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Dean and Motter named Ohio Master Farmers

Two Northwest Ohio farmers are being honored as 2019 Master Farmers for their commitment to stewardship and the ag community. 

First generation farmer Allen Dean extensively uses cover crops in Bryan to grow soybeans and wheat.  He tells in the mid ’80 he started using no-till but didn’t want the neighbors to know. “Our first field that we did was a field of corn and we did it back behind the woods where nobody could see it because it was not the way to farm.  And that first year, right from the get go the corn was very successful”  

John Motter grows corn and soybeans in Jenera.  In the late ‘70s, his father was killed in a farming accident and Motter, at just 25-years old, became responsible for the third generation of his family to farm. “Dad always taught me to leave the ground better than we found it and be a steward to the land we’re farming.  I get up every morning thinking about those two things.”      

The Ohio Master Farmer awards are given during the Ohio Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference in Ada.  Awards are sponsored by Brownfield Ag News and the Ohio Farmer Magazine.