Check Off: Farmers Fund Research & Education

A couple weeks ago, I got to participate in my first "funding" meeting of the Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board. I was appointed to the board in 2012 as a Director At Large and proud to say I am the first female farmer to serve on their board of directors!

The funding meeting was fascinating in that we had grant proposals to review every 15-20 minutes for an entire day and a half! We had nearly 65 proposals submitted for consideration and 18 hours to hear the presenters pitch why we should fund their project. On the 3rd day of our meeting, we awarded the funds based on their merit. It was quite a learning experience for me to see all that our check off dollars get spent on.

For those of you who do not know: "Check off" dollars are essentially a farmer-funded research and promotion account where farmers contribute a half of a percent of the net value of their grain at the time of sale. This money is pooled together and is administered by volunteer farmers who serve on commodity boards such as the Maryland Grain Producers.  There is also soybean check off administered by Maryland soybean farmers and the famous "Got Milk" program is the dairy farmer funded program for dairy research and promotion. 

The benefit of the check off program is that by pooling our money together, we can fund a lot more research and do more outreach and promotion than farmers could ever do on their own. Our Maryland Check off dollars help fund research that is Maryland specific and has a direct benefit to Maryland farmers and Maryland consumers. These funds went not only to University research projects like irrigation studies, nitrogen and phosphorus utilization improvements, groundwater quality projects and other agronomic research, but also to 4H and FFA programs, tractor school training, farm emergency training, and oyster recovery. Check Off dollars show what farmers can do working together for the future of agriculture and the benefits consumers receive from farmers funding their own research and promotion of the healthy foods we grow!

Below is the press release from the Maryland Grain Producers about our recent funding meeting.

Maryland Grain Farmers Award $1 Million in Grants and Elects New Officers to Board

The Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board (MGPUB) has awarded over $1 million to organizations across the state to increase the profitability and viability of Maryland grain production, expand the utilization of grain, and to improve the understanding of agriculture.  Grant funding is made possible through the Maryland grain checkoff program, whereby grain farmers contribute funds to support market development, education, and research.

“The checkoff program is all about farmers helping their own industry and those consumers that benefit from our products,” stated Marion Wilson, grain farmer and immediate past-president of MGPUB.  “Funding projects for our region’s grain farmers means we get answers to address issues specific to Maryland, whether it be protecting crops from pests such as the stink bug, or finding the best farm management systems to improve our environment. This year we funded research projects that address both those areas, as well as ways to better market our products and educate consumers about Maryland-grown products.”

Funds for the 2013 grant period were allocated to projects in the areas of education ($312,675), research ($309,305), and market development ($420,272).  Funding for projects that scientifically assess management practices and improve stewardship have always carried a priority.  “Even though Maryland agriculture accounts for just 5% of the land use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and contributes only 7.75% of the total nitrogen load, we want to do all we can to make as little impact as possible, while still providing for the food and fiber our consumers need,” comments Wilson.

At the annual funding meeting, Board members elected Tom Gannon as President of MGPUB.  Gannon has been a farmer all his life and currently raises corn, wheat, soybeans and hay in Queen Anne’s County.  Paul Spies of Cordova was elected Vice-President; Allen Davis of Galena was elected Treasurer; and Steve Ernst of Clear Spring was elected Secretary.

Maryland’s checkoff program has been in effect since 1991 and collects a half a percent of the net value of grain sold.  The MGPUB administers the funds through a board consisting of regional grain farmer representatives and advisory members representing the University of Maryland, Maryland Department of Agriculture, and agribusinesses in the state. Funds are spent in the same proportion on each crop as they are received, and are specific to the needs of Maryland's grain farmers. 

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Harvest Interrupted

I'm so proud of our guys! Harvest time on any farm is a very busy season. Because of our diversification, we harvest 7 months a year, beginning in May, and ending, hopefully, in November. Soybeans are always the last crop to be harvested and it requires a lot of management on our part because we grow food/tofu grade soybeans, seed-grade soybeans, and feed-grade soybeans. (See my December 17, 2011 blog called "The Many Faces of Soy"). Equipment needs to be diligently cleaned between varieties and tracking which beans go into which bins and to which elevator. Its a bit of a juggle and something we try to get accomplished with minimal interruption.

As with any farmer, we are anxious to be finished with harvest as soon as possible. We no longer have to worry about weather and the hand that Mother Nature deals us once everything is "in the bin". That's why I'm so proud of our guys who interrupted harvest on Friday, November 23, 2012.

No, we did not go Black Friday shopping!

My husband, brother-in-law, myself, my son, daughter and nephew all joined together with others from our church and headed out on a mission trip 2 hours south to Deal Island, Maryland which was hit by Hurricane Sandy, but only recently (finally) declared a disaster area by the federal government.

