So, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when one day she came to me to say that she had to attend an out-of-town conference for a few days, and would I be able to take care of her “pets” while she was gone?

Those pets were two teeny, tiny dragonfly nymphs about 3 mm in length, which were residing in a small aquarium on her desk, completely decked out to mimic a pond habitat. You see, Linda is a dragonfly expert. She has an uncanny ability not only to identify nearly every dragonfly she spots on the wing, but she can also nearly always identify them during their aquatic nymph stage as well.

It should be no surprise that she is also a co-author of Dragonflies and Damselflies of Northeast Ohio. This field guide, which was funded and published by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, is chock full of interesting information and can be relied upon efficiently to help identify any dragonfly you may come upon within the designated range.

Personal bug zapper

It is nearly impossible to visit any lake, pond, marsh, bog, swamp, stream or other habitat with water during the warmer months and not see dragonflies darting around. Like miniature helicopters, they zoom about, making agile turns, flying forward and backward, up and down or hovering in one spot. These aerial stunts enable the dragonfly to catch their prey on the wing, namely any small insect that may be sharing their space. One of their favorite food items is mosquitoes, giving them the name “mosquito hawk.”

If you spend time near a pond, fishing or just relaxing nearby, soon you will notice dragonflies hunting those irritable insects that have begun to gather around you…your own personal bug zappers! Look closely and you can often see a tiny insect clasped in the dragonfly’s jaws as it munches on the wing. It is no surprise that they rank among the fastest insects on earth, having been known to reach speeds of up to 35 mph. A glance through the field guide will reveal names reflecting their athletic abilities, such as dashers, skimmers, pondhawks, meadowhawks, cruisers, gliders and more.

Dragonflies belong to the order Odonata. Often referred to as odonates, they also share this title with their “cousins,” the damselflies. Adult dragonflies are recognized by their four transparent wings held flat out, horizontal to their bodies. These two sets of membranous wings, some sporting various colors or patterns, are transparent and delicately laced with venation. The wings are attached to the thorax of their hefty bodies, and a long abdomen trails behind. Huge compound eyes, comprising most of their head, give them nearly 360-degree vision.

In comparison, damselflies are smaller and daintier, with wings held in a closed position above their bodies, although their life cycle is similar.

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Water lovers

All dragonflies spend the first part of their life as aquatic nymphs, the main reason for their association with water. After mating, usually on the wing, females can be observed depositing their eggs. Some can be seen dipping the tips of their abdomens into the water multiple times in the same spot; others sit on rotten logs, placing their eggs inside the spongy wood; still others drill into the stems of emergent vegetation. When the eggs hatch, the tiny offspring, known as nymphs, enter their aquatic habitat.

Nymphs bear little to no resemblance to their adult stage, but that is not to say that they are any less unique. Lacking wings for movement, the nymphs rely on jet propulsion to get around, sucking water in through the tip of their abdomens and shooting it back out with enough force to propel themselves forward great distances. Even in this immature stage, they feed voraciously on other insects and pond denizens. Like something out of a horror movie, the nymph’s lower jaw, tucked neatly beneath its head, slowly lowers and shoots out with lightning speed, nabbing its prey between powerful pinchers.

As they grow, so do their appetites and their ability to consume larger prey, such as tadpoles and tiny fish fry. They shed their skin multiple times as they increase in size, a process they may complete over 15 times. Finally, after months or even years beneath the surface, the dragonfly nymph crawls from the water, anchoring itself to a sturdy stick or stem. Slowly, its skin splits and out it crawls, leaving a dry exoskeleton behind. Slowly, like a butterfly, its wings expand and eventually dry. Hours later, it takes to the air.

Dragonflies are a riot to observe. Pick a spot by the water’s edge, have a seat and watch the show. Often, a dragonfly will have a favorite perch that it returns to over and over again, offering the opportunity for a good photograph.

Despite their intimidating name, dragonflies are harmless. They do not bite or sting, although if captured, they may harmlessly attempt to chew on a finger if offered. A few species are migratory and can be observed in impressive swarms during late summer; radar has picked up throngs of them flying south across Lake Erie!

Bug babysitter

You can imagine how nervous I was to assume babysitting duty for Linda’s nymphs. Her story about this experiment began while she was walking through a wetland and noticed scarring on the stems of some reeds. Cutting one of the stems open, her suspicion that they contained dragonfly eggs was confirmed. Not knowing which species the eggs belonged to, she took one of the stems home with her, in the hope that the eggs would hatch and she could rear the resulting nymphs to adulthood.

