{"id":23001,"date":"2019-02-08T10:55:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T15:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=23001"},"modified":"2019-02-08T11:19:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T16:19:14","slug":"deadline-extended-to-march-15-for-farmers-applying-for-grants-to-establish-healthy-soil-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2019\/02\/08\/deadline-extended-to-march-15-for-farmers-applying-for-grants-to-establish-healthy-soil-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadline Extended to March 15 for Farmers Applying for Grants to Establish Healthy Soil Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23006\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23006\" data-attachment-id=\"23006\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?fit=2980%2C1676&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2980,1676\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;USDA\/Lance Cheung&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;20 minutes after a rain simulator applied 2 inches of water on this highly tilled soil, from a plot that does not use a cover crop, hands remain dry as the soil is crushed by hand. The soil has no ability to hold moisture at the level of plant roots, after a short intense watering, as demonstrated, during the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service soil health demonstration event \\u201cThe Bundled Benefits of Soil Health\\u201d features a rain simulator that showers about two inches of water on five different soil surfaces, showing the pass through results in clear containers, on Thursday, September 18, 2014 in the People\\u2019s Garden, on the grounds of the USDA headquarters, in Washington, D.C. The trays contain soil form local farms and represent: 1. Cropland that is regularly tilled, using mechanical equipment and has no cover crop. 2. Cropland that is not tilled and uses cover crops to add organic material and manage the soil health. 3. The empty pan represents paved over soil. 4. Grassland that has been over grazed and compacted. 5. Grassland that uses managed grazing, allowing the soil and cover crop to recover. The rain simulator catches the water runoff, in clear containers to show the various levels of water that drained out of the soil and away from the root system. Results range from pavement that sheds all of the water; to grassland that uses managed grazing and retains all of the water. After the demonstration, tilled soil was dry and dusty minutes after the water was turned off. No-till soil with cover crop, shows moisture throughout and live worms still alive and burrowed in the soil that maintained its structural integrity until pulled apart. This demonstration shows some of the results of best management practices currently being used across the country.  Followed this are interactive discussions about the benefits of voluntary, incentive based conservation programs to both agriculture and the environment. It also highlig&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1411070306&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Healthy Soils\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Photo credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?fit=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-23006\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?resize=550%2C309\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?w=1520 1520w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/15288092801_4251cb9a77_o-1.jpg?w=2280 2280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-23006\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/p><\/div>\n<h3><em>Funding Available for Projects in Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne\u2019s and Talbot Counties<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><strong>ANNAPOLIS, MD <\/strong>\u2014 Farmers in Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne\u2019s and Talbot counties who are interested in obtaining financial and technical support to establish healthy soil practices on their farms now have until <strong>March 15<\/strong> to apply for assistance through their local soil conservation district offices. The original deadline was extended to allow more farmers to take advantage of this unique opportunity to test the latest practices and technologies for building healthy soils on their farms.<\/p>\n<p>This funding opportunity is made possible by a federal grant secured by the Maryland Department of Agriculture to support the installation of healthy soil practices that allow farmers to gain experience using the latest technological advances. The department was awarded a five year, $1 million Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service.<\/p>\n<p>Conservation practices eligible for funding and technical assistance include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adaptive nutrient management (a process used to evaluate and adjust nutrient application and utilization strategies over multiple seasons);<\/li>\n<li>Multi-species cover crops;<\/li>\n<li>Conservation crop rotations;<\/li>\n<li>Variable rate technology for applying nutrients;<\/li>\n<li>Residual and tillage management;<\/li>\n<li>Precision farming;<\/li>\n<li>Edge-of-field tools to identify and reduce agricultural sources of excess nutrients;<\/li>\n<li>Composting;<\/li>\n<li>Forage and biomass plantings;<\/li>\n<li>And other practices that support and enhance soil health.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Farmers in participating counties should contact their soil conservation district by <strong>March 15<\/strong> to apply for this program. For more information about Maryland\u2019s healthy soils initiatives, please contact the department\u2019s Office of Resource Conservation at 410-841-5865 or visit their <a href=\"https:\/\/mda.maryland.gov\/resource_conservation\/Pages\/default.aspx\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">###<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MdAgDept\">@MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funding Available for Projects in Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne\u2019s and Talbot Counties ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2014 Farmers in Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne\u2019s and Talbot counties who are interested in obtaining financial and technical support to establish healthy soil practices on their farms now have until March 15 to apply for assistance through their local soil conservation<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2019\/02\/08\/deadline-extended-to-march-15-for-farmers-applying-for-grants-to-establish-healthy-soil-practices\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23008,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23001\/revisions\/23008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}