Delmarva Farmer Columnists

Program offers opportunity to improve conservation (Sept. 7, 2010)

Keeping the Farm

By Jayme Arthurs, Program Specialist, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Delaware

It seems that out of all of the producers that I’ve talked to — most, if not all of them— want to leave their land better than they found it.
Many for different reasons: Some of them want to provide a piece of fertile land as a family legacy for future generations, while others simply feel they need to give something back to the land which has given them so much.
Conservation is one of the ways that many farmers address and improve the natural resource concerns on their operation.
One of the newest programs offered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service encourages producers to go above and beyond with conservation activities on private agricultural lands.
The voluntary Conservation Stewardship Program offers payments to producers who exercise good land stewardship and agree to further improve their conservation performance.
CSP is available to all producers regardless of operation size, crops produced, or geographic location.
The program offers producers the opportunity to sign up year round.
However, the next batching date for applications will be Oct. 30, 2010 for the 2011 crop year.
In fiscal year 2010, Delaware NRCS enrolled 26 contracts totaling $1.8 million (over the five-year contract period) for conservation activities on more than 15,000 acres.
Eligible lands for CSP include cropland, pastureland, and non-industrial private forest land.
CSP pays participants for conservation performance — the higher the performance, the higher the payment.
CSP offers participants two possible types of payments:
• Annual payment for installing and adopting additional activities and improving, maintaining and managing existing activities; and
• Supplemental payment for the adoption of resource-conserving crop rotations.
There are dozens of conservation activities that producers can install or adopt to address, improve, or enhance air quality, soil quality, water quality and wildlife habitat.
One of the more popular enhancement activities is cover crop planting.
Planting and growing cover crops during inactive periods between annual crops reduce wind and water erosion.
Cover crops improve water quality; they also restore and maintain soil productivity and soil quality over varying climates and crop species.
They increase organic matter, improve soil fertility and break pest cycles.
Potential applicants are encouraged to use the CSP self-screening checklist to determine whether CSP is suitable for their operation.
The checklist highlights basic information about CSP eligibility requirements, contract obligations, and payments.
The checklist and additional information about CSP are available on the Delaware NRCS website at www.de.nrcs.usda.gov.
CSP is offered in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Pacific and Caribbean areas.
To apply for CSP, visit a local USDA Service Center.
In Sussex County, call 302-856-3990, ext. 3; in Kent County, call 302-741-2600, ext. 3; and in New Castle County, call 302-832-3100, ext. 3.

FSA: Maybe your best friend yet (Sept. 7, 2010)

Shepherd’s Notebook

By Susan Schoenian, Sheep and Goat Specialist, University of Maryland Extension

The third annual Western Maryland Goat Field Day & Sale will be held on Saturday, Oct. 2, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center near Boonsboro, Md.
The sale will feature the top-performing bucks from the 2010 Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test.
Bucks that meet Gold, Silver, and Bronze standards of performance for growth, parasite resistance, and parasite resilience, and minimum standards for reproductive and structural soundness will be offered for sale via public auction.  
The sale will also include an invitational doe sale.
Last year, 11 Kiko bucks qualified for the sale. Selling prices ranged from $200 to $1,050.  
Thirty-four Kiko and Boer does were consigned; prices ranged from $150 to $550.
All of the goats will be sold via “silent” auction.
A silent auction is the same as a live auction, except that bidding is done on paper and the goats are not paraded through a sale ring.  
A silent auction allows for more thoughtful purchases.  
The bidding period will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  
The person with the highest bid at the end of the bidding period gets the goat. There are currently 67 bucks on test.  
They are mostly Kiko and Kiko cross with a few Boers, Myotonics, Savannas and other crosses.
The record-setting heat and drought in Washington County has resulted in poor quality pasture throughout most of the testing period.
Thus, the goats in this year’s pasture test are truly proving their hardiness and adaptability.
Any goat can do well on plentiful feed.
Information pertaining to the bucks can be found on the test’s blog at http://mdgoattest.blogspot.com. Pictures and data of the top-performing bucks will be posted to the web soon after final selections are made on Sept. 23.
Once the doe consignments have been received, a sale catalog will be posted to the web.
The field day will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
Dr. Paul Kuber, a research animal scientist from Ohio State University, will be the featured speaker. He will cut up two goat carcasses and prepare it for tasting.
He will contrast the meat from bucks and wethers and from grass-fed and grain-fed goats.
Running concurrent to the field day will be a Junior Goat Skillathon for youth, ages 8 to 18.  
In the skillathon, youth will be tested on their knowledge of meat, dairy, and fiber goats.  
Last year, 28 youth from Maryland and West Virginia competed in the first Junior Goat Skillathon.
For information about the field day, sale or skillathon, contact me at 301-432-2767, ext. 343 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Pre-registration for the skillathon is requested by Sept. 24.