Taking over care duty for a few days was nerve-wracking. Feeding such tiny, new larvae required only an eyedropper or two of pond water each day containing tiny microorganisms, small crustaceans and aquatic worm species chopped into minuscule pieces. I called and texted Linda several times each day to confirm that I was doing things correctly. Needless to say, I had never been happier to see her return from a trip. I am also happy to report that nearly one year later, her large, healthy nymphs finally emerged from the water and revealed themselves as black-tipped darners. This whole experience was so amazing that there is an entire chapter written about it in the field guide.

I must admit, I’m no dragonfly aficionado. In fact, I am weak on my identification of them. No doubt this is the result of having a friend who is an expert. When I find or photograph a dragonfly, I don’t even consult my field guide. I just text the expert and have an answer within seconds. As I said, it certainly pays off to have unique friends!

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But those days are long gone, and for the first time in 60 years, the Mercer County Grange Fair in western Pennsylvania will not happen, says Richardson, now chairman of the Board of Directors for the Mercer County Grange Fair. 

“It was a very difficult (decision),” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do this summer.”

The fair was canceled due to a lack of volunteers and the high-cost economy at the moment. According to Richardson, several volunteers have had to drop out of helping at the fair, including one who broke their arm.

“Trying to do a fair with basically half a dozen people or three families just isn’t going to cut it,” he said.

Mercer County’s insurance company also recently canceled the county’s insurance, including on the fair and all the buildings. On top of that, Richardson says rising prices resulted in the fair’s cancellation.

“I, myself, would put $1000 to $3,000 into the fair. I just don’t have it this year,” Richardson said. Many sponsors were also unable to provide as much funding this year, he said, and, with high fuel prices, participants may be unable to attend.

“How are people going to be able to afford to run tractors in a tractor pool? How are they going to be able to run demolition derbies?” Richardson asked.

But this isn’t the first time the Mercer County Grange Fair has experienced setbacks; over the years, additional testing requirements and state regulations around showing livestock have made it difficult for people to participate in the fair, says Richardson.

The fair recently got rid of its horse showing after the state passed a law in 2024 that requires horses to receive a Coggins test before exhibition — a blood test that identifies equine infectious anemia, a fatal disease with no current treatment, according to Penn State Extension. 

Already, the board of directors is preparing for next year’s fair, set for July 13-17, 2027. The county plans on hosting a gun raffle and a basket raffle at the fairgrounds later this year, with funding supporting next year’s fair and repairs to the fairgrounds.

In the meantime, Richardson encourages community members to consider volunteering for the Mercer County Grange Fair, by planting flowers, pulling weeds or cleaning buildings, as a little help goes a long way.

“The average person can always volunteer the week of our fair or two weeks before, because I get off work May 31, and I basically live at the fairgrounds the whole month of June,” he said.

(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)

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Over more than six decades, the family-owned company has come a long way from its humble beginnings.

The Leonard family started the business in 1963, selling horses.

“But they figured out people needed a way to get them home, so they started selling trailers too,” Marketing Director Mark Santilli said.

In an interview with Farm and Dairy, he ticked off some of the products you can find on the business’ North Jackson campus.

“Horse and livestock trailers, large equipment haulers, dump trailers,” Santilli said. “The parts department is stocked with tens of thousands of parts. Also on the property is the armory. We have a gun department.”

The business, which is just a stone’s throw from the interchange where Interstate 76 and Interstate 80 intersect in Mahoning County, also includes a repair center, Santilli said.

“The Leonard family of brands encompasses everything,” he said.

Leonard Truck and Trailer sits in a sparsely populated region of northeastern Ohio peppered with trees and the occasional country house. The business shares an exit with a fast food joint, a gas station and a donut shop, with little else interrupting the wooded areas and fields of grass surrounding the trailer-filled parking lot and scattered buildings that make up the venerable company.

A short drive over the Meander Creek Reservoir takes you to Youngstown, the closest city.

The company was founded in 1963 by Stan and Peg Leonard, whose son, Clint, joined the business as a sales representative in 1986. Clint eventually took over, expanding the business and moving it to its current location just off Exit 57 on Interstate 76.

“I was looking to expand it and grow the company,” Clint said. “My parents were at the age where they would like to retire, so it worked well for both of us.”

Today, the company is owned and operated by Clint and his wife, Tiffany. Leonard Truck and Trailer carries the largest in-stock trailer inventory in the nation, with more than 700 new and pre-owned units on site. The dealer also has a 12-bay, 11,000-square-foot service and repair facility.

Why add more to the business over the years?

