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Ag Experts speak at Farm Focus
Coming Wednesday, July 29th @ 8:00 a.m.

Ohio State University, NCRS and ODNR specialists will be on hand at Farm Focus on July 29 to moderate demonstrations, conduct workshops and update area and regional farmers on industry trends. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. at the Marsh Foundation Farm located on Lincoln Highway in Van Wert, Ohio.

Shuttles will leave the registration area at 8:30 to take groups to the various demonstration plots and workshop sessions. Registrants will be divided into four groups with each group rotating between four different sessions. The sessions include field demonstrations of new equipment by Archbold Equipment Company, Heritage Farm Equipment and Kenn-Feld.  A session for liquid manure application moderated by Jon Rausch of OSU with demonstrations by Bambauer Equipment, Barnyard Supply and Putnam county farmers Jerry & Dennis Niese. The third session is a workshop conducted by soils specialists, Don Burgess, Frank Gibbs & Don McClure of NRCS, Matt Deaton of ODNR and Randall Reeder of OSU on soil structure and compaction using soil pits located in subsurface irrigation fields at the site. The fourth session is a discussion by OSU ag economist, Barry Ward about pricing crop inputs and grain in today’s volatile market environment.

A free lunch is provided by our financial sponsors, Ag Credit, Archbold Equipment Co., Bambauer Equipment, Barnyard Supply, First Bank of Berne, Heritage Farm Equipment Store, Ken-Feld Group, Qualisoy, Van Wert County Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank and Williamson Insurance Agency. 

After lunch participants will have the opportunity to visit with demonstrators, sponsors and tour the research plots at the Farm Focus site. 4.0 hours of Certified Crop Advisor CEU’s are available by attending the full field day. The rain date (if needed) is Thursday, July 31.  

For more information contact Gary Prill, Program Manager, Farm Focus at OSU Extension-Van Wert county, 419.238.1214 or visit the website: http://farmfocus.osu.edu. The Farm Focus Field Day is sponsored by OARDC, OSU Extension and Farm Focus, Inc.

Farm Focus hosts 2008 Field Day July 29

From: Farm Focus Committee, Van Wert, Ohio
 

 A variety of speakers will address issues on the minds of local and regional farmers at the Farm Focus Field Day. Local agri-businesses and equipment dealers will be on hand with demonstrations of their newest products and equipment pertaining to today’s farming needs. The Farm Focus committee invites all area farmers and agri-businessmen to attend the field day which will also include a complimentary lunch provided by the sponsors. 

“The growth of the livestock industry in Northwestern Ohio and the drastic increase in commercial fertilizer prices has created a great deal of interest in manure and how it can be applied to crops to reduce overall fertilizer costs,” said Gary Prill, program manager of Farm Focus. “The committee believed that it was a topic of interest for our area as well as workshops on soil structure and compaction of soils. Another hot topic they thought should be addressed was the pricing of crop inputs and grain in today’s volatile market environment, so that’s what we will be addressing on the 29^th,” Prill stated.

 On hand will be Natural Resource Conservation Service soil specialists Frank Gibbs, Don McClure and Don Burgess discussing soil structure and compaction along with Matt Deaton of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Randall Reeder, agricultural engineer for OARDC and OSU Extension.

 Barry Ward, Ohio State agricultural economist will hold discussions on the grain and crop input pricing in today’s volatile market environment.

 Two separate field demonstration sessions will be held with one on liquid manure applications and one on new equipment technology. 

The field day will be held at the Marsh Foundation Farm on Old Lincoln Highway in Van Wert. Registration will begin at 8 a.m. The last shuttle will leave by 8:30 for the field demonstrations and sessions. Those attending will be split into four groups to allow for better interaction with demonstrators and presenters. Participants will have the opportunity to attend all four sessions. The sessions will be run concurrently with groups rotating to each session during the morning. A free lunch will be provided courtesy of the Field Day sponsors. After lunch, participants are invited to visit with the various speakers and demonstrators on a more one to one basis as well as take the opportunity to take a wagon tour of the Farm Focus research plots. A self-guided tour of the plots is also available.  

This field day offers 4.0 hours of Certified Crop Advisor CEU’s, 1.0 hour in Nutrient Management, 1.0 hour in Soil & Water, 1.0 hour in Crop Management and 1.0 hour in Professional Development for those that attend the full four sessions. 

