BY GAIL C. KECK
WHEN
Ohio Conservation Farm
Family Award recipients Ed and
Karen Bay think about all the
people who’ve contributed to the success
of their farm and conservation practices,
they keep adding to the list: parents and
grandparents; Ed’s high school ag teacher,
Bob Lyons; OSU Extension employees
like Merlin Wentworth and Cliff Little;
Guernsey Soil and Water Conservation
District staff members like David Sayre
and Jason Tyrell; good neighbors who are
always ready to lend a hand; longtime employee
Jerry Thompson; and many more.
“We’re getting the award, but it’s a
whole group of people who contributed
to it,” Ed says. Karen adds, “It takes a community
to build a farm.”
The Bays’ 470-acre farm in Guernsey
County includes a dairy herd of 40 registered
Jerseys and a beef cow-calf herd with
50 Angus-cross cows. They raise corn and
alfalfa hay, and manage 200 acres of pasture.
“We try to raise all the feed we need
to support everything, and most years
we’re successful at that,” says Ed.
Farming Guernsey County’s rolling
ground presents some conservation
challenges, including poor drainage
and surface runoff, lack of water access
for livestock, wildlife damage, and steep
hills. Conservation farming practices are
needed for the environment and the farm’s
long-term profi tability, says Ed. “I heard my
dad say many times, ‘They’re not making
any more ground, and if you take care of
your ground, it will take care of you.’ ”
To improve their farm, the Bays installed
subsurface tiling and built grass waterways
to divert surface runoff away from sensitive
areas. “They keep the water away from
where you don’t want it,” Ed says.
Keeping soil in place
The Bays installed spring developments
to offer livestock watering facilities in
their pastures. In spots where soil is at
risk of slipping down steep hillsides, pin
trees were planted to hold the soil. They
use fencing to exclude cattle from vulnerable
woodlots and use a rotational grazing
system to better manage pastures. On crop
ground, they raise corn for silage, grain and
hay. Their common rotation includes one
year of corn followed by fi ve or six years in
alfalfa and grass hay production.
The Bays are leaders in the area in the
use of no-till and cover crops. “There’s
very little over winter that doesn’t have
cover on it,” Ed notes. For the last three
years, they’ve participated in a cover crop
cost-share program through the local Soil
and Water Conservation District.
Although they have used aerial seeding
for cover crops, Ed prefers using a drill or
seeder. While aerial seeding is convenient
and quick, he says, “the only problem is,
it didn’t work.” Because of dry conditions,
Ed did not get the stand he wanted. If he is
harvesting corn for grain, he often plants
cereal rye as a cover because it performs
well, even when planted later in the fall. On
ground that has been harvested earlier for
corn silage, he’s had success with other
cover crops such as turnips.
To manage cattle manure, soil tests
determine where it should be applied.
They have about six months of storage
for manure from their milk parlor and
freestall barn. “We try to manage our
storage empty rather than full,” Ed notes.
“Its really nice, so that if the ground is too
wet or frozen, you can stay off of it.”
Damage from wildlife is a concern for
the Bay family. This year they lost a calf
to coyotes and have experienced crop
damage from deer, turkeys, raccoons and
crows. “They’ll go right down the row and
pull them out,” Ed says of the crows.
Using nonlethal methods like propane
cannons, and trash bags tied to resemble
dead crows, “we try old home remedies and
modern technology,” Karen says.
Besides farming, the Bays run an ag
fertilizer business. Through the business,
Ed works with other area farmers on managing
soil fertility while protecting water.
Karen spent 38 years working off the farm
Conservation teamwork
as a teacher before retiring a few years
ago. Both are emergency medical technicians.
The Bays are building on a family history
of farming in Guernsey County. Ed’s
ancestors started farming there in 1832,
and their daughters are the seventh generation.
Their girls have been involved
with the farm from a young age. “Ed took
them to the barn before they could walk in
a little red wagon,” Karen recalls. “They sat
there in the wagon and watched him work.”
As their daughters grew up, Ed involved
them with the farm work and
taught them how to do every farm task. If
for some reason he couldn’t run the farm,
his daughters could step in. “I’d like to
think they would miss me, but they could
go out to the barn and do it all.”
Farm life includes successes and failures,
Karen says. “The girls have learned
how to handle both. As a mother looking
on, our children have really benefi ted from
living on the farm in many, many ways.”
Oldest daughter Allison is a graduate
of Baldwin Wallace University and served
for two years with the Peace Corps in the
Philippines. She is working on a master’s
in public health at Emory University in
Atlanta. Their middle child, Emily, a
Muskingum University graduate, is in her
third year of medical school. She hopes
to return to the area to practice medicine,
while raising cattle on the side. Their
youngest daughter, Alex Scott, is a sophomore
at Meadowbrook High School and is
active in the FFA.
Above are Edward and Karen Bay with Guernsey SWCD staff Casey Brooks, Jason Tyrell, and Levi Arnold along with former Guernsey SWCD Technician Dave Sayre.