“It was kind of a natural progression,” Santilli said.

People who buy horses also buy trailers and equipment such as saddles. And if you’re going to sell trailers, why not repair them?

From there, additions like an animal health clinic seemed like a logical step, he added.

A gun store is also not out of place in rural Ohio. The eclectic mix of businesses does not go unnoticed.

“A lot of customers will comment that only in America will you see a gun store in a trailer dealership,” he said.

The Leonard Family of Brands now includes Leonard Truck & Trailer, Basic Animal Health, The Armory Inside LTT and Leonard Cattle Company.

“We have plans to double our current business by 2028. We’ve got a variety of channels, and we’ve added more product lines to our offering of trailers… and we offer multiple tiers of trailers,” Clint Leonard said. “I firmly believe you can only do two things in business: you can go up or down. There’s no status quo, especially in today’s market with all the technology. You can either grow or decline.”

Through it all, the company hasn’t forgotten its roots in the farming and equine community. The family, including Clint and Tiffany’s sons Cash and Cord, competes in National Reining Horse Association events, as well as raising and showing show pigs and cattle.

Leonard Truck and Trailer is a longtime supporter of 4-H, and has been a loyal buyer at the Mahoning County Junior Fair Market Sale. The Future Farmers of America are also among the groups the business sponsors, Santilli added.

“We continue to support youth and keep them involved in agriculture and livestock,” he said.

As for the future, the next generation of Leonards is ready to take the reins when the time comes.

“My son just graduated from high school, and we found something his teacher filled out in first grade,” Clint said. “It asked ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ and he said, ‘I want to sell trailers with my dad.’ He’s been pretty consistent about that over the past 12 years.”

Find more information about the company online at leonardtrailers.com or on Facebook.

The post How an Ohio trailer dealership ended up selling guns, animal supplements and more appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

Episode 61

In episode 61, Liz and Paul break down the headlines from the June 11 edition, including:

• Ohio Envirothon preps students for future science-related careers
• Birds of a feather: The economic value of birds in agriculture is coming back into focus
• Flesh-eating screwworm found in Texas, beyond; USDA launches massive response
• Dragonflies: Unique aerial acrobats

Choose how you listen

The Weekly Rundown is streaming on both YouTube and Spotify, so you can catch the latest stories your way.

• Want the full newsroom vibe? Watch Liz and Paul on YouTube.

• On the move? Just pop in your earbuds and hit play on Spotify.

Want more?

Read the full stories here or swing by your local newsstand to grab a copy of this week’s Farm and Dairy.

Past episodes: If you missed any of our past episodes, find them here.

Love what you’re hearing? Get the full experience delivered to your door each week: subscribe here.

Thanks for listening — we’ll be back next week with more stories from the field!

The post Farm and Dairy Weekly Rundown: Episode 61 (6-11-26) appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

Coia was experiencing health problems and needed to pass his business on to someone else, but none of his children were interested in following in his footsteps. Would Daywalt consider buying the full-service Kubota dealership?

“I bought most of my equipment from them and bought all of my parts and supplies, and did all of my service work there,” he said.

Daywalt is a farmer and a serial entrepreneur, having owned and operated multiple businesses in his lifetime. He largely retired in 2015, dedicating himself to farming full-time.

However, the opportunity to own a business he had patronized for the better part of his adult life proved too enticing to pass on. He compared the dealership’s showroom to a toy store for grown men.

“I love construction, I love farm equipment, I love to farm,” he said. “Of all the different businesses I’ve been in, this is one of the more exciting ones.”

Growing up and out

When Daywalt bought Coia in 2020, it was in Ravenna, but it was located in a residential area, and thus its growth was limited because it was effectively boxed in by the homes in the surrounding neighborhood.

So, in 2021, Daywalt moved it to its current location in Rootstown, which sits a short drive from Ravenna, an exurb of Cleveland and Akron.

The old space was too limiting, Daywalt said.

“They didn’t sell larger equipment,” he said.

The rural setting of Rootstown, on the other hand, provided ample space to store and display the bigger vehicles Daywalt wanted to sell. The new location is 27,000 square feet, plus a secondary 12,000-square-foot storage building.

“Now that we have the new facility, we can sell the larger tractors and hay equipment,” Daywalt said.

Adding on

The Coia family founded the dealership in the 1980s and it became a Kubota dealership in the 1990s. The business also sells vehicles and equipment from other brands such as STIHL and Land Pride. Cities and towns, construction companies and even colleges are among the dealership’s customers, Daywalt said.

