Dairy Farm

CHESTERTOWN -- A Colorado company is betting more than $2 million that it can make money milking cows in Maryland where so many others have failed.As its name implies, Horizon Organic Dairy Inc., of Boulder, is taking a slightly different approach to the dairy business."

Jill mothered Jolly, and Jolly mothered Jodie, and five generations later Jetta gave birth to Super Cow. Her name is Jetlag. Find her grazing in her Howard County dell, and you could say: What a splendid cow.Or . . ."You could say: 'Tony, it's got four legs and a tail, but that's no cow; that's a milking machine,' " says Tony Evans, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture. "And I'd have to say: 'Yeah, you're right.' "Jetlag, a 4-year-old Ayrshire, produces three times more milk at Maple Dell Farm near Lisbon than her great-great-great-great-great- grandmother Jill produced a mere 18 years ago. That qualifies Jetlag as Super Cow, but it hardly distinguishes her.Super Cow is everywhere.

I think my grandchildren would benefit from exposure to the sights and sounds of a family farm. Are there family farms in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin that accept children?"

The old Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, with its white picket fences and red-roofed buildings on gently rolling land that resembles the English Cotswolds, has emerged as one of the state's top two choices for a planned Maryland Horse Park, but few parties are clapping. In a significant step forward, the Maryland Stadium Authority site selection committee met Friday to evaluate the 857-acre farm in Anne Arundel County for a feasibility study for a major equestrian venue envisioned as Maryland's answer to Kentucky's state-supported horse park.

I think my grandchildren would benefit from exposure to the sights and sounds of a family farm. Are there family farms in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin that accept children?"

U.S. Naval Academy officials were told by agricultural experts more than 1 1/2 years ago how to make their money-losing dairy farm more efficient and less costly.But Rear Adm. Thomas C. Lynch, the superintendent, did not heed key recommendations in the academy-requested report, saying it wouldn't be prudent to spend money upgrading a dairy farm whose future is in doubt.Still, academy officials continue to study the economic viability of the 862-acre Gambrills farm they acknowledge has become "less cost-efficient," while they consider closing the dairy and using the land for other purposes, possibly a golf course.

Dairy farm tour in Manchester on Wednesday The Carroll County Farm Bureau will present a tour of the Sellers family dairy farm in Manchester from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. Participants will tour the working dairy farm, Panora Acres, on Tracey's Mill Road off Route 30. Participants should dress appropriately for walking around a farm. Farm Bureau women will serve a free boxed lunch during the tour. Reservations are requested at 410-857-5503. Goat, sheep nutrition conference in Keedysville Maryland Cooperative Extension will hold its Mid-Atlantic Goat and Sheep Nutrition Conference from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville.

If you're interested in some good Halloween fun, this county is the place for you.The county fairgrounds in Crownsville, for example, is offering evenings full of ghosts and ghouls from Oct. 22 to 31. The frightful evenings include visits to a torture chamber, ghoul's dinner, doctor's office in a haunted barn, monster mash with Frankenstein and toxic dump. Admission is $7 per person. Children ages 5 and under are admitted free. Youth group rates are available. For more information, call 266-5951 or 721-2809.

Anne Arundel County took the final step toward acquiring control of the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, with the County Council's approval of a 30-year lease with the U.S. Navy. Under the terms of the lease, which goes into effect Feb. 1, the county will pay $240,000 a year for the 857-acre property, which had been considered for a state horse farm, a recreational community center and a sand-and-gravel operation. "This is the best we could hope for at the dairy farm," Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Democrat who represents Gambrills, said on Monday before the 7-0 vote to approve the resolution.

Residents of Gambrills in western Anne Arundel County are still fighting to keep their "little piece of heaven," the U.S. Naval Academy's 862-acre dairy farm.The question is, will the government do what it has done often in the past -- keep the dairy going, even though it makes little economic sense?Milk from the dairy farm costs $2.30 a gallon, versus $1.75 to $1.99 a gallon the academy would pay to buy from a private dairy. The academy could save $340,000 a year by making this change. Since the 1960s, several studies have concluded the dairy is losing money and should be closed.