Maryland Farmers

Maryland farmers are doing their part to reduce the pollution making its way into the Chesapeake Bay, but it could be argued that their counterparts in Delaware are doing better. Ninety-four percent of the Maryland farms required to have nutrient management plans in place have met the requirements of the law, according to the state Department of Agriculture's annual report. This brings 1.25 million acres of farmland into compliance with the state's Water Quality Improvement Act. In Delaware, the numbers are even more impressive.

Between 40 percent and 50 percent of Maryland's bee colonies die off each year, and these losses must be made up every spring and summer by buying replacements and by splitting existing hives. Can you imagine the attention the poultry industry, the horse industry or pet owners would demand if half of their animals were lost annually? Maryland beekeepers need public support, through an adequately funded apiary inspection program, Maryland-specific research and an extension service that applies the research to the practice of beekeeping.

A glimpse at the next 10 years in U.S. agriculture: Farmland prices will continue to rise, corn will cover more acreage and farmers will earn more profit. These are some of the predictions for the next decade in "Projections to 2016," a USDA report released last week at the department's annual outlook conference, held in Arlington, Va. For the nation as a whole, the average price of corn jumped 50 percent last year from $2 a bushel to $3, spurred by the production of ethanol as an alternative fuel for automobiles.

Early spring is when Bobby Hutchison grapples with deciding what crops he will plant on his 3,000-acre farm near Cordova in Talbot County. But last week, Hutchison's attention was firmly fixed on Washington, where Congress is working on the 2007 farm bill. The legislation will drive federal farm policy for the next six years, looming as important to the economic viability of Hutchison's farm in the years ahead as the cooperation of Mother Nature. So Hutchison took time from his farm chores to make sure his voice was heard in the legislative process.

FREDERICK -- Standing in a scraggly soybean field near here, Gov. Parris N. Glendening asked the U.S. agriculture secretary yesterday to declare farmers in 17 Maryland counties eligible for disaster relief from the extreme drought that has stunted their crops and threatened their livelihood.Glendening, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes inspected Vaughn Harshman's rain-starved fields southwest of Frederick and heard the 41-year-old farmer describe how the harsh weather and a slumping farm economy are pushing him to consider quitting.

Drought has been the bane of many a farmer, but the state's driest summer in 70 years was not as damaging as the global grain market is shaping up to be.Maryland grain farmers managed to come up with a respectable yield from soybeans -- the state's biggest cash crop -- in spite of the drought. The yields are lower than average, but farmers had feared it would be much worse, said Phillip "Chip" Councell, president of the Maryland Grain Producers Association and a Talbot County farmer.The market is exacerbating the impact of lower yields, however.

VIENNA -- Gov. Parris N. Glendening rejected yesterday calls from some communities on the Lower Eastern Shore, where the drought has been less severe than in other parts of the state, for eased restrictions on water use in that part of the state."

WASHINGTON -- In the witching hours on Capitol Hill this week, as grand compromises were being reached on major bills, lawmakers -- including Marylanders -- eagerly slipped in big-dollar provisions, ranging from millions of dollars for farmers with parched land to $100,000 for a handicapped-accessible golf course in Prince George's County.The compromise legislation setting spending for much of the government required a section several inches thick just to list the earmarked projects. There were so many projects that many lawmakers did not have a chance to read the full legislation they were voting on."

WITH Congress killing Maryland dairy farmers' hopes of joining a price-setting Northeast compact, and with a 15-percent drop in federal milk price payments due next month, the shrinking state industry is struggling for new ways to stop the bleeding.One promising approach: a regional program that aims to combine resources to produce efficiencies, and profits, in the dairy industries of the Northeastern states. The plan is modeled after a similar program in New York state that coordinates resources from state agencies, agriculture schools and veterinarians.

State tobacco farmers were celebrating a legislative victory yesterday that they say will go a long way toward stabilizing the Southern Maryland agriculture economy."

State and federal officials announced Friday that they are sweetening payments to Maryland farmers in hopes of taking cropland out of production to help clean the Chesapeake Bay. Meeting on a farm near Westminster, Gov. Martin O'Malley and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack signed an agreement to funnel $198 million in federal funds to the state over the next 15 years. The money will allow the government to increase payments to farmers to plant trees rather than crops along streams.