Last fall, Coia Sales acquired KTS Equipment in Wellington, Ohio, bringing on a strong base of construction equipment customers and expertise, further expanding Coia Sales’ ability to support contractors and construction projects across northern Ohio.

It also expanded the company’s geographic reach. The Rootstown location continues to serve customers in Portage, Summit and Stark counties, while the Wellington location expands coverage throughout Lorain, Medina, Huron, Ashland, and Erie counties, with additional service reach into surrounding areas.

Final hurrah

When it came time for Daywalt to take the reins, he felt qualified because of his business background and his familiarity with the dealership’s products.

“Having the knowledge and understanding of the equipment is huge in this industry,” he said.

The lifelong entrepreneur has owned everything from a certified public accounting firm to a traffic control company. The tractor dealership seems an appropriate finale to a lifetime spent owning businesses and farming cattle, Daywalt said.

“This is my final hurrah,” he said.

About

Coia Sales Ravenna is located at 4393 Lynn Road, Ravenna, Ohio. Contact them at 330-296-5280.

Coia Sales Wellington is located at 47117 Ohio 18, Wellington, Ohio. Contact them at 440-647-2015. For more information, visit coiasales.com

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The sanctuary’s philosophy is straightforward: care for birds and connect people to them, and both wildlife and communities come out ahead. In their education programs, the star attractions — from tiny screech‑owls and talkative crows to 25‑year‑old bald eagles and peregrine falcons that can dive at 270 miles an hour — help Schwartz and her staff demonstrate that when people learn to share the landscape with birds, they become better stewards of a healthier, more resilient natural world.

On the farm, instead of reaching for rodenticides, install a nesting box and let a barn owl patrol your property. It’ll eat hundreds of rodents a year, protecting grain, feed, crops and your bottom line.

“I think it kind of goes hand in hand. The farmers can benefit the birds… but the birds can definitely benefit the farmers,” she said.

In Ohio and beyond, birds are finally getting their due, recognized as essential contributors to the rural economy, a role scientists started quantifying more than a century ago. In farm country, many species earn their keep by eating insects and pests that damage crops and boosting yields in ways that can substitute for some chemical pest control. Conservation programs that protect grasslands and other habitats help keep those bird populations healthy. 

At the same time, bird‑watching has never been a bigger pastime, with millions of Americans traveling, dining and staying in local lodging to see migrating and nesting birds. Nearly 100 million Americans went birding in 2022, spending about $108 billion on trips and equipment according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s about six times more than the total revenue generated by the NFL in the same year, Chen-Ti Chen, an assistant professor in Ohio State’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, noted during a June 3 webinar.

Taken together, the everyday work of birds, and the efforts to conserve them, adds up to real value for farms and rural communities.

Friend or foe.

For as long as anyone can remember, dogs have held the comfortable title of man’s best friend, but a century ago, federal researchers were making a case for birds, at least as working partners in the farm business. Scientists were trying to tally their value to crops in dollars and cents. 

In 1885, Congress created the Section of Economic Ornithology within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study whether hundreds of common wild bird species helped or hurt crops by dissecting their stomachs and tallying up insects versus grain. To get enough specimens, the agency even ran newspaper ads asking people to keep the legs and breast of any birds they were eating for dinner and mail in the rest. By 1912, they had examined more than 60,000 birds from over 4,400 species, conducting one of the first large-scale assessments of how birds affect agriculture. The verdict was clear: on balance, most of the birds turned out to be allies for farmers, eating more crop-damaging insects than grain. 

But that early work eventually faded with the rise of cheaper synthetic pesticides, as farmers sought better living through chemicals and the birds left their posts.

Today, researchers like Chen are picking up the thread with modern data and methods. In one ongoing study, he said during the webinar, his team pairs commercial plot‑level corn yield trials with billions of bird sightings from the eBird citizen‑science project. 

The result: in fields planted with conventional corn, a 10% increase in insect‑eating birds around a plot is linked to roughly a 7% bump in yield — that’s about 4 to 14 extra bushels per acre, translating to roughly $63 an acre in their sample.

In that light, the long decline of bird numbers becomes more than a sentimental concern; it’s an economic one, too. Since the 1970s, North America has lost almost 3 billion birds, about 30% of its total population, with grassland species in the Midwest and Great Plains hit especially hard. 

Even in fields planted with insect‑resistant corn, birds still matter in the bigger picture as pests evolve resistance and as farmers look for pest control that doesn’t depend only on genetics and chemicals. Chen’s second study examines whether the federal Conservation Reserve Program — which pays farmers to retire sensitive acres from row‑crop production and plant them in perennial grasses or trees — can play a role in that effort. Early results suggest that CRP acres do bring back grassland birds during the breeding season, and smartly targeting where those acres go could more than double the bird gains for the same money.

