With a helping hand from Uncle Sam, Maryland farmers will bank about 6 percent more money this year than last, according to a preliminary forecast yesterday by theU.S. Department of Agriculture.
Ray Garibay, the USDA's chief statistician for Maryland, said that a good year by three of Maryland's largest agriculture sectors - broilers, dairy and greenhouse/nursery - is expected to boost net farm income to between $430 million and $435 million.
That's up from the $410 million state farmers earned in 2000.
Garibay noted, however, that $75 million in federal government payments to farmers to offset low grain prices accounted for a sizable slice of the farm income pie this year. In 2000, state farmers received $88.5 million in federal aid.
"I would hate to see what happened without these payments," Garibay said of the federal subsidies to farmers. "It was the key to keeping a lot of producers in business."
When the final numbers are in, they are expected to show a $100 million jump in cash receipts (sales at the farm level) to $1.57 billion in 2001.
"We are looking at a good year," state Agriculture Secretary Hagner R. Mister said recently. "We've had two pretty good years in a row."
He said 2001 would have been better had a drought not seriously reduced corn and soybean production in northern counties along the Pennsylvania border.
Garibay said a 2 percent to 3 percent increase in broiler production this year will boost broiler sales to about $500 million, up from $462.3 million last year. Broilers account for about one-third of total farm sales in Maryland.
He said dairy farms, which account for 12 percent of farm sales, had a good year in 2001.
"We estimate that milk and dairy products will come in around $200 million this year compared to $180 million last year," Garibay said.
Myron Wilhide, a Carroll County dairy farmer and president of the Maryland Dairy Industry Association, said the price he received for his milk this year reached $18.50 per hundredweight in October. "Milk prices have never been that high," he said.
The average milk price for the year, he said, was about $15, up from $12.50 to $13 in recent years.
Garibay said greenhouse and nursery sales rose nearly 3 percent to an estimated $275 million.
He said broilers, dairy and greenhouse/nursery operations account for about 62 percent of farm sales in the state.
Maryland livestock farmers, like their counterparts in the rest of the country, fared better than grain growers this year.
"Livestock farmers benefited from the bigger demand for beef and pork and lower grain prices, which reduced their feed bills, and translated into higher profit margins," Garibay said.
For the nation as a whole, the USDA is projecting a 6.4 percent increase in net farm income to $49.4 billion. Total farm sales are expected to rise 6.1 percent to $205.5 billion.
