Farms In Maryland

Concerned about the future of Maryland's largest industry, the state plans an 18-month study of agriculture as the first step toward developing a strategy to preserve and promote farming, sources said yesterday. The study is in response to a request from Ronald A. Guns, chairman of the House Environmental Matters Committee, who wants the state Agriculture Department to develop a 20-year plan to safeguard Maryland's farm industry. "We want to start the study as quickly as possible, hopefully this summer," said S. Patrick McMillan, a special assistant to state Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Virts.

As lovers and mates offer chocolates and hugs, another ritual of romance begins today on this most amorous of holidays.Valentine's Day is the traditional launch of the horse-breeding season. Beginning today, give or take a few days, randy sires at farms in every corner of the state will be led into barns where mares await a mating. The season traditionally ends July 4 -- presumably with fireworks."People always talk about the races," said Sissy Fisher, office manager of Corbett Farm in Monkton.

Data collectors will be knocking on doors across Maryland in coming weeks looking for pigs, goats cows and other animals. Field workers will gather information as part of an annual nationwide survey on land use and agriculture activity. The survey is being done for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Statistics Services, which measures nearly every aspect of farming. Done each June, the study "is one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys conducted each year," said Barbara Rater, director of the service's Maryland office, which is in the state Department of Agriculture building in Annapolis.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which serves 1.7 million water customers in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, has signed a deal to buy a third of its electricity from a Pennsylvania wind farm, making it one of a growing number of large energy users to seek out green sources. The electricity will be provided by a subsidiary of Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group, which has a 10-year deal to purchase all of the power produced by the wind farm. Edison Mission Group is building the wind farm in Somerset County in southwest Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration took its first step yesterday toward stemming the increase of drug-resistant bacteria that could dangerously infect humans by banning the use of an antibiotic given to animals. The agency ordered off the market a drug commonly given to chickens and turkeys with respiratory infections. The use of the drug, Baytril, in poultry was contributing to the growth of an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses in humans, the agency determined.

The price that Baltimore's poor will pay for milk was at the heart of a lively state Senate hearing yesterday on a bill that would allow Maryland to become a member of the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact.Opponents of the legislation, which would allow the compact to set the farm price of Class 1 (drinking) milk in Maryland, argued that it would boost the price to those least able to afford it.Supporters pointed out that Baltimore residents already pay considerably more for milk than consumers in other parts of the ** state.

Manager selected for Naval Academy's organic teaching farm Jan Stanton, former communications director for the American Dairy Association and executive director of the Dairy Council, has been named farm and education center manager for Horizon Organic Dairy's Naval Academy Farm. The company -- the nation's largest producer of organic dairy products -- signed a 10-year lease last year to take over the 865-acre farm, which had been operated by the academy since 1911. It is being renovated as a teaching farm, where visitors can learn about the interaction of agriculture and the environment.

Gloria Luster spent a brisk afternoon yesterday bagging freshly picked apples and sweet potatoes in South Baltimore. "Many are not aware of how many millions of tons of produce ... go to waste every year from farms alone," said Luster, 80, a coordinator with the Mid-Atlantic Gleaning Network, a regional food charity. Thanks to Luster and dozens of volunteers, this produce will not to go waste. The cardboard bins unloaded in Cherry Hill are among 50,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables being distributed locally this weekend.

The lead-up to the holidays is the time when many people bundle up, grab a hatchet and take to the woods in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Now, many of the 300 or so tree farms in Maryland are making the venture more of an experience for customers. A growing trend in the industry is turning the purchase of a tree into a family outing and a day of recreation, said Wayne Thomas, president of the Maryland Christmas Tree Association and owner of a tree farm near Manchester, Carroll County.

The often-delicate subject of the impact farmland runoff has on the Chesapeake Bay will be front and center at a summit this week on the Eastern Shore. The Waterkeeper Alliance, the sponsor of the event, points to agricultural runoff, most of which comes from poultry litter from Eastern Shore operations, as the primary source of pollution in the bay. Organizers say the event is aimed at highlighting efforts by the poultry industry to curb nutrient runoff, alternate uses for poultry litter, and legal, legislative and regulatory methods for reducing the amount of nutrients escaping from poultry litter into bay tributaries.