Natural Gas and Oil Keep Ohio Farms Running

Farm Flavor. Whether you’re adjusting the thermostat or booting up the computer, most of us never think about the source of the energy that keeps the day humming along.But many Ohio farmers know that, without natural gas and oil, they’d have a hard time producing the goods their customers enjoy every day. After all, they are both used for tractors, fertilizer, trucks to transport products and as an energy source for heating and electric.For years, Dusten Watson, who grows field corn and soybeans with his dad on a 2,000-acre Bellevue farm his grandfather started in 1944, had been thinking of converting to natural gas.With propane, Watson Farms burned up to 3,000 gallons daily to dry the corn and protect it from mold and rot. “If they weren’t there every day filling up, we ran out,” Watson says.With the help of a local utility, in 2016 Watson switched to natural gas. “It’s been a blessing,” he says. “I don’t have to worry about running out. It’s cheaper. We heat all of our shops and houses with it, too. We’ve got all of our generators hooked up to natural gas, so we always have heat in the house. So that’s another great aspect that we like.”Dan Van Ness also followed in his parents’ footsteps, farming his way through college. Today, on Greenleaf Farms in Granville, he raises about 1,500 acres of corn, soybeans and Black Angus cattle.When Van Ness had natural gas piped onto the property in the 1990s, he orchestrated the same thing for his neighbors. Like Watson, he previously relied on propane.“But you always have to worry about, ‘Hey, how full’s my tank?’ With this, you don’t have to worry.”Natural gas runs Van Ness’ grain dryer and heats his workshop in the winter.“Just about anything you can think of – oil and gas is involved in it,” he says. “Just think what our occupation would be like if we didn’t have it. The production of the nitrogen that we use on the corn – that’s derived from natural gas. Just about all manufacturing where our products are made uses natural gas. If we didn’t have it, what would we do?”For more information about the role of natural gas and oil in Ohio’s agricultural industry, visit EssentialOhioEnergy.com.Click here to view the original article.