Good all around.

Back at the bird sanctuary in Mansfield, Schwartz makes her case in plain terms: sharing space with birds can be both good stewardship and good business.

“A barn owl can eat up to six rodents a day, and then if a barn owl has a nest and they have babies, those babies can each eat up to one rodent a day,” she said. “These are mice that are not getting into your grain, they’re not getting into your feed for your animals, they’re not eating through things, making a mess,” she said.

It’s not just them. American kestrels — small falcons — earn their keep on the farm by eating insects. Nesting around barns and farm buildings, they knock back mosquitoes and other small pests that bother livestock and can damage crops, easing at least some of the day‑to‑day bug pressure on farmers.

But it’s a two-way street. The same barn owls and kestrels that patrol for pests also depend on working land. 

“Both of these birds thrive off of grasslands and open prairies,” Schwartz said.

However, Ohio today is mostly a patchwork of cities, forests and farms, with very little native prairie left. In the absence of true grasslands, working farms have become the closest substitute for the habitat these birds need. And when they find it, they thrive. Ohio Division of Wildlife data identify Holmes and Wayne counties, the heart of Ohio’s Amish farm country, as the state’s main barn owl stronghold. There, a mix of pastures, hayfields and old farm buildings, along with a nest‑box program, has helped the owls rebound from the brink while playing a major role in keeping rodent numbers in check.

Matthew Shumar, program coordinator of the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative, looks at the relationship between birds and working lands from, well, a bird’s eye view, mapping what it means for whole regions in terms of counties, states and how to bring more feathered friends to the farm belt.

When asked how much grassland birds help or hurt farm operations, he didn’t offer an easy response.

“It’s a tricky question that doesn’t necessarily have a straight answer,” he said.

As the Midwest has shifted toward more industrialized forms of large‑scale agriculture, Shumar said, birds in those landscapes “are potentially creating some more issues at times,” like blackbirds or blue jays eating grains. But in more natural, mixed landscapes or on smaller farms, he said, there’s much more room for birds to help.

By weaving patches of habitat into fields and leaving some ground specifically for birds, farmers can turn them into allies in pest control so the birds end up competing with the insects that damage crops, not with the crops themselves.

The main driver of grassland bird declines in Ohio, Shumar said, is not complicated: the habitat they depend on is disappearing beneath them. Smaller, mixed farms have largely given way to big, single‑crop operations, with fields often plowed right up to the road and almost no weedy or fallow edges left over for wildlife.

On top of that, he said, the way chemicals are deployed on fields matters. Heavy pesticide use in western Ohio and Indiana has wiped out many native insects, and when the insects go, insect‑eating birds do too, especially species that catch bugs in flight like nightjars — including common nighthawk and eastern whip‑poor‑will — and flycatchers.

Those concerns helped spur a new landowner guide that Shumar co‑authored with state and federal biologists in March, explaining how to manage open lands as grassland bird habitat year‑round. The guide outlines why less than 1% of Ohio’s original grasslands remain, which species are in trouble — from bobolinks and Henslow’s sparrows to northern bobwhite — and how practices like prescribed burning, grazing, mowing and programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program can help working farms double as wildlife habitat.

For Shumar, the stakes are practical as much as they are ecological. Taking birds out of the landscape, he said, leaves farmers facing far worse pest problems, and “it becomes much more difficult to maintain healthy crop production if you don’t have a functioning ecological system there.”

“When you explicitly include them in the plans, they can become part of the solution and not just part of a problem,” he said.

Looking to birds.

In that sense, said Christopher Lituma, an associate professor of wildlife and fisheries resources at West Virginia University, birds are more than a part of the scenery in farm country.

“These birds are a bit of a canary in our global coal mine, right?” he said. “When the bird populations, the insect populations, the other organisms on this planet are not doing well, it should be an enormous bellwether for how we should expect things to be going for us on this planet.”

Lituma has spent much of his career studying how birds and cattle can share the same ground. As a coauthor on several studies from Kentucky and Tennessee, he’s looked at native warm‑season grass fields that are in real production, such as grazed pasture, hay, seed and biofuel, and how grassland birds use them. More recent work has tested grazing systems like rotational and patch‑burn grazing on native grasses across multiple Mid‑South research sites, exploring how pastures can be kept productive for livestock while still functioning as habitat for grassland birds. 

