From smith.11460 at osu.edu Thu Dec 8 14:23:08 2022 From: smith.11460 at osu.edu (Smith, Matthew A.) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2022 19:23:08 +0000 Subject: [Sc-aquaponics] changes to OSU Extension's aquaculture program in 2023 Message-ID: Aquaculture friends, First, I want to thank y'all for all of the support over the last (almost) 7 YEARS that I have been at Ohio State! Time truly goes by quickly. I recall my first ever OAA conference (winter of 2016 when Dr. Laura Tiu gave the keynote dinner speech). I told the Ohio aquaculture crowd that I was hired with Extension money, and my job was to be Extension - not a researcher. While I have conducted applied research over the years in addition to my traditional Extension duties, I hope you all have thought of it as APPLIED research that can support you or your fellow farmers in a fairly short time frame. A few funded and finished project examples include our COVID-19 survey research to get money into the hands of aquaculture farmers via loans and other support (much of aquaculture was not initially approved due to a lack of data), our yellow perch pond intensification work, and our Extension work that funded a lot of the workshops and training opportunities we were able to conduct throughout the Midwest. We have a lot of other great work going on right now as well, including social license of trout in the North Central Region and our largemouth bass pond intensification work. Some of the published/printed/videoed Extension work that I truly enjoyed making include the Introduction to Aquaculture in the North Central Region fact sheet, the Overview and Cost of a Small-scale Aquaponic Build fact sheet to accompany our OSU Aquaponics YouTube video, regional workshops, and contributions to the OAA's quarterly newsletters. It's been a pleasure to be the Aquaculture Extension Specialist here in Ohio, and I hope I have made a positive impact to the state. With that said, I have made the decision to leave OSU at the end of the year. I'm not leaving Ohio, and I'm not leaving Ohio aquaculture. My family will continue to be involved in the perch farm as well. I will be at the OAA annual conference every year - just with a different company shirt on (Xylem/YSI). Come have breakfast with the exhibitors prior to the conference this year. I'll be there with Darrin! I will also be at the following upcoming meetings: NCRAC meeting in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the North Central Aquaculture Conference in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Aquaculture America in New Orleans. Please reach out to me if you have any questions. I'll still be here to support your businesses and research, just in a different role. Happy Holidays, and best of luck on the farm/field/lab in 2023. ?Matt [The Ohio State University] Matthew A. Smith Program Director, Aquaculture Extension Madison County Extension Office College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences 217 Elm Street, London, Ohio 43140 740.852.0975 ext 17 Office smith.11460 at osu.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: