induced changes to the environment and make science-based, rational decisions. We do not need to create artificial solutions or force arbitrary standards and coercive controls that waste energy, ration access and resources and distort economic decisions.

If you are genuinely interested in the facts behind climate science, I urge you to read the book “Hot Talk, Cold Science” by S. Fred Singer. The book does not deny climate change, it explains the facts noted above, and many more, and provides realistic solutions to a global conundrum.

Marjorie Conner
Deerfield, Ohio

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“Pap” kind of hinted that the wheelbarrow was overloaded. His hint didn’t sink in. The oldest son grabbed the wheelbarrow saying “I can handle it.” The gang started down the hill. (The hills here in southwestern Pennsylvania are steep.)

As the hill got steeper, the wheelbarrow started picking up speed. The operator of the wheelbarrow was soon running to keep up.

For some reason, it’s hard to let go of the handles in a situation like this — one of the great mysteries of the universe.

At this point, the front wheel of the careening outfit hit a snag. Our brave wheelbarrow engineer went flying through the handles as momentum upended the rig.

His ornery, unsympathetic younger brother stuck his arms in the air and yelled field goal! My understanding is that it was rather graceful! Fortunately, he didn’t get hurt. The lesson here is to avoid any activity that involves a wheelbarrow!

Gordon Meeder
Midland, Pennsylvania

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