To Lituma, the paradigm shift now facing agriculture is about moving away from the old mindset that humans are supposed to bend nature entirely to their will, and toward working within ecological limits instead, treating birds and habitat as long‑term partners in keeping land productive.

“We are inexorably linked to this planet. We have not colonized space yet, so everything we need has to come from here, where we are,” he said. “And as we begin to continue to change these and the environments around us, we should be looking to birds to say, ‘Okay, we want healthy and the right species of birds around us as indicators that the whole system is working well.’”

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While this may not be a typical classroom, getting outside and exploring is just one benefit of competing in Ohio’s State Envirothon contest, which ran from June 1-3.

“I wouldn’t know half the things I know now if I didn’t do (Envirothon),” said Kylie O’Connor, who is going into her senior year at Lynchburg-Clay High School.

“It pushes you to learn, to study and look up things on your own.”

The annual state competition, held at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, tests students ages 14 to 19 years old on aquatics, wildlife, soil and forestry knowledge, with a specific focus this year on how “non-point source pollution” affects these areas of study.

The competition gets kids outside in a world where they are frequently using technology, even at school, said Katerina Sharp, education and outreach coordinator for Pickaway Soil and Water Conservation District.

“(This) is not education that you can necessarily do in a classroom. This is an experience that they can only get from being out here, from being outside,” Sharp said.

How it begins

Before the state competition, students compete in regional competitions — five area competitions in the state are held throughout April — and the top four teams in each area advance.

Students then spend the next several months prepping with their five-person teams for the state competition, which includes creating a presentation that focuses on the theme “non-point source pollution” and completing four tests during a field day. The winning team advances to the National Conservation Foundation Envirothon that will be held in Mississippi from July 19-25.

This year, the field day took place at Hellbender Preserve, a decade-long project by the Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District that opened in 2025. Jefferson SWCD spent four years carving paths throughout the property, including a mile-long trail that is part of the Great American Rail Trail.

The nature preserve also features Cross Creek Stream, a tunnel and a stone bridge commissioned by Abraham Lincoln that trains used to travel

Cross Creek Stream is home to the largest population of endangered eastern hellbender salamanders, the country’s largest aquatic salamander that’s native to Ohio, according to Aaron Dodds, project manager at Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District.

Since opening, the nature preserve has been a popular recreational activity and event space for Jefferson SWCD, but on June 2, it was a hands-on classroom for students from across Ohio.

Ohio Envirothon

Each team of students trekked through the woods, stopping at four different stations along a gravel path. At the aquatic, forestry, soil and wildlife stations, teams completed a test specific to that topic that later counted as part of their final score for the competition

These stations also integrated this year’s theme with questions specific to the region where the event was held.

At the wildlife station, students had to identify animals in a booklet while determining how steep topography in eastern Ohio increases the impacts of non-point source pollution on wildlife.

Down by the water, students stood on rocks beside the Cross Creek Stream, identifying different qualities of a stream that were marked by a wooden stick, as well as identifying microvertebrates and equipment at the aquatics station.

Meanwhile, other students were back in the woods at the forestry station, where they identified trees by measuring them and looking through a 10-fracture prism, surveying the trees that were 360 degrees around them.

Alyx Flott, forester at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, covering Tuscarawas, Harrison and Jefferson counties, created the state competition forestry test this year.

“I really wanted to have the questions give a good representation of what foresters are doing every day in our jobs,” Flott said.

At the soil station, students got down in the dirt, measuring and handling it to determine the soil type, answering questions like how erodible it is and whether it has high or poor drainage. They also assessed whether this soil would be ideal to plant a specific tree species or to put a logging road in, depending on soil composition.

For months, students have been learning about non-point pollution in their own communities in addition to studying the particular soils, trees, wildlife and aquatic aspects in Jefferson County, said Janelle Mead, CEO of the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

“It gives them a lot of opportunity to talk about what’s going on in their local communities,” said Mead. “The other really cool thing is, if you’re from southern Ohio, you’re kind of forced to learn about eastern Ohio and how very different the environment is, even within our state.”

For students like Gage Thompson, who just graduated from Lynchburg-Clay High School in Highland County, that’s one of the reasons why he enjoys the annual competition.

“(The Ohio Envirothon) gets you in touch with nature, you get to see parts of the world that most kids don’t ever get to see,” he said.

A career pathway

The Ohio Envirothon does more than just teach students about the environment; it also offers students a glimpse into future careers.

Some students already have plans to study science-related subjects in college, including Thompson, who will be studying pre-veterinary medicine and animal sciences at Ohio State University in the fall.