The Farm Focus Field day is sponsored by the Farm Focus committee, OARDC and OSU Extension. Financial sponsors for the show and the complimentary lunch are Ag Credit, Archbold Equipment Co., Bambauer Equipment, Barnyard Supply, First Bank of Berne, Heritage Farm Equipment Store, Kenn-Feld Group, Qualisoy, Van Wert County Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank and Williamson Insurance Agency. 

For more information, contact Gary Prill, Farm Focus/OSU Extension-Van Wert County at 419.238.1214 or visit the website: http://farmfocus.osu.edu/

Mercer Landmark Soybean Extrusion Plant Opens in Rockford
Open House Held

The long-awaited soybean extrusion plant in Rockford is open and ready for production, according to Scott Boulis, Mercer Landmark manager in Rockford. A well-attended open house on Saturday, September 15 provided the community an opportunity to see the new facility and hear all about Rockford’s newest business venture.

Running from 10 am to 2 pm, the tours were conducted by the employees of the Mercer Landmark plant in Rockford, with Scott Boulis doing 20 minute talks with question and answer times provided.

Scott explained that the Mercer Landmark Soybean Extrusion Plant is a dry extrusion, mechanical oil extraction plant, one of the simplest types to operate and maintain.  Once the plant is in full operation, it will run 5 days per week, 16 hours per day with 293 bushels run through the machine per hour for a total of 1, 218,800 bushels a year.   In terms of pounds, that equates to 17,580 beans per hour for a total of 73,132,800 lbs. per year.

Scott also mentioned that the plant will make 14,575 lbs of expressed soybean meal per hour equaling  30,316 ton per year as well as 9,343,000 lbs of oil per year (1,204,000 gallons).  Scott mentioned that Cargill and Bunge, by comparison, deal in volumes much larger than Rockford. But Mercer Landmark's advantage will be in the ability to switch back and forth from pressing low lin beans to conventional beans as requested.

The horsepower connected to operate the new plant will be 1,483 generated by electricity and propane from Landmark. 

The InstaPro Company out of DesMoines Iowa made this extruder/press, and Scott says that Landmark’s is the largest around and there are no others like it in the state of Ohio. He personally visited ½ dozen of these operations around Indiana, Arkansas and Iowa. Most are small farm operations.

A green hammermill will pulverize the beans before they are loaded into the extruder. The heat generated will be 315 degrees as they are pushed through a hole the size of a pencil.  An explosive-type reaction takes place as the meal is pressed.  There are stainless steel components here.

The temperature of the meal paste must then be reduced to 240 degrees to put it into the next press which Scott explained is like a cider press.  The oil comes out of a slotted area and runs down a chute to be loaded into waiting tankers.

As the temperature reduces, a mild-grade steel auger is then used to create a meal cake @170 degrees of the remaining meal. There is a lump-breaker in this process, too, as fans pulling outside air will be used to cool the meal. There are 10 lbs of oil in a bushel of beans. Seven pounds of oil will be removed, so a meal cake will have 3 lbs. of oil till left in it.

The high protein meal produced is ready to have other nutrients added to it and much of their meal will go into dairy feed. It will be sold locally at Landmark’s Celina, New Weston, Chickasaw and St. Henry branches and direct shipped to the farms.

Special beans called Vistive will be used most of the time. However, Scott mentioned that the beauty of the equipment they bought will allow them to switch to other beans as well. They have a low-lin bean which will be pressed for a health food company in North Carolina once a week.  He pointed out that no chemicals are added, and the first pressing is likened to the first pressing of olive oil.  The beans are sorted from low to high lin and stored in grain bins.  The North Carolina products should soon be available on the market, and Landmark will likely sell those products locally in the future.

The oil will travel to refineries to be further prepared for the consumer. The gums are removed and so is the color.  Scott said that they built the plant with extra square footage so that a refinery could be added at some point if they want to do so. Otherwise, it will serve as warehouse space. There are no local oil sales at this time. Tankers will ship out-of-state mostly.

They new facility will employ 3 people on the day shift. Two will be in the plant and the 3^rd will be cleaning and loading beans. It is a highly-automated process with all controls being right in the equipment itself. All machines face each other to keep better track of temperature and pressures. There are no central controls, and it takes fewer people to run theeverything. 

