Informative and Entertaining Speakers
Posted by Michael Blackwell
on Oct 08, 2014
What do a diary farm in Butler, Franklin County Children's Services, and OSU Buckeyes Football all have in common? Dublin A.M. Rotary, of course, and thanks to our Speakers Commitee for getting engaging presentations to get us up on a Friday morning.
Ken Ruprecht from Ruprecht Dairy Farm visited to tell us about changes in farming practices that have increased production and efficiency while making dairy more environmentally friendly than it has recently been.The farm has 130 diary cows and 135 younger stock, producing 1,200 gallons of milk per say (up 45% per cow since 1978).Water usage is 65% less per gallon of milk, while land usage is down 90% and the carbon footprint down 64% per cow. At the same time, the cows are treated as well as ever, and, in fact, are housed more comfortably and are even more content, for contented cows produce more and better quality milk. Synthetic hormones are not use and are not present in the milk. Ken's presentation was very informative for an audience that is, for the most part, at some remove from the actual production of food and without a lot of knowledge of current farming practices. In this video, Ken talks about sustainability: how it can be defined and what it means in diary farming.Deborah Armstrong joined us for a presentation of Franklin County Children's Services mission ("Franklin County Children Services is Protecting Children by Strengthening Families. Through collaboration with families and their communities, we advocate for the safety, permanency and well-being of each child we serve in a manner that honors family and culture.") and an update on how they are serving children and our county and on how we might volunteer to help in Friendship (sharing time and activities), in the Crisis Center, or in providing support and assistance to college-bound youths. Deborah's passion for helping children was inspiring. In this video, tells us about an important change made a Children's Services, from Foster Families to Kinship Caregivers.
We also received a visit from former OSU (but once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye) stalwarts Craig Krenzel and Ryan Miller. This year's prognosis: the Bucks are loaded, hungry, and ready to rule the Big 10.