“If you’re in the science, no matter what it is, (the Ohio Envirothon) helps you in all other branches of (that field), even though (we’re studying) environmental science, I’m gonna go pursue animal sciences in college,” said Thompson.

Many former Envirothon attendees have gone to work for ODNR, SWCD and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and even come back to help run the event, including Flott and Sharp.

Flott says coming back as a forester, mentoring students is a “full circle” moment for her.

Sharp, who is now on the Ohio Envirothon committee, recalls one year as a student when it rained nonstop, a year the committee talks about frequently, she said.

“(We) were at Tar Hollow, and it rained so much beforehand, it rained during the event and the soil pit was flooded. They had a picnic table in the soil pit, and that’s how (we) students could judge their soil,” Sharp said, with a laugh.

Like many students and staff alike, Mead says the Envirothon is her favorite event each year because it gives her hope for future generations.

“These kids are super smart, they’re interested in agriculture and the environment, and they come here to be tested in the summer,” said Mead. “It gives you hope that you have some really great kids that are going to take care of the world in the next generation.”

2026 Ohio Envirothon winners

1. Gage Thompson, Kylie O’Connor, Cloe Williamson, Autumn Blankenship and Owen Faust from Lynchburg-Clay High School

2. Will Beisner, Gaby Brown, Kris Eilerman, Grant Heiser and Matthew McCans from Miami Valley Career Technology Center.

3. Micah Anderson, Abby Biggers, Camden Clear, Graham Smith and Jordan Spindler from Watkins Memorial High School.

(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)

The post Ohio Envirothon preps students for future science-related careers appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

WASHINGTON — Maybe it was only a matter of time.

On June 3, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the detection of a New World screwworm (NWS) in a 3‑week‑old calf located in Zavala County, Texas, a rural county in the Lone Star State’s Rio Grande Plain. The flesh‑eating fly larvae were found burrowing into the young animal’s navel.

Then a second case emerged two days later in another calf about 6 miles from the first detection. By June 8, the tally of affected animals had risen to four, including a goat in Gillespie County, Texas, and a dog in Lea County, New Mexico, classified as the first U.S. case there. USDA has launched an epidemiological investigation and is inspecting other animals that share the household with the dog. Officials urge animal owners to check livestock and pets daily for wounds, maggots or lesions and to report any suspicious cases immediately.

A press release after the initial detection said the parasite was forecast to cross into the United States as early as last year, but that aggressive containment, tighter surveillance and new sterile‑fly operations held the line, at least long enough to prepare.

Like something out of Ridley Scott’s Alien universe, the parasitic fly’s life cycle is gruesome: females lay eggs in an animal’s wounds or body openings, and when the larvae hatch, they feed on live tissue. As the maggots burrow deeper into the flesh of warm‑blooded animals, they can wreak havoc, causing severe tissue damage and, without treatment, often prove fatal.

On a press call last week, officials spoke in language that often sounded more like a military operation than a public health update. Still, USDA officials emphasized that the situation, while serious, remains limited. Secretary Brooke Rollins said the agency and Texas officials moved immediately once the suspect case, in the small town of La Pryor, Texas, came in.

“We’ve established a 20-kilometer control area, a zone around the detection and [are] implementing quarantines, movement controls and surveillance in this area,” she said, noting that a “unified incident command team” with the Texas Animal Health Commission was on the ground. Rear Adm. Tim Schmoyer, who leads USDA’s Screwworm Directorate for APHIS, stressed that screwworm cases are manageable when caught early.

“The screwworm can be detected easily, and it can be treated,” he said, noting that the parasite is not a danger to the food supply.

In South Texas, when the first detection was made, Schmoyer said USDA had 26 personnel deployed and could “ramp up very easily and very quickly” if needed, backed by trailers, traps, lab supplies and ground‑release chambers for sterile flies. State officials stressed the importance of keeping the quarantine zone intact.

“It is very important that all animal owners understand the importance of not moving their animals out of this zone at this time,” said Bud Dinges, state veterinarian and executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission. “No movement of warm-blooded species will be allowed out of this zone without an inspection by an animal health official.”

Unleashing the swarm. The New World screwworm was eradicated from the United States in 1966, and if officials have their way, it won’t be back for long. They are turning again to the method that worked once before: mass releases of sterile flies to crash wild populations before they can take hold.

USDA has expedited the targeted release of millions of sterile New World screwworm flies, stepping up both air and ground operations in South Texas. In the immediate La Pryor response zone, about 4 million sterile flies are being dropped by plane, and another roughly 4 million sterile flies are expected to emerge from pupae released on the ground. Those releases add to a separate aerial sterile‑fly program that was already in full swing along the border before this case was detected.

