Ohio Field Leader Podcast

On this episode of the podcast the Field Leader Roadshow traveled to Allen County and the farm of Matt Burkholder. Dusty visits with Matt about the 2026 growing season and his journey in soil health and cover crops. They also talk about The Nature Conservancy's Farmer Advocates for Conservation program and the new OHFarm program.

In 2019, the H2Ohio program was announced as an effort to address concerns of water quality issues and tackle the algal bloom issues that were impacting the state. Dr. Chris Winslow is Director of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program and The Ohio State University's Stone Laboratory.  Dr. Winslow has been involved in water quality research and monitoring the situation since the beginning of the H2Ohio program and joins Dusty to look back at the work that has been done and progress that has been made, as well as future initiatives to further accomplish the goals of H2Ohio.

On this episode of the Field Leader podcast, Dusty is joined by Dwayne Wilson, Grain Merchandising Specialist at White Commercial Corporation. Dusty and Dwayne discuss the current grain markets and some of the changes that have impacted grain marketing over time. Dwayne explains the role that basis plays in marketing decisions. They also discuss using on-farm storage as a marketing tool and some of the current Geo-political events that are factoring into the current demand. To conclude, they look at the opportunities the new soybean crush capacity coming to Ohio will bring and the impact it may have on local basis for soybeans. It is always important to remember that "There is a risk of loss in futures and options trading. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results."

On this episode, Dusty is joined by Brandon Kern, Deputy Executive Director and Senior Policy Director of the Ohio Soybean Association and Ohio Soybean Council as well as Julia Brown, Communications and Education Director and Mackenzie Joseph, Communications Manager for the Ohio Soybean Council. The Ohio Soybean Hometown Tour made three stops in August with an action-packed agenda. The team will review how each of those stops went and what some of the takeaway's were. They will also look ahead to the upcoming Farm Science Review, and give us a preview of things to look forward to September 22-24 at the Ohio Soybean Building.

The 2026 Ohio Crop Tour, Sponsored by Field Leader, a project of the Ohio Soybean Checkoff, was a four-day crop tour that covered roughly 37 counties across the Buckeye state. Tour participants scouted a corn and soybean field in each county and reported on the crop conditions, any weed, disease or insect pressure, and a yield estimate. This episode of the Field Leader Podcast is a combination of those reports from the field scouts and their commentary. In summary, the Corn yield estimates averaged 201.4 bushels per acre on the North Leg and 214.7 bushels per acre on the South Leg. Soybean estimates averaged 55.6 bushels per acre in the north and 57.7 bushels per acre in the south.