VIENNA, MD (August 16, 2011) \u2013\u00a0 Surrounded by fields of soybeans, Governor Martin O\u2019Malley today joined Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance, agricultural leaders, local farmers, and elected officials to announce record cover crop acreage by Maryland farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with Maryland\u2019s farmers to protect family farms and agriculture jobs, and to keep family farming profitable,\u201d said Governor O\u2019Malley. \u201cToday\u2019s announcement is great news for our farmers who continue to take strong conservation actions to diversify their farming operations and use new and innovative ways to protect the Chesapeake Bay. Together, we are creating jobs and supporting rural economies, improving our quality of life, and securing the future of Maryland agriculture and our environment for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Governor O\u2019Malley announced that Maryland has approved a record 550,000 acres of winter grains to date in the Cover Crop Program, which were requested by a record 1,767 farmers \u2013 206 of which were new to the program this year. This record acreage represents 155 percent of the Phase I Watershed Implementation Plan goals for cover crops.\u00a0 Cover crops are one of the most cost-effective means of helping to restore the Chesapeake Bay.<\/p>\n
Cover crops are planted in the fall after the autumn harvest to help farmers control soil erosion and reduce the amount of nutrients washing into the bay over the winter.\u00a0 Once established, cover crops recycle unused plant nutrients remaining in the soil from the previous summer crop, protect fields against wind and water erosion, and help improve the soil for the next year\u2019s crop.\u00a0 Maryland\u2019s Cover Crop Program provides farmers with grants to plant cover crops on their fields immediately following the summer crop harvest<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is Maryland\u2019s cover crop program a very attractive and flexible program, it has the potential to do more for the Bay than ever before. Maryland farmers are on track to exceed the Phase I Watershed Implementation Plan milestone for cover crops with record number of approved acres,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Hance. \u201cWe commend and thank all farmers who, together, have enrolled more than half a million acres of small grain crops that protect our soil and water by taking up any left over nutrients and preventing soil erosion over the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top counties ranked by the largest percentage of eligible farmland enrolled:
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Allegany 702\/800 acres\u00a0 \u2013 88 percent
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Calvert 5,616\/6,600 acres\u00a0 \u2013 85 percent
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Montgomery 21, 167\/26,000 \u2013 81 percent
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Somerset 25,144\/31,500 \u2013 80 percent<\/p>\n
Top counties ranked by most acres enrolled:
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Queen Anne\u2019s \u2013 63,838
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kent \u2013 57,799
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Talbot \u2013 55,322
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Frederick \u2013 43,434
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dorchester \u2013 40,991<\/p>\n
The announcement was made at Lazy Day Farms\/Layton\u2019s Chance Vineyard & Winery in Dorchester County. The Layton family manages more than 1,800 acres, including 1,250 acres of grain, 12 acres of grapes and owns\/operates the winery. The Laytons are innovative, agricultural leaders and Governor\u2019s Hall of Fame inductees.\u00a0 They are known for their use of technology and forward thinking, conservation and environmental stewardship and service to the county and the industry. A brief slideshow featuring the Laytons is available here.<\/p>\n
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VIENNA, MD (August 16, 2011) \u2013\u00a0 Surrounded by fields of soybeans, Governor Martin O\u2019Malley today joined Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance, agricultural leaders, local farmers, and elected officials to announce record cover crop acreage by Maryland farmers. \u201cWe are working with Maryland\u2019s farmers to protect family farms and agriculture jobs, and to keep Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[916],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-cover-crop"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}