Scott was asked about noise and smell associated with the plant. The large structure is well-insulated and will absorb the sound, although employees will be required to where protective earplugs. Heat will be generated during this process, too.  The smell is cooked out of the product with virtually no smell after the cool-down. Keeping the area clean will be a priority, too. Said, Scott, “ We want to be a good neighbor.”

The dollar  investment for Landmark was 3 million on this project with grant monies coming from local and federal government sources as well as a loan from the revolving Mercer County Loan Fund. Besides InstaPro, Mercer County Electric from Ft. Recovery and Kraner Construction from Ohio City were the building contractors.

The pictures below show expressed soy meal mechanically extruded and pressed and a decanter of commodity soybean oil. It is not refined and has an orange cast to it.

Over 300 people attend the open house where refreshments were served.  At left are the Landmark team in Rockford - Scott Bowen, Alice Provci, Dennis Schwieterman, Denise Myers, Scott Boulis, Robert Dailey and Wayne Bollenbacher.

Runs on Mercer Landmark Propane	Questions and Answers	Employees gave tours	Extruding Process	Air cooling
Behind the scenes	Tours
	Refreshments in the warehouse	Soybean storage	Extruded soymeal and un-refined soybean oil	While in progress in Winter 2007 . . . .

The family including, sons and daughter, Dustin, Danny, and  Dee-Dee, have raised Suffolk sheep (white bodies; black heads) for over 25 years. The breed is beautiful, and the family has 115 baby lambs (250 total head of sheep) at present count. Suffolks are a breed native to the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge and Essex in southeastern England. The Suffolk breed was formed when Southdowns were crossed with Norfolk. A heartier, meatier breed was created. Flocks produce a high percentage of twins.

Born all with all black wool, at eight days old, each bleating 15-22 lb. bundle begins to turn white except for their legs and faces which remain black as adults.  Knapke's prize-winning sheep are a meat breed (mutton) and prized for their wool. Shearing comes once a year in December. Steve and Deb Knapke are 4-H advisors for the Shepherd's Choice 4-H Club in Mercer County. Their children prepare the yearlings to be shown at county and state fairs and contests, where they regularly win ribbons.

Steve explained that they cannot keep all of the new lambs. They keep the bloodline true through the males. They are always building a group that is uniform.  When they reach market weight of 120-140 lbs, they are sold. The Knapkes keep the best ewes, sell some of their stock to 4-H families for projects or to raise, and they sell the others at market. Some sheep have been sold and shipped overseas to Israel where breeders in that country are trying to create a heartier variety. Steve explained that there is a quarantine of 30 days on the 5-6 month old sheep going out of the country. They ship via airplane to John F. Kennedy Airport and live at the stockyard there for the duration of the 30 days.

Lambs are sometimes bottle fed and later eat pellets. The adult sheep eat corn. The Knapke's grow and bale their own hay, but buy corn and straw.

The Mercer Landmark‘s Vistive Soybean Extrusion plant is in the process of being built by Kraner Excavating of Ohio City. According to Alice Provci at Mercer Landmark, “the steel is at the lot, the footers have been dug, and the goal is to have the foundation poured this week. For December, we have had unseasonably warm weather which allows for outdoor projects to get done." There is no anticipated date of completion of the plant. 

The plant will create 10 new jobs and use Vistive soybeans, a Monsanto trademark, grown locally.

Public Hearing by Mercer County Commissioners Slated for Soybean Extrusion Plant in Rockford

In Honor of Our Great Farming Community:

Ethanol Plant Proposed for Celina

Mercer Energy Company, owned by a group of Mercer County farmers including president Jim VanTilburg, Ryan Schwieterman, Luke VanTilburg, Aaron Miesse, Kyle Van Tilburg and Paul Broering, are currently in the process of planning an ethanol plant to possibly be located at the intersection of Harris Road and St. Rt. 29, midway between Celina and St. Marys.  The plant would produce ethanol (corn alcohol) as a fuel-blend for gasoline as well as livestock feed as the by-product. To learn more about ethanol and the State of Ohio, click here to visit the Ohio Department of Agriculture ~ then click on Ethanol and Biofuels in Ohio. Click here to visit the National Corn Growers Association for more information from the farming standpoint.

Mercer Landmark Fertilizer Building in Rockford Coming Down
Recent Silo Razing is Making Way for Grain Extrusion Plant
A New Business for Rockford!