COLUMBUS, Ohio — Water quality, taxes and the importance of agriculture at The Ohio State University were some of the actionable topics for at the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s (OFBF) 96th annual meeting this month. They also set policy on combating rural drugs, and dealing with Ohio’s energy issues.

“Farm Bureau has a good working relationship with all of our state, national and local leaders,” said Rita Beiser, Butler County Farm Bureau president and a delegate. “The policy we develop in our county, we vote on that at the annual meeting. There is always good discussion on important topics.

“It unifies farmers, makes us one, so people can hear us and we can be an effective voice for the ag community.”

The delegates were unified on water quality, said Adam Sharp, OFBF vice president of public policy. They strongly affirmed that they expect every farmer in the state to have a nutrient management plan and to follow it.

They also think every farmer, no matter their size or type of operation, should complete the state’s applicator certification.

Taxes were the second of three big issues, Sharp said. There was discussion about tax policy as a whole but in particular, the current agricultural use value (CAUV). The delegates stated their support for the CAUV program and set new policy saying Farm Bureau should continue to look at ways to make adjustments in the program’s formula that will reduce some of the volatility and also to modernize the formula.

“In that regard, OFBF sent to the tax department several weeks ago a slate of recommendations for them to look at that could be made administratively to make some both new adjustments and additional information that could be used in their formula,” Sharp said. “They’re considering that. They sent it out to the CAUV state advisory committee and asked them to review it.”

At OSU, with Bruce McPheron, who has been dean of the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) for two years, and the new president, Michael Drake, the university is going through a revision and planning process of what the future vision of CFAES will be. The delegates affirmed what Farm Bureau wants from OSU.

“We want to make sure that CFAES has modernized facilities,” Sharp said. “They’re trying to plan and plot out what the new facilities will look like, where they’ll be, how they’ll be used and so on. We’re saying we strongly support a new facilities plan.”

The OFBF also believes agriculture should be connected to the rest of the university, Sharp said. The university has identified three major discovery themes that is kind of a mission of the institution; OFBF thinks agriculture should be part of all three of those.

“Also, we want to see a strong, vibrant extension service,” Sharp said.

President Steve Hirsch, First Vice President Frank Burkett III and Treasurer Bill Patterson were reelected to one-year terms. The delegates also implemented a new membership model which the counties will implement in their bylaws, and it will go into effect Dec. 1, 2015, Hirsch said.

“I thought we had a good annual meeting,” he added. “We had an opportunity to recognize a lot of great country programming throughout the year, talked about our successes for 2014 and then set the direction for 2015. The delegates did great work in studying the issues.”