COSHOCTON, Ohio – Paddy Fork Acres, a farm that has been in the family since 1817, received the 2002 Outstanding Conservation Farm award at the 61st annual Coshocton Soil and Water District meeting and banquet Oct. 16 at the Coshocton Career Center.
Owners. Owners of Paddy Fork Acres are Joe and Gertrude Chaney, in partnership with their daughter and son-in-law, JoAnn, and Jere Butcher. They raise Angus/Simmental crossbred cattle on the 320-acre Washington Township farm. Their main crops are corn and hay.
Paddy Fork Acres became cooperators with the Coshocton SWCD in 1986. It is known for its forest land, and in 2002, a silver maple on the farm, one of largest in the state of Ohio, won the Big Tree contest.
The family received a plaque and a SWCD outstanding cooperator sign to be displayed on the farm.
Conservation measures. Conservation practices on the farm, installed with the assistance of the Coshocton SWCD and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, include 880 feet of fencing and three spring developments, along with pipeline and troughs.
In addition, they installed a 5,000 square foot limestone heavy use area protection feeding pad and an 18,000 square foot heavy use protection feeding pad using FGD material from the power plant.
Other conservation practices on the farm are hay land and pasture land management, and the installation of 1,156 feet of tile drainage and a low flow inlet.
Big tree contest. Gerald Finlay, SWCD supervisor, presented the fifth annual Big Tree award for this year’s winning entry, a Swamp White Oak measuring 205 inches in circumference with vertical height of 108 feet and an average crown spread of 107 feet.
It is located on the Ronnie Rodehaver property, located behind Walhonding Valley and Sand Gravel Pit off state Route 206.
Hay show winners. Adrian Garber, SWCD supervisor, presented each of the Junior Fair hay show winners with a rosette and a $10 check. Winners were Brent Wright, light mixed hay and mixed hay; Wade Wright, grass hay; Brittany Wright, clover hay; and Jesse Hoobler, alfalfa hay.
Charles and Kelly Beatty were the winners of the mystery photo contest, which was part of the SWCD display at the Coshocton County Fair. They identified the farm as that of David Bower, located in Washington Township near Cooperdale.
Stewardship winners. John Kehn presented woodland stewardship awards to two Coshocton County landowners, Dee Widder and Paul Landshultz.
Widder’s family has owned property in Coshocton County for many years. After she purchased the property from her family several years ago, she has worked to establish tree plantations in several areas of the farm.
A portion of the land was mined and reclaimed to grassland. Widder had white pine planted on more than 20 acres of land and then continually fought the local deer population for control of the seedlings.
Landshultz has spent much of his free time over the past several years planting and cultivating a 37-acre black walnut plantation near Canal Lewisville.
Carry Derr was re-elected to another three-year term on the Coshocton SWCD board beginning Jan. 1.
Keynote speaker. Guest speaker Edgar Yoder, professor of Agricultural and Extension Education at Penn State University, showed slides and told of his experiences in working with Third World countries in an attempt to help the agricultural communities with production and marketing of their crops and overcoming the challenge of change.
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