Maryland Farmers

When Bobby Prigel took over his family's Glen Arm dairy farm some years back, he shooed the cows out of the barn, cut his milk production by about 30 percent and planted grass on the cornfields. Prigel is considered a leader in Maryland among dairy farmers who have turned to what people in the industry call "grazers." His cows feed on grass out in the pasture instead of being kept in barns and fed a diet of grain. He says that turning back the pages of history to an earlier form of dairy farming has boosted his profits and reduced his workload.

Maryland farmers are getting more respect in Annapolis these days. This was evident during the recently ended 90-day session of the General Assembly. "Most members of the General Assembly realize that farmers are doing their part to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay," Valerie Connelly, director of government relations at the Maryland Farm Bureau, said after the close of the annual legislative session. "The farm community and the legislature have a lot better rapport now than in the past," she added.

Not very long ago, it seemed that Bobby Prigel's northern Baltimore County dairy farm was about to go out of business. Bellevale Farm, which has been run by four generations of Prigels, couldn't compete with large-scale operations that keep costs low by milking thousands of cows each day. But then Prigel tried a different approach - he returned to farming methods more common in his great-grandfather's day than in his father's. He allowed his cows to graze freely in pastures and adopted organic practices.

Local consumers prefer buying their produce from Maryland farmers, and nearly half of the grocery shoppers say they would be willing to pay more for locally grown fruits and vegetables. These are several of the findings related to agriculture in the latest annual public opinion survey by the University of Baltimore's Schaefer Center for Public Policy. Nearly 78 percent of the adults surveyed said they would be more likely to buy produce that is identified as having been grown by Maryland farmers.

On the subject of conservation - especially the protection of the Chesapeake Bay - the farmer's voice is rarely heard. A good example of this came in 1997. That's when farm runoff was blamed almost entirely for the toxic outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida that resulted in fish kills, closed parts of three rivers to recreational use and raised questions about the safety of Maryland seafood. Lost in all the rhetoric was the fact that it was never proved that farm runoff had anything to do with the wave of Pfiesteria hysteria that swept the state.

The current working version of the federal farm bill is shaping up as a mixed bag for Maryland farmers. "There are some small net gains for Maryland farmers," said Bruce Gardner, a professor at the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. "But when it comes to direct payments for commodities, the big bucks still go to farmers in other parts of the country." In the past, Gardner and other state agriculture officials have argued that Maryland did not get its fair share from previous federal farm bills.

The hot, dry harvest year now drawing to a close was a dismal one for the region's grain farmers, but it was slightly better than expected, according to a government survey. Farmers in Maryland and Delaware are reporting better yields than originally predicted, said Barbara Rater, director of the USDA's Maryland agriculture statistics office. With 95 percent of the corn in the bin, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting that Maryland farmers will harvest 90 bushels of corn from each acre planted, an increase of nearly 6 percent over the government's October forecast of 85 bushels.

It is a sight farmers don't believe until they see it - a "city slicker" governor coming to the aid of agriculture. But that's what happened when Gov. Martin O'Malley recently announced a $1 million emergency loan fund to help Maryland farmers whose crops were damaged in this year's drought. Though $1 million for the whole state may not seem like much, it is a lot more than the federal government is likely to provide after declaring every county in Maryland a disaster because of the drought, agriculture officials said.

Maryland grain farmers are countering recent concerns that growing more corn -- a shift encouraged by President Bush as part of the solution to the nation's dependence on foreign oil -- could have detrimental effects on the Chesapeake Bay. The conclusions in two recent reports by environmental groups that more corn means more harmful nutrients in the bay from increased use of fertilizer have touched a nerve in the Maryland farm community. "The reports suggest that farmers don't care about protecting the bay," said Lynne Hoot, executive director of the Maryland Grain Producers Association.