Did you know that the Fairfield County Extension office is a "branch office" of The Ohio State University?  Ohio State University Extension is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Ohio State University, and Fairfield County Commissioners. Our Fairfield County Office is your front door to The Ohio State University.

We are the world's largest nonformal educational system. Our practical educational programs combine the needs of local citizens and communities, with new research and technical information. 

A few areas of focus are agriculture, 4-H youth development, environment and leadership. These programs are continuously being evaluated and updated to meet the changing needs and issues facing our community. 

Overall, Extension's mission is to help improve and strengthen the lives of Ohioans and we want to start right here in Fairfield County. We have answers for communities and individuals. Our clients are Ohioans - rural, urban, all ages, sizes and races. Our clients are YOU.

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 Fairfield County Commissioners

We gratefully acknowledge the continued help and support of our local county commissioners. Their input and participation into our programming efforts is appreciated.

• Mike Kiger
• Judy Shupe
• Steve Davis

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2011 Program Highlights

We are pleased to share with you some of our 2011 Impact Statements on educational programs and activities conducted by the Fairfield County Extension faculty and staff.

Strengthening Families and Communities

The Fairfield County Family Nutrition Program (FNP) reached 3006 people in program classes. End of program evaluations showed that 97% reported learning new information to guide their food shopping, preparation, and healthy food selection.  In addition, 92% of the participants reported they are planning to make changes related to their food selections, shopping or food safety.   Indirect contacts were also made with 1661 residents through newsletters and fact sheets.

Preparing Youth for Success

The 4-H Community Club program strives to provide youth with positive relationships with caring adults. This year 287 volunteers assisted 1484 youth in developing life skills in communication, interpersonal relations, decision-making, and responsibility.

Teens Offer Service and Take Leadership

Service learning experiences such as the Junior Leadership Club, Camp Counseling, 4-H State Ambassadors, Ohio Teen Council, Project Workshop Instruction, 4-H Fashion & Nutrition Board and community service projects highlight the focus of Fairfield County 4-H teen involvement at the county, state and national levels. These opportunities have allowed members to give back to their community and to recognize the difference they make for others and the world around them. This year, 19 of these teens attended the overnight retreat at the Extension Office before heading to the Teen Conference, where they were joined by 6 additional Fairfield County teens in order to gain leadership and organizational skills and even led three state-wide workshops!  Counselor comments on their accomplishments include, “I accomplished a lot this year. My campers found out how to make bags out of duct tape & how to work as a team. I became a better leader than I was expecting to be.” “(I have) better leadership skills, communication skills, & confidence,” and “My campers listened to me and I became more comfortable speaking in front of people.”

Youth Develop Life Skills at Camp

299 county youth had the opportunity to engage in learning in at least one of four camping programs offered this past year.  Members participating in the program(s) indicated they met new people, learned and practiced new skills, citizenship, outdoor living, responsibility and improved self-esteem.  38 counselors went through camp counselor training and utilized these life skills both at camp and upon camps completion. These individuals developed leadership, social, preparedness, and organizational skills to better provide younger 4-H members with learning experiences.  97.4% of the campers indicated they wanted to return to camp the following year.

 4-H School Enrichment

A total of 1130 youth participated in the school enrichment program. In all, 23 presentations were given to the teachers and students about the school enrichment projects, of which 4 were electronic presentations. Participants were not only educated about the 4-H program, but the development of chicken embryos.

Enhancing Agriculture and the Environment

400 + interested gardeners gained knowledge in lawn care, landscape design, plant selection and maintenance, container plantings and wildlife control and other related gardening topics at the “open to all interested gardeners”  Backyard Gardener Meeting Series organized  by the OSU Extension in  Fairfield County. A highlight of the series was the 3^rd Annual Terrific Tomato Tasting on August 18, 2011 at the Nightcrawler Gardens with over 160 participants. Gardeners “tasted” over 60 plus varieties of heirloom tomatoes.  The official “People’s Choice” winner of the Tomato Tasting Contest was the Amana Orange Tomato with the Garden Peach variety a close second. 

Twenty three individuals were trained as Fairfield County Master Gardeners in early 2011.   The participants of the program as gain knowledge in soils, lawn care, entomology, insect and disease identification, growing vegetables, landscape design basics and  much more.  In addition to the core training, participants were also given basic instruction in designing a power point presentation.  Each participant is required to give a 10 minute presentation at the end of the training on a garden related topic that is of interest to the individual gardener.

While continuing to be one of the most rapidly urbanizing counties in Ohio, Fairfield County farmers will still experience $100 million in agriculture and horticulture sales in 2011. This information and details of how the agriculture sector positvely impacts the local economy was shared with more than 150 Chamber members, local politicians and consumers during the 3rd annual State of Fairfield County's Agriculture Breakfast in September.

The Ohio Beef School was a series of 5 winter evening classes where producers learned advanced techniques in beef cattle reproduction, nutrition, and marketing. In order to multiply the efforts, each of the school sessions was shared electronically with 17 other counties throughout Ohio. In Fairfield County 16 producers viewed and discussed the five presentations each evening.

Electronic newsletters, weekly radio shows, a county web site and weekly newspaper columns were used to educate agricultural producers and homeowners of the latest research based information to assist them in being competitive in farming and caring for their home landscape. Contribution is made to statewide newsletters such as the Ohio Ag Manager and the C.O.R.N. newsletter. In addition, the Fairfield County Office publishes the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter. Over 200,000 electronic newsletters and individual pieces of management information are distributed annually to clientele.

Youth raising and exhibiting market swine, beef and lamb in Fairfield County have the opportunity to participate in “real world” livestock production programs which share with participants the importance of added market value traits and product quality which is satisfying and safe to the consumer. The market Barrow Muscle Quality & Performance (MQP) contest, the Beef Performance and Carcass Quality contest, and the Lamb MQP contest each teach participants and their families the importance of livestock growth, performance and carcass characteristics. Over 90 participants in the barrow and lamb contests and their families were hosted by the Ohio State University Meat Lab for the conclusion of their programs as they were able to visually appraise their animals’ carcasses in the meat cooler under the guidance of swine specialist Dr. Steve Moeller and meats specialist Dr. Henry Zerby. In addition, all the pork from the contest came back home to Fairfield County as freezer pork, and the lamb was merchandized in the meat cases of local Kroger stores.

Sixty-eight Fairfield County private pesticide applicators were certified to apply pesticides in a manner as safe as possible to the applicator, the environment, and the consumer.

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If you have questions or would like more information on these or any of our educational programs, please contact the Extension office or e-mail us at: fair@osu.edu