{"id":28242,"date":"2024-05-30T11:54:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T15:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=28242"},"modified":"2024-05-30T11:54:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T15:54:44","slug":"photo-release-department-welcomes-bourbourg-ufa-for-two-day-agricultural-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2024\/05\/30\/photo-release-department-welcomes-bourbourg-ufa-for-two-day-agricultural-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTO RELEASE: Department Welcomes Bourbourg UFA for Two-Day Agricultural Tour\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 30, 2024)<\/strong>– The\u00a0Maryland Department of Agriculture<\/strong>\u00a0recently welcomed students from\u00a0Bourbourg UFA<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>for a tour of Maryland agriculture.\u00a0 Located in the region of\u00a0Hauts-de-France<\/strong>, a\u00a0Sister State<\/a>\u00a0to Maryland since 2020, Bourbourg UFA serves as a training school for students interested in pursuing careers in technical fields, including agriculture. Students and faculty spent the two-day tour visiting farms and agricultural operations in\u00a0Western Maryland<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Eastern Shore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSharing Maryland agriculture with these students is not only beneficial to their education but gives us a chance to show off the incredible work being done in Maryland agriculture on an international level,\u201d said\u00a0Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks<\/strong>. \u201cI am thrilled they chose to visit Maryland and look forward to our continued collaboration and discussions about agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Day one of the tour saw stops in Western Maryland starting with a visit to\u00a0Hough Family Showpigs<\/strong>, a family-first show pig breeder located in Western Howard County. Students learned about the intricate process of breeding and gene selection for show pigs and were able to observe adult pigs and their piglets, witnessing\u00a0 firsthand how artificial insemination is performed on pigs. Next was a stop at\u00a0Misty Meadow Farm Creamery<\/strong>, a fourth-generation family-owned dairy farm nestled in the heart of western Maryland. The students were amazed to learn about the innovative technology used to milk the cows and gained further insight into Maryland dairy operations.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n

The group then toured\u00a0Coldsprings Farms<\/strong>\u00a0in New Windsor. Owner\/operator Matt Hoff shared with students what the Maryland dairy landscape looks like and provided the students a breakdown of his nutritional mix for dairy cattle feed. The day ended at\u00a0Lippy Brothers Farms<\/strong>, a family-owned and operated grain and vegetable farm located in Hampstead. The students enjoyed interacting with the impressive farming equipment used on the farm, and learned about the different techniques employed to cultivate and harvest various crops.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Day two centered around Eastern Shore operations, including a stop at\u00a0University of Maryland\u2019s Wye River Research and Education Center<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Wye Angus farm<\/strong>.\u00a0 Learning about the vital role the University of Maryland has in agriculture, students also were able to witness the breeding operation at Wye Angus.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n

The tour wrapped up with a stop at\u00a0Atlantic Tractor<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0Queen Anne<\/strong>, during which\u00a0Assistant Secretary for Resource Conservation Hans Schmidt<\/strong>\u00a0spoke about the importance of Maryland\u2019s conservation efforts.\u00a0 From no till practices to stream buffers, Assistant Secretary Schmidt shared how Maryland farmers work in the context of the Chesapeake Bay and the environment.<\/p>\n

“The Maryland Sister States Program, managed by my Office, provides a government-to-government platform to carry out mutually beneficial bilateral projects with Maryland\u2019s global partners in various sectors at the subnational level,\u201d said\u00a0Maryland Secretary of State Susan Lee<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cI appreciate the support of Secretary Atticks and his staff as we govern through partnership in this important area of agricultural training and look forward to more exchanges with our friends in Hauts-de-France.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Upon their return to France, the students reflected on their experience in Maryland.\u00a0 \u201cThank you to the MDA for introducing us to American agriculture.We were impressed by our visits and never thought we would experience it one day, we will never forget it!\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Facebook\u00a0@MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 30, 2024)– The\u00a0Maryland Department of Agriculture\u00a0recently welcomed students from\u00a0Bourbourg UFA\u00a0for a tour of Maryland agriculture.\u00a0 Located in the region of\u00a0Hauts-de-France, a\u00a0Sister State\u00a0to Maryland since 2020, Bourbourg UFA serves as a training school for students interested in pursuing careers in technical fields, including agriculture. Students and faculty spent the two-day tour visiting farms  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"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-28242","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\/28242","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\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28246,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28242\/revisions\/28246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}