The swift federal and state mobilization followed more than a year of mounting anxiety as NWS crept steadily north through Mexico, breaching what had long been considered a reliable sterile‑fly barrier before closing in on the border.

A case last July in Veracruz, and later a confirmed infection in Sabinas Hidalgo, in the state of Nuevo León — less than 70 miles from Texas and on a major trade route — prompted the USDA to repeatedly halt livestock imports, question the reliability of Mexican surveillance data and label the parasite’s advance a “significant concern” as well as a national security issue.

Growing threat. Officials have been wary of the screwworm threat for some time. On June 1, Texas state lawmaker Don McLaughlin issued a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, claiming the insects were just a mile away.

“For more than a year, I have joined Texas ranchers in sounding the alarm while federal regulators have moved at a snail’s pace,” he wrote. “Today, the threat is no longer hundreds of miles away. It is at our doorstep. Texas cannot afford to wait until the New World Screwworm crosses the border and begins devastating our livestock and wildlife populations.”

But at a news conference the next day, June 2, The Texas Tribune reported that Rollins refuted McLaughlin’s assertion.

“When that false information gets out, it causes significant panic,” she said. “And rightly so, especially if it’s coming from elected officials and the media.”

She acknowledged that a case had been detected just 25 miles from Texas and pledged stepped‑up communication. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, federal officials were already bracing for what was confirmed the next day: the New World screwworm had reached the United States.

“Highly treatable.” For now, officials are urging vigilance, not panic. TAHC and USDA are pressing producers and animal owners to monitor animals closely, keep wounds clean and covered and report anything suspicious.

Because the fly must lay eggs in or near a wound, prevention hinges on basic management. And if NWS is found?

“This is a highly treatable condition,” Dinges said. “If you do get a case, we may have tools in our toolkit to prevent devastating impacts.”

For her part, Rollins said the tools now at the nation’s disposal — from new fly‑production facilities in Texas and Mexico to a standing federal strike team — give the United States a fighting chance.

“If we all work together and follow animal treatment and the movement restriction guidance, there is no reason to believe that this incursion will result in any sort of establishment of the pest,” she said.

The post Flesh-eating screwworm found in Texas, beyond; USDA launches massive response appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

On May 15, Mansfield Speedway, which had lain dormant since 2019, returned to life for the Comeback Classic before a sellout crowd. The original opening night, scheduled for May 2, was postponed due to rain and freezing temperatures, which have been the prevailing theme of racing in Ohio this spring.

Aside from unusually cold and rainy weather on Friday and Saturday nights here in the Buckeye State, this spring has been a hard one for Ohio race fans for other reasons. Historic tracks like Norton, Lorain County and Sandusky all shut down ahead of the 2026 season. So, the return of racing to this classic track was met with hopeful enthusiasm by fans on this crisp May night.

The historic Ohio 3/8-mile dirt race track originally opened in 1959. It was paved in 1999, and the track was a stop on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series tour in the mid-2000s. The track was dogged by financial problems and changes in ownership until it finally shut down in 2019.

In the summer of 2025, former NASCAR racer and entrepreneur Matt Tifft purchased the track and bet big on its revival. Tifft and his crew spent millions of dollars modernizing and extensively renovating the facility with the goal of making it a destination for motorsports, concerts and events. They hope that this diversification will lead to long-term sustainability.

The ticket on opening night featured 410 sprint cars, late models and modifieds. Mansfield native Kyle Moore took a popular win in late models, fighting his way back from a 12th-place start. Cap Henry chased down Danny Sams III to win the 410 sprint car feature. Ryan Markham of Ashland, Ohio, won the modified feature.

The Racing Report is now in video! Find it online at our social media channels, Facebook; Instagram; and YouTube.

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The post The Racing Report: Mansfield Speedway’s comeback appeared first on Farm and Dairy.

Episode 60

In episode 60, Liz and Paul break down the headlines from the May 28 edition, including:

• Ohio, Pa. orchards devastated by spring freeze
• At an Ohio Civil War reenactment, the past is present
• Yost files emergency action against Harrisville over wastewater failures

Choose how you listen

The Weekly Rundown is streaming on both YouTube and Spotify, so you can catch the latest stories your way.

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Thanks for listening — we’ll be back next week with more stories from the field!

The post Farm and Dairy Weekly Rundown: Episode 60 (6-4-26) appeared first on Farm and Dairy.