Friday was a gorgeous day. A PERFECT day for soybean harvest... and our combines stood still. Unheard of! We knew that the needs of these folks in Somerset County were falling through the cracks and want to contribute to the relief effort. Their needs took priority over our harvest. We're so happy we could help.

There is a lot of need up and down the Eastern Seaboard. If you would like to contribute, you can donate $10 by texting "RESPONSE" to 80888 and reply "yes" to the text you receive from the United Methodist Committee on Relief. While there are many wonderful relief organizations, 100% of your donation to UMCOR goes to disaster relief and not administrative overhead. For more information or to make a larger donation,  visit The United Methodist Committee on Relief

Some of the men who went on this mission trip, my husband in the center wearing a green sweatshirt and my brother-in-law on the far right.

My daughter & son loading a trailer full of wet, moldy furniture, carpet and other unsalvageable items.
Both are members of our church youth group.

Cleaning up downed trees was one of our main jobs and these girls work hard!

Our group of 18 did a good job tamping down the hump of roots left over from a fallen tree!

My nephew on the right spreading tar on a metal roof to help stop the leaks. 

I call these "The Hurricane Kids" from our church youth group which I lead.
This is the 2nd hurricane relief mission trip we have done in as many years.

Growing great wine - Maryland's Wine Country!

You may remember from my earliest blogs or saw the pics in the margins of this blog, that one of the crops we grow is winegrapes. When we sold out of our livestock operation 15 or so years ago, we never thought we'd be grape farmers. But we are. We planted our first 3 acres of grapes 10 years ago as a “test plot” to see if we would be able to manage grapes as part of our farming operation and do so successfully. A vineyard (as with any of our diversification efforts) had to fit within the 2000-acre, multi-crop operation, not be a drain on the farm, be manageable from a human resources perspective, and ultimately be beneficial to the bottomline. Ten years later, our vineyard is 20 acres in size, and includes both vinifera and hybrid grape varieties. They include:

Red Vinifera grapes: Sangiovese, Barbera & Pinotage

White Vinifera grapes: Pinot Gris & Chardonnay

Red hybrid grapes: Chambourcin

White hybrid grapes: Vidal Blanc and Traminette.

 My father-in-law and husband strapping down a load of grapes for delivery.

Each of these varieties was planted at the request of a Maryland winery who was looking for a supplier of a particular variety. The only exception is Pinotage. Pinotage is a South Africa variety which is a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage grapes (also known as Cinsaut). I spent several years living in Botswana and working in the Ministry of Agriculture in the 4B youth program as well as got to return to the region on a Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) Program. I  spent time quite a bit of time in the South Africa wine country of Paarl and Stellenbosch and grew to love Pinotage. We planted this variety in our own vineyard simply out of our own curiosity and it has proven to be a nice addition. This year we are expanding the number of Pinotage vines we have in the ground.

Let me say upfront that I am not a wine-o-phile. See that’s not even the right word. It something like enophile. Either way, I simply enjoy a glass of wine now and then. To me wine is like food, every one likes something different and it’s OK to enjoy what you like, not what some expert says you should like.

Having said that, I tried my hand at wine making and it is not a skill set that I possess. I have dumped more of my own attempts than have consumed my own wine. I blame it on the fact that by the time I am done working in the vineyards and bringing in grapes from harvest, the last thing I really feel like doing is messing around with more grapes in my free time. I will leave it up to those who possess that skill set and buy what I need!

 A cluster of Sangiovese grapes from our vineyard.

So we got involved in grapegrowing as part of our efforts to add value to each acre of land that we farm.  In 2000-2001 when we first starting looking into winegrapes, there were 12 wineries in Maryland and there was a demand for locally grown grapes. We spoke to each of the wineries in existence then and got an idea of what they wanted to use for fermenting wine. We planted our first 3 acres in 2003. At that time, there was about 125 acres of grapes in the Maryland. Since that time, the industry has grown to a current number of 55 wineries and approaching 1000 acres of grapes planted. Granted, it is still not a huge wine industry, but the growth trajectory has been steep over the last 10 years and interest in the vineyards and wineries is still high.

To further diversify our farming operation, in 2009 we started offering custom vineyard work for area vineyard owners.  We formed Schmidt Vineyard Management LLC and have been busy ever since offering vineyard management services to vineyard owners throughout our region of the state. While still an emerging industry, it is exciting to have launched a new business successfully and further diversified what our 3^rd generation family farm can do to continue practicing and promoting a variety of agricultural markets.

