Day 2 Allee

Day 2. Today we woke up bright and early at 6am to get ready for our very busy day ahead. After eating breakfast at the hotel, we loaded into our assigned vans and headed off to Ashland, Ohio to visit Elson Family Farm. Here we met Jess and David Elson who talked to us all about their corn and soybean crops and the operations behind them. While here, we learned all about the types of tools they use as well as why those tools are so important. Mrs. Elson talked to us about her job with Wellington Implements, and we found out that she works in a predominantly male industry. I found it really cool how she is able to help farmers use and implement the newest technologies there is to offer in Ag. We also got to learn about the seed spreader and how it works. Here in Ohio they have had a very wet spring, which in turn caused a delay in planting the crops. We learned about how they are trying to drain the excess water using drainage tiles. I found this very interesting. After we visited the Elson’s we headed to lunch at the Buffalo Wild Wings in town.

 Then we headed to a family owned bulk store called the Neighborhood Pantry. After visiting the Amish store, we headed off to Loudonville, Ohio to visit Tea Hill Farms. Here we were greeted by Lindsey Hoover and her Uncle Doug. We learned all about how their family Poultry Plant started off as an FFA Project (which I found pretty cool), and all about what products they produce and sell. We then got a tour of their processing plant which was really small compared to other larger scale farms. After our tour we went and walked through one of their pastures in which we were met by a lot of their free range Egg Layers, to the Nursery where all of the baby chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese are housed. This was my favorite part of course. Next, we headed to the large shelters that housed the older birds. Here we learned all about how the wet spring mixed with cold nights has been very harsh on the birds and they have suffered a few losses due to mother nature. After walking back to the processing plant, we took our usual group photo, loaded in our vans and headed to Wooster, Ohio to visit Herdmark Media.

 During our travels to Herdmark Media we saw just how bad the rain really has been here in Ohio. Many fields looked like lakes, and water was up to the roads. We even passed one road that was pretty much completely under water! Shocking, right!

When we arrived at Herdmark Media we learned about what they do and we were even able to watch some of the videos they have produced. I loved learning about how they produce the different types of videos. We got to see some of the equipment they use and learn about how they work. Afterwards we got to eat some delicious ice cream and talk about how they have changed the buildings. Then we loaded back in the vans and headed to an Italian restaurant called Fiore’s to eat dinner and then headed to our hotel. Overall, today was a very interesting day and I really enjoyed all of the places we visited.