The Environmental Protection Agency has told Maryland's poultry farmers it intends to enforce for the first time federal pollution rules governing chicken manure - a crackdown that has surprised and angered growers while pleasing environmentalists who've long complained about agricultural runoff fouling Chesapeake Bay. At meetings recently on the Eastern Shore, EPA officials told several hundred farmers that they must get federal pollution-discharge permits...

This is the kind of a year that has turned many would-be farmers into car salesmen, dentists, lawyers and other professionals. Things looked so good down on the farm back in June. Grain prices were high, really high. The rains were timely and plentiful, and farmers were looking at bin-busting harvests. "For Maryland farmers, things look great," Kevin McNew, a managing partner of Go Grain LLC, a commodity research firm in Bozeman, Mont., and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, said in late June.

In a decision that could impact Maryland farmers down the road, a federal judge in Seattle recently issued a temporary injunction that halts cattle grazing and the harvesting of hay from land in a federal conservation program. The legal battle stems from a decision by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer in May to allow cattle and other livestock to graze on 24 million acres of land enrolled in the government's Conservation Reserve Program. He also allowed grass on the land to be harvested as hay. Commonly referred to by agriculture officials and farmers as CRP, the federal program started in 1985 allows landowners to idle environmentally sensitive land for conservation.

In a decision that could affect Maryland farmers down the road, a federal judge in Seattle recently issued a temporary injunction that halts cattle grazing and the harvesting of hay from land in a federal conservation program. The legal battle stems from a decision by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer in May to allow cattle and other livestock to graze on 24 million acres of land enrolled in the government's Conservation Reserve Program. He also allowed grass on the land to be harvested as hay. Commonly referred to by agriculture officials and farmers as CRP, the federal program started in 1985 allows landowners to idle environmentally sensitive land for conservation.

As their planting season progressed, Maryland farmers altered earlier plans and seeded less corn and more soybeans than they originally intended. In March, farmers announced plans to plant 490,000 acres of corn this year. That would have been a decline of 9.26 percent from the 2007 planting, the largest in 15 years. That thinking changed, however, when diesel fuel used to power their big rigs began creeping closer to $5 a gallon, fertilizer costs went through the roof and rains limited their days in the field.

This could be the year that state grain farmers buy that flashy new pickup truck they have been eyeing for a couple of years. Due primarily to recent floods in the Midwest, "Maryland grain farmers are looking at a huge payday this year," says Kevin McNew, a managing partner of Go Grain LLC, a commodity research firm in Bozeman, Mont., and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. "For Maryland farmers, things look great," he said. "It could be their best year ever. "They are sitting on a corn crop that looks to be valued at $7 or $8 a bushel," said McNew.

This could be the year that state grain farmers buy that flashy new pickup truck they have been eyeing for a couple of years. Because of recent floods in the Midwest, "Maryland grain farmers are looking at a huge pay day this year," says Kevin McNew, a managing partner of Go Grain LLC, a commodity research firm in Bozeman, Mont., and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. "For Maryland farmers, things look great," he said. "It could be their best year ever. "They are sitting on a corn crop that looks to be valued at $7 or $8 a bushel," said McNew.

It would be a mistake to think of farmers as a threat to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Generally, farming is far less harmful to water quality than most land uses. So regulating farming, whenever possible, requires a cooperative and open-minded approach by government. The question is: Has the O'Malley administration struck the proper balance with its recent decision to scale back proposed rules governing poultry farms? The evidence suggests strongly that it has not. At issue is what to do about the hundreds of millions of pounds of poultry litter produced each year by Maryland farmers.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture, with the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension's Home and Garden Information Center, has launched a campaign, "Take It From Maryland Farmers: Backyard Actions for a Cleaner Chesapeake Bay." The campaign offers easy backyard actions that homeowners can take to help the Chesapeake Bay. Tips for homeowners include: taking a soil test, reading a fertilizer bag, water conservation, grass-cycling, and proper mulching techniques for gardens and for trees, and integrated pest management.