The Ohio Master Farmer award is reserved for an elite group of individuals who consistently demonstrate outstanding farm management, innovation, conservation and leadership.

Ohio Farmer has bestowed the prestigious Master Farmer award on individuals who have established how to farm more effectively, efficiently, environmentally and economically.

This year’s winners are Bret Margraf of McCutchenville and Jeff Duling of Ottawa.

Master Farmers are nominated by peers and acknowledged for a lifetime of achievement, rather than a single year. Margraf and Duling will be awarded March 8 at the Ohio Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference in Ada.

Duling farms 1,300 acres in Putnam County. He raises no-till corn, soybeans, wheat and cereal rye for seed, as well as managing a 2,000-head, contract wean-to-finish hog enterprise and finishing feeder cattle. The farm has been no-tilled for more than 40 years, and cover crops were incorporated 20 years ago.

Margraf embraces regenerative agriculture and has reintroduced animals on his farm in Seneca County. He farms 1,250 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat with his father, Gene, while embracing no-till, cover crops and other conservation practices.

Videos were produced by Nicole Heslip and staff at Brownfield Ag News and will be shown during the awards ceremony. The videos have been posted on YouTube, and links with feature stories on the winners will appear online for the next two days.

The 2022 winners also were featured in the March issue of American Agriculturist.