Expert to talk in Jay County

Odette Menard has talked at national conferences and recently returned from a trip to speak in Europe. On Wednesday, she’ll share her message in Jay County.
Menard, a soil conservation expert from Quebec, Canada, will speak Wednesday at the Jay County Soil & Water Conservation District annual meeting at 6 p.m. at the 4-H building at Jay County Fairgrounds.
“This year we wanted to step it up,” said JCSWCD educator Bettie Jacobs. “She’s the best caliber we have ever yet to have come.
“She is an expert on soil health and the value of earthworms. And she presents it in a way that’s very interesting an entertaining. You remember her. Whenever she speaks, you remember what she had to say.”
Menard serves as an agronomic engineer for Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and was a featured speaker at the 2013 National No-Tillage Conference, where she spoke about the importance of earthworms.
Local farmer Matt Johnson was at that conference, but hadn’t planned to attend her session. He thought he had heard everything he needed to know about earthworms and their benefits to soil. But he was interested in the session that was scheduled after Menard, so he sat down and listened.
“It was the most amazing talk I had heard at the conference that year,” said Johnson, who recommended Menard for the JCSWCD annual meeting along with area residents Barry Miller and Jayson Mas. “I walked away going, ‘You know, I’m glad I did that.’ … She was funny. She was engaging. It was educational.”

Menard, who has peen featured in Farm World, earned her master’s degree in agricultural engineering at McGill University in Montreal and is a member of the Canadian Conservation Hall of Fame. Her talks focus on promoting zero tillage and the importance of earthworms in that process.
Last year she spoke at the Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference, and Johnson said the way she presents her information is thought-provoking.
“I knew that earthworms were beneficial for the soil and I knew kind of how they worked, but when she actually would show you what a little earthworm could do … it just opened your mind up to the actual destruction that we’ve done to our soils over time with tillage and the benefit that the earthworm does when we don’t disturb his home,” said Johnson, who farms in Richland Township as well as Delaware and Randolph counties. “It was real eye opening in a sense.”
The deadline for dinner reservations for the JCSWCD annual meeting has passed, but Jacobs said anyone who is interested in hearing Menard is welcome to attend her 7 p.m. speech. The event is free of charge.
The day will also include presentations about transporting farm equipment with Fred Whitford, director of the Purdue University Pesticide Program, and private applicator record keeping (PARP) with Larry Temple, Jay County Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator for the Purdue University Extension Service. Those talks will run from 3 to 5 p.m.