Yesterday, we started vineyard installations for 2012. We were planting a few additional acres for a vineyard in Caroline County, Maryland who is planning a start up winery in 2013.  We planted 5 acres for the owner last year, are finishing out the back field this year while they draft up their winery design and layout to break ground this fall.  We planted Cabernet Sauvignon. Landot Noir, and Chambourcin for them. Today, we are in Kent County, MD planting Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Muscat for another customer. We have another Kent County customer to expand their vineyard. By the end of this week, we will have planted 10 new vineyard acres and over 13,000 vines.

I decided to try my hand with my new iPad2 and take some video of the crew planting grapes. Here is a video link to our crew planting Cabernet Sauvignon in the vineyard expansion yesterday so you can see how we install vineyards.

It is my first YouTube video. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I had to go to a free Wi-Fi site about 20 miles away to upload it because my rural internet service tanked on me every time I tried to do it from home! Hope you enjoy a little sip of wine while you watch this short video!

Jennie Schmidt

The Foodie (&Grape) Farmer

This Week in Maryland Agriculture!

Even though its only mid-March, Maryland agriculture is starting to gear up for the 2012 growing season. Agriculture is Maryland’s largest commercial industry! …. Usually I get the response - “Agriculture? In Maryland?”  It’s true! Employing over 350,000 people, using 2.05 million acres, generating over $17 billion in revenue, Agriculture is a very important economic engine and environmental steward across Maryland’s landscape. Some readers may think of Maryland as being a predominantly urban state, and certainly portions of it are, but our agriculture is vibrant, diverse, and productive.

Here are some important statistics:

14% of Maryland’s workforce are involved in my state’s food and fiber sector:

ü      50% Wholesale or Retail

ü      20% Farm Production

ü      15% Marketing and Processing

ü      12% Agribusiness (tractors, equipment, seed, fertilizer)

ü      3% Farm Supply

Maryland Agriculture is often referred to as “America in Miniature”. This is due to the fact that farms in Maryland are as diverse as is the state’s geography which spans from the Atlantic coast to the Appalachia Plateau and the Allegany Mountains.  From sea level and the coastal plains where large open fields lend themselves to grain production to the Western mountains where pastures and cattle dot the landscape, agriculture is prominent in most of Maryland’s 23 counties. Our urban neighbors get to appreciate the bounty by visiting one of the 135 Farmer’s Markets! Click here for the Maryland's Farmers' Market Directory 

Not to mention the vast number of farm stands that dot the roads across the state where consumers can do Upick or buy fresh from the field produce and meat or dairy products. To search by category visit Maryland's Best Farm Directory Click on the "Find me local" tab, and you can type in the type of farm product you are looking for, your zip code, and search a database of farmers who are selling what you are looking for. Go to the recipes & tips tab, not only will you find some delicious recipes but you can click on the "What's ripe now?" tab and bring up a calendar that will tell you what farm products are in season when. Supporting your local farms provides you with fresh farm products and helps strengthen the local economy. 

From my birds eye view of about a 2-3 mile radius of my farm, here is what took place on local family farms over the last week:

• My farm neighbors to the west harvested horseradish this past week. Yes, horseradish. Yes, it’s a crop. Yes, a farmer grows horseradish! (sort of like the blog I posted about all the things that agriculture does for football, you may not have considered that a farmer grows that horseradish you put in your shrimp cocktail sauce!)
• My farm neighbor to the north posted a video on facebook that he was planting hay. We have a good hay market in this region between folks who have a few horses for pleasure to those who race horses at the Delaware tracks.
• My farm neighbors to the north west have an organic grain and vegetable farm and run a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). They began spring plowing this week. They are nurturing vegetable seedlings and getting ready for the CSA & Farmer’s Market season.
• My farm neighbors to the east are tree & nursery farmers. Yup, all those plants you landscape with? A farmer grew them! They were preparing ground for new tree seedlings and digging trees that are ready for sale to be used for landscaping around homes and businesses.
• My neighbors to the southeast are dairy farmers. Although I didn’t check with them before I wrote this, I’m pretty sure they were busy milking cows twice a day in addition to preparing ground for spring crops.
• My farm neighbors to the south are fruit and vegetable farmers. They are busy pruning fruit trees, mulching berry patches, nurturing vegetable seedlings in the greenhouse, and preparing ground for spring crops.
• On our farm, we are busy pruning the vineyard expecting an early season because of the warm winter we have had. We also visited several vineyard sites for owners who have hired our vineyard management company to plant grape vines for them this spring. (Yes, Maryland has a winegrape industry! I promise to blog about that in the near future). We applied potash to fields that our soil tests told us were low in potassium.  We serviced equipment that will need to be ready for spring planting including trying to figure out how to operate the “Green Seeker” I blogged about in the “Good Ole’ Days”. We did “vertical tillage” which is a means of working the ground without actually turning the ground over, using what’s called a “no-till ripper”. My goal is to figure out how to use my video camera and be able to upload some of these activities as we get busy into spring farm work.

