Agriculture Program

Background (previously reported) 

Many farmers in Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties implement best management practices when it comes to conservation. Some do not. The need was to focus on these specific farming operations and steer them toward conservation practices. We began a pilot project in September 2006 by hiring Virgil Turner, a retired soil and water conservation employee, to begin to call on Kent County farmers at their homes and in the field to encourage them to implement conservation practices that would help farmers make additional money and improve water quality in the Chester River.    CRA hired Paul Spies to be a full time Conservation Planner in October 2007. Paul has a B.S. in Agronomy from the University of Maryland and has previously worked with farmers in jobs at Willard and Perdue.  He is focusing on Queen Anne’s County because it has 60% of the farmland in the watershed. Virgil Turner continues to work with the Kent County farmers.  

Current Activity CRA continues to improve the relationship with farmers in addition to making personal calls. We offer free membership in our organization to farmers and we now have 136 signed up as of July 31, 2009. In June 2007, we awarded a local Kent County farmer, Ed Fry, our Riverkeeper’s Award at our annual meeting. Our winter seminars in 2008 and 2009 have become increasingly popular. We had over 100 farmers at our 2009 seminars. At CRA’s annual meeting in June 2009, our speaker was Russ Brinsfield, Executive Director of the Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology who spoke about “The Strategies for the Future of Maryland Agriculture.”

Cover Crops

Our focus is for our Conservation Planners to encourage signup for cover crops in both Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties. For the June-July 2009 signup, Kent County farmers signed up for 36,785 acres, the most ever. In Queen Anne’s County the number of acres signed up for was 28,000, down slightly from last year.  While the Queen Anne’s number is disappointing, the state total was down by a greater amount.

The drop in Queen Anne’s numbers can be attributed to the cut in cover crop funding state wide. The bonus program instituted last year for “priority watersheds” was discontinued, but the main problem was the 750 acre cap on cover crop funding per operator (note: not per farm nor per farm owner). This meant that the larger farmer operators in both counties were not able to maximize the coverage especially for the corn crop. CRA protested to the Maryland Department of Agriculture and in a special letter to Governor O’Malley. This letter was brought to the governor’s attention by our Annapolis representative. CRA’s effort in protesting the cap will continue through next winter.

Switchgrass Project 

Background 
Native to Maryland with deep roots, switchgrass is effective in absorbing harmful nutrients and, therefore, is an outstanding farm crop for the environment especially when planted in the buffers of the Chester River and its tributaries. Because of the huge energy potential of switchgrass, it can become a significant cash crop to our farmers providing we can develop a local energy market.  This makes switchgrass a classic “win-win” scenario because it is a very effective environmental product that provides income for our farmers while reducing our carbon footprint.  In January 2008, CRA began working with the Hughes Center for Agro Ecology and the University of Maryland on a switchgrass project funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). The purpose is to educate farmers about the product and its benefit to the environment. CRA was to provide 6-10 farmers who would agree to plant 100 acres of switchgrass in the buffers of Chester River and its tributaries which would be studied by the University of Maryland scientists.  

Current Activity 
CRA has successfully engaged eleven famers in the Chester River watershed to plant 100 acres of switchgrass in June and early July. All 100 acres is buffered land and is either in the critical area along the Chester River or along a Chester River tributary. CRA and Kent County have been awarded the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund grant which will fund the planting of 200 acres of switchgrass in the Middle Chester watershed next spring. CRA has applied for a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant to plant and additional 200 acres in the Corsica River watershed.  The farmers in our watershed have shown great enthusiasm about the switchgrass project. Part of the reason, of course, is that the grant is paying them to plant the switchgrass. But a key reason is that our farmers understand that because of the energy crisis, switchgrass has the potential to be a cash crop. It is also a low cost crop for the farmers. Switchgrass does not need to be planted every year or fertilized like corn or soybeans. If a farmer chooses to fertilize switchgrass it absorbs up to 90% for fertilizer applied compared to a 40% rate for corn.

We need to develop a local market for the farmers for switchgrass. The energy potential of the product is enormous, and as a cellulose-based product much better for the environment than ethanol from corn. As reported previously, CRA and Washington College are evaluating the use of a burner that uses the switchgrass to help the college achieve its aggressive no carbon objective. That work continues with the possibility of a foundation grant to purchase a switchgrass burner.  

CRA has begun to study the use of switchgrass to heat greenhouses in our watershed. Our farmers are discovering that raising plants for Wal-Mart (through Wal-Mart’s wholesaler) can be profitable, however heating a greenhouse with propane on winter nights can be very expensive and may be even more so if energy prices continue to rise. We have discovered a greenhouse operator in Southern New Jersey who heats his greenhouse operation with switchgrass and has formed a company, Pequest Energy, to buy switchgrass and miscanthus from local farmers. We will be visiting this operation this fall and attending a conference at the University of Maryland (we are a speaker at this conference too) in November on alternative energy sources for greenhouses. CRA will be meeting with Chris Rice, program manager for Biomass Research and Development at the Maryland Energy Administration on August 27 to explore further study of switchgrass as an energy product.  CRA thinks that the potential impact on the environment for the switchgrass project is huge. Farmers could put low maintenance and low cost switchgrass in buffers along the Chester River and its tributaries and market it as a cash crop. The switchgrass in turn, because of its deep root system, provides for an excellent buffer to absorb nutrients at the water’s edge.  

Precision Farming 

Background

CRA is pursuing precision farming as a way to reduce nutrients. Planting cover crops and switchgrass are very cost effective ways to reduce nutrients but with precision farming, farmers can reduce fertilizer being applied. This helps the environment, and saves money as well, especially with the high cost of commercial fertilizer. Very little precision farming is being done currently in the watershed. The cost of GPS technology is high and does not work well in the watershed because of the size of the fields and the interference from tree lines. There is a product on the market called GreenSeeker. The technology, developed by the Oklahoma State University and piloted by the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech, has shown to decrease nitrogen application by 20% as well as increase yields. By using a light source to communicate the health of the plants located on the fertilizer applicator, it distributes the fertilizer accordingly.  

Current Activity 
Because of the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund, CRA will be able to purchase two GreenSeekers and give them to two local farmers who have already been identified. The grant will allow for funding to test the product. If the project goes as it’s expected, and the farmers are satisfied with the performance and cost savings, we will be able to install more GreenSeekers in the watershed.  

Winter Seminars

On February 4, CRA hosted a luncheon seminar for farmers in Queen Anne’s County and on February 5, a breakfast seminar for farmers in Kent County. This year our speakers were Royden Powell MDA Assistant Secretary for Resource Conservation, Russ Brinsfield Executive Director of the Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology, Josh McGrath, University of Maryland Assistant Professor Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management, and Jack Gerhardt, product manager for GreenSeeker. We had over 100 farmers attending the two seminars. Because of the success of these seminars we will hold winter seminars again next winter.