12/17/02
By MARK POWELL
Maryland Farm Bureau delegates called upon the state to maintain a deep water port for the grain trade in the state.
Meeting in Ocean City, Dec. 10, the farmers from all parts of the state endorsed the resolution aimed at pushing the state to work with Archer-Daniels-Midland to repair facilities at the Port of Baltimore. The ADM grain facility there has not functioned since being damaged two years ago. The state and ADM are wrangling over who should pay for repairs at the facility.
In the meantime, Maryland farmers are lamenting the loss of an outlet for their soybeans to compete with major purchaser, Salisbury-based Perdue Farms.
“We believe that the state should pursue all avenues in getting this facility reopened or relocated as soon as possible as this market is critical for the long-term survival of cash grain producers in the state.”
The most spirited debate among the farmer-delegates involved discussion of policy on the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Delegates from Worcester County pushed for language in the policy which would calls for land to be owned for two years before being eligible for CREP.
Bob Ward, a Worcester County Farm Bureau delegate, said people are moving into the Lower Shore county, buying farmland and immediately putting large parts of it into the conservation program. He and other farmers said such practices were taking land away from tenant farmers.
Ned Sayre, Harford County Farm Bureau President, argued that the proposal was in direct conflict with Farm Bureau’s long-standing belief that property owners have the right to do with their land as they see fit.
In the end, Sayre and other like-thinking Farm Bureau members won the debate.
CREP policy adopted by the body did list many proposed changes in the program’s current rules.
The CREP resolution as passed called for seven actions:
• CREP contracts should issued for land that’s proven to impact water quality not for land that’s sole value would be for wildlife habitat;
• Buffer widths should be reduced from the current 300-foot maximum;
• Buffers next to ditches should have a maximum width of 50 feet and buffers should not have trees within 35 feet of a ditch to allow for maintenance of the ditch;
• Regulations should be developed to require mosquito and weed control on CREP buffers;
• Mowing of CREP buffers should be required annually if weeds cannot be controlled by other means;
• Rental rates for CREP contracts should have a sliding scale, paying more for land adjacent to water and less for land closer to productive soils; and
• USDA Landlord-tenant rules should be strictly enforced to prevent losses to farmer who have already invested resources into land being considered for CREP.
On nutrient management, a resolution passed calling for a re-allocation of resources to provide for nutrient management at county Extension offices and for increasing the pay of nutrient management consultants to make the comparable to the private sector and the agriculture department. The resolution also called for streamlining a program to help farmers write their own nutrient management plans.
Delegates also amended its policy on gambling to say: “We support using a percentage of the funding raised through slots at the racetracks to improve education in Maryland.”
And, delegates voted to lift the organization’s opposition to Sunday hunting as a control of deer.