That's just what happened in my little corner of the state. So as you can see, Maryland agriculture is diverse. We have access to a large urban market in the Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia area, all of which are equal distance from our farm. Farming in Maryland is critical to the economy, critical to the environment, and critical to the consumers in this region who want fresh, local food choices. So when people say “agriculture”, Maryland may not be the first state that comes to mind, but it is an important part of our state’s fabric and vibrancy.

The Similarities of Organic & Traditional Farming

I love it when I’m struggling for a blog topic and the media hands me something on the morning news. This morning Tony Pann, a meteorologist on the Baltimore station WBAL TV Channel 11 was responding to an interview by fellow meteorologist Ava Marie at a restaurant that was serving “local, organic, and sustainable” menu items. When the Ava tossed it back to the station for the morning forecast, Tony said “I’m a big fan of organic… people are so used to processed foods when you taste the organic, it tastes completely different in my book.” Below is the link to the video clip.

Ava Visits All-Organic Baltimore Restaurant

One of the most common questions I get is “what is the difference between organic and conventional foods?” To answer that, I need to explain the difference between organic and traditional farming methods, what some call “conventional” and we have farmed both ways so I am speaking from experience.

The USDA consumer's guide explains organic foods as “produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.”  That describes our farm perfectly, which is not organic, but rather a 3rd-generation, traditional family farm.

Organic farming includes practices such as crop rotation, fertilizer in the form of animal manure or “green manure” in the form of nitrogen containing plants, integrated pest management, mechanical cultivation, and natural or biological pesticides. Yes, pesticides. Organic does not mean chemical free. It means choosing to apply pesticides from an approved list called the OMRI list (Organic Materials Review Institute). This list of chemicals are naturally or biologically-based pesticides. There are over 2,300 pesticides listed with OMRI as approved for organic agriculture. Sulfur, copper, and Bt are all examples of organic pesticides. We use all 3 of these chemicals but are not organic farmers. Oxidate is a form of peroxide which is also organic and which we use as a fungicide in our vineyard to treat mildew. Some people will call these “soft” chemicals, other farmers will say they only use “natural” chemicals. Either way, their purpose is the same: to treat or prevent a pest from destroying the crop.

Our traditional family farm includes all those same practices. We do however, choose to use some synthetic chemicals as well as some organic ones. We base that choice on what the problem is we are trying to treat, how far away from harvest we are, how effective our choices are, and what the economic impact of our choice is going to be. That is why we use A LOT of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM means we scout our crops frequently, determine what pests if any exist, determine if there is a economic reason to address the pest, determine if there is a cultural practice such as cultivating or leaf pulling that will help alleviate the pest pressure, and determine what our options are if we need to spray something. We give much thought to this process. Why? Because our family eats what we grow in addition to earning a living from the land. I’m not going to serve something to my kids that isn’t safe. 

Spraying is something we do to bring quality, safe, and healthy foods to harvest using BOTH organic and synthetic chemicals as the situation warrants. We do not apply any chemicals that are not needed.

In some instances, synthetic chemicals are less toxic than their organic equivalents. In other cases, organic chemicals are less toxic than synthetics. With pyrethrins which is an organic insecticide derived from chrysanthemum plants and their synthetic pyrethroid counterparts, they are equal. As Paracelsus said in the 16^th century “All substances are poisons, there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy.” Essentially, the dose makes the poison.

So let’s look at the nutritional difference between organic and conventional foods. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a systematic review in 2010 which looked at data published between 1958 and 2008. That’s 50 years worth of data. Of the studies that were evaluated, 55 were determined to be of satisfactory quality in terms of the way the research was conducted. These 55 studies showed no significant difference in vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc, copper, and phenolic compounds. The authors concluded that there was no difference in the nutritional quality of organic foods over conventional foods. The two were essentially equal. (Am J Clin Nutr 2010; 92:203-10)

So where am I going with this? Tony Pann’s comments this morning made me think about the perception of organic and traditional foods. He used the term “processed” but processing is an entirely different subject.

I know that the way I raise the crops I grow on our family farm are safe and nutritious. You as the consumer have the wonderful choice of abundant foods whether organic or traditional. I applaud you if you choose organic. You are supporting a family farmer. I applaud you if you choose traditional. You are supporting a family farmer. But understand that both farming methods that are used to grow food are safe because they, like me, are feeding it to our families. I as a farmer, have the consumer’s health in mind because we, as farmers, are consumers too.

So maybe some day Ava Marie will do her morning broadcast from my family farm and Tony Pann will have a positive comment to say about what this Maryland farm family is doing to grow healthy food for Marylanders.