Chapter 4 – Agriculture – Madison County History

Chapter 4 - Agriculture

Just north of London on Rt 38 is the Molly Caren Agricultural Center, home of the Farm Science Review hosted by the Ohio State University and attendees come from world-wide to visit its exhibits and to learn about new agricultural processes and equipment. The Molly Caren Ag Center farms over 1200 acres of crops, testing new ideas and new methods. For further information click Ohio History

A highly controversial topic is solar power. Madison County has has the 6,000 acre Oak Run project, the largest in Ohio and possibly one of nation’s largest solar arrays. It is an 800 megawatt solar farm with a 300 megawatt battery storage site in Monroe, Somerford and Deercreek townships. Over a thousand public comments and meetings were held. The Fox Squirrel Solar Project is to be located in Oak Run, Pleasant and Range Townshipps, 3,766 acres. Some solar projects are still in planning stages. If all were to be built, the projects would be Madison Fields, Oak Run, Pleasant Prairie (Madison/Franklin line), Springwater (Madison/Franklin Line) Big Plain, and Fox Squirrel) Around the county are many “No Solar on Prime Farmland” signs. Ohio has over 13.6 million acres of farm land. Projected solar is 518,475 acres. About 5% of farm land would be solar. However it is estimated that up to 40% of farmland is not being farmed. We can drive around the county and see many fields of weeds, piles of trash, trees that have been cut and left, fields that once housed livestock, sitting vacant. This information is used by companies promoting solar, saying that the 5% solar is not significant. If 100% of farmland were being utilized, then the opposition would have merit. Your author has doubts, not on the land loss, but because solar panels cannot economically be reused. They have a 25 year life expectancy and must be place in landfills (more farmland lost), and this will occur every 25 years. California is dealing with this problem now and is transporting solar panels to an enormous landfill in Arizona. My biggest concern is the danger. In Union County, several fire departments have said that it is too hazardous to respond to a fire in a battery facility. Lithium batteries are highly toxic and have high energy density and are flammable There have been over 25,000 overheating and fire incidents with lithium batteries. Do I personally think the battery storage facilities are safe? No. I have testified at meetings in both Madison and Union Counties.

Can Ohio have wind farms? Yes. In 2024 3,775 megawatts were produced from Ohio windfarms. Most are in the northern part of the state. Yes, free power. Downside is that they kill many birds and many think they are ugly and creepy looking at night with a sea of red lights! There are no wind farms in Madison County.

Ohio has two nuclear power plants both on Lake Erie, none in Madison County. Two more are in the planning stage.

The nearest power plant is the Darby Power Plant in Pickaway County near Mount Sterling. It uses natural gas and produces 564 megawatts and is owned by Lightstone Generation. It uses a gas turbine and can also run on distillate fuel oil.

Madison County is an agriculture county. Many farms large and small dot the county and also surrounding counties. Our main agricultural products are soy beans and corn, followed by grain crops used for hay, and some cereal grains such as wheat and oats. We also have vegetable production and of course a considerable amount of livestock, and food products such as milk and eggs. In 1917 a census of agriculture was made by the U.S. Department of agriculture. It is fascinating! I am not going to extract the information for this chapter, but here is the link: Madison County Agriculture 1917. In 2022 another census was taken, but for the nation and Madison County is a column in a table showing Ohio agricultural. That website link is very complete, harder to read, but contains very comprehensive data. If a table just for Madison County, like the 1917 table is produced, I will include it.

All businesses in the county and in the area sell to farmers, but there are some business that cater especially to farmers. Examples are Rural King located in Springfield and Marysville, many Tractor Supply locations in the region and even stores such as Wal-Mart or hardware stores have areas in the store that appeal to the farming community. The following list shows those stores and industries in the area (less than 40 miles) whose customers are often farmers. Those with links are usually associated with national companies. Many farms have their own websites to sell livestock and other products. There are too many to list, but you can query Farm Supply Madison County on Yahoo or Google and get links to farms. I opened one that I thought sounded interesting and was linked to a private militia in Ohio!

There are many grain elevators in the Madison County area. Not all are active. Some are in ruins. The following is a link to active grain elevators or grain storage facilities in Ohio Grain Elevators | OHIO GRAIN ELEVATORS | Elevators Directory (farmnetservices.com)

The following YouTube video and images are from Ohio State University, providing information about the Farm Science Review.