ADA, Ohio – At this year’s Ohio Tillage and Technology Conference, two Ohio farmers were commended for their exceptional farm management, innovation, conservation and leadership. The honorees demonstrated how to farm more effectively, efficiently, environmentally and economically.

This year’s winners were Myron Wehr, of New Waterford, and Dan Corcoran, of Piketon.

The award acknowledges a lifetime of achievement and not a single year. Ohio Master Farmers are nominated by their peers and chosen by a committee of agriculture industry leaders.

Wehr has farmed Columbiana and Mahoning counties in eastern Ohio for 60 years, tending to corn, wheat, oats and hay during those decades. But long before that, he performed custom combining for farmers in five counties in two states.

After graduating from Ohio State University, Wehr’s father asked if he would join him in raising 25 Guernseys on the farm. Knowing that wouldn’t support two families, Wehr took to farming the rolling hills and slopes instead, starting with corn.

“I had one field that was so steep that in order to plant I had to go around where it wasn’t so steep and come back down the hill with the brakes on,” he recalled. “I had to do the same with the combine. It was a challenge. We had some excellent crops in this area. Things are different when I started 60 years ago.”

Throughout his farming career, it’s been Wehr’s mission to prevent soil erosion and protect water, while improving soil composition and organic matter through a variety of conservation practices. He had a good working relationship with Extension and university researchers, collaborating on research projects, hosting demonstrations, and sharing knowledge to advance agricultural practices on his farm and others.

In 2016, Wehr utilized the Farm Business Analysis program, a tool that analyzes a farm’s financial records, field data, inputs and returns, all while creating individualized reports for the farmer who benchmark their operation against similar enterprises across the state.

“Myron is dedicated to utilizing and adapting to new crop technologies,” said Haley Shoemaker, OSU Extension agriculture and natural resources educator in Columbiana County. “He is an asset to the no-till community, and to those who’ve been able to learn from his practices and trials. He spent decades caring for the health of the ground and mindfully selecting practices that promoted conservation that will benefit others for many years.”

During his last year of farming his land produced 225 bushels per acre of corn.

“When you produce that many bushels per acre of corn and we pay $50 per acre rent and others are paying $200 per acre that’s a perfect picture one needs to look at,” he said. “I also could plant an acre of corn with two quarts of fuel through the tractor, and that’s getting pretty economical. Also, I tell people if you take care of the land and give the crop what it needs, when it needs it, it’ll take care of you.”

At age 82, after battling Parkinson’s disease for 20 years, Wehr quit farming in 2022 and sold his equipment a year later, but he’s still involved in the industry.

“I still want to learn what’s going on in agriculture,” he said. “Just because I’m retired doesn’t mean I’m walking away from it and slamming the door. I still find plenty of things to do in the office and working with others.”

Dan Corcoran has been farming for 35 years. He grew up in Ross County with 12 siblings. He dreamed of being a firefighter but eventually became an agronomy specialist for CountryMark Co-Op in western Ohio before putting all his effort into farming.

A week after marrying his wife, Donna, the opportunity arose for him to farm. Today, this fourth-generation farmer from Piketon, Ohio, farms with his brothers Tim and Dennis, and his nephew Greg. They produce corn, soybeans, popcorn, wheat and cattle.

They all have specialty areas of responsibility. Dan is the agronomist, Dennis handles marketing, Tim manages landlords and insurance, and Greg is the cattle man.

“Together we’re all planters and harvesters,” Dan said. “We meet each Monday to go over our priorities. We all talk on the phone every Monday and go over our weekly plans.”

The Corcorans were farming about 2,500 acres with a handful of landlords, but with a lot of farmers in the area retiring they have doubled the acreage and now have 22 landlords.

“We want to treat everybody’s farm as if it were our own,” Dan said, “so we take care of it with the best of our abilities, using the best management practices and finding new ways to be more efficient. Relationships are the key to our operation’s success.”

Always conservation-minded, Dan incorporated cover crops.

“We wanted to keep our soil and to see if we could build organic matter and water-holding capacity,” he said. “That was our mission when we started. We’ve gained organic matter. What it does to our soil is make a fantastic seedbed, and the soil feels like it has life.

“I tell people our biggest challenge is farming on a lot of sandy ground and drought is our worst enemy. We started cover crops 10 years ago because I wanted to see the soil stay around and I wanted to see organic matter. That was our mission. This has made for a great seed bed and given our soil new life. We’ve gone through growing pains just like any grower would.”

The operation has embraced technology, using autosteer, variable-rate application and a pulse boom on the spray to prevent overlap.

“We stay on top of technology to increase our efficiency all the way around,” Dan said.

“Dan works closely with OSU Extension, conducting research to improve efficiency and profitability,” said Chris Bruynis, an OSU Extension educator who nominated Dan for the Ohio Master Farmer award. “Projects related to crop protection products, cover crops and irrigation water management are a few examples of his involvement.

“He is also willing to educate others about the practices they are adopting, explaining the rationale behind them, as well as the practical lessons learned so others can duplicate and avoid some of the pitfalls. Because of his willingness to cooperate and share, Dan is highly respected among his peers in the region.”

Dan said, “You make your community what you put into it, whether it’s through agriculture or your church, or through the people you meet. I’m fortunate to do what I do and hopefully some of that will rub off on my children or grandchildren.”