DAY 7: Maryland, Here We Come!

We departed D.C. bright and early Tuesday heading east to Maryland.  Our first stop was at the Maryland Department of Agriculture where we received a surprise greeting by Secretary of Agriculture, Earl R. (Buddy) Hance. Secretary Hance spoke to us about the rich agriculture areas of Maryland and provided insight into the agricultural, urban and related environmental challenges that the beloved Chesapeake Bay is facing.

Resource Conservation Assistant Secretary, Royden Powell, and Operations Administrator John Rhoderick, then took over to give us insight into Maryland’s Nutrient Management Regulations and the innovative Nutrient Trading Program, respectively. The regulations were conceived to protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and give landowners the framework on how to document practices and strategies in order to accomplish this. The Nutrient Trading Program was created in order to provide landowners with the ability to establish economic incentives for reductions from all sources within a watershed. The landowner would in essence be able to earn credits for any conservation practices above and beyond what is required and then turn around and sell these credits for profit.

Next, we boarded the bus and our hosts were Rachel Melvin, Executive Secretary for the Maryland Agriculture Commission and Kurt Fuchs, LEAD Maryland Class 4 and Mid Atlantic Farm Credit’s Governmental Affairs Officer. We crossed over Maryland’s famed Bay Bridge and began our farm tour viewing the pristine hydroponic lettuces at Chesapeake Greenhouse, LLC owned and operated by John Maniscalco. John’s passion for his greens was apparent during the tour of his greenhouse!

{Mr. John Maniscalco}

The farm tour continued as we made a stop at Better Day’s Farm owned and operated by Will McNatt. Will is a poultry producer and grows for Amick Farms, a poultry processor. Our next stop at Oakland View Farm, LLC owned and operated by Scott Youse and his father-in-law, Richard Edwards. The milk production process was very new & amazing to all of us! With the exception of our resident dairymen Vance, B and Paul! The visit ended with Richard’s lovely wife, Janice, treating us to delicious refreshments!

Here is a picture of a resident Jersey Cow:

Our farm tours ended with a quick visit to Mr. Phil Callahan’s Farm. Our tour guide was Alison Howard, LEAD Maryland Class 5 & Queen Anne’s County Soil Conservation Asst. The 730-acre grain farm had many field practices that were installed to reduce sediment & nutrient runoff.

We closed the evening attending a reception and dinner at the Fisherman's Inn with LEAD Maryland (www.leadmaryland.umd.edu) a 2-year leadership fellowship program much like California Ag Leadership.  It was the end of a long day but we were all reinvigorated when CALF President Bob Gray presented the popular, "Inside the Leader's Office" featuring Mr. Jim Perdue of Perdue Farms (www.perdue.com).  Mr. Perdue discussed many facets of leadership wisdom including emotional intelligence, the importance of company culture and how much he truly valued the 360 Feedback.  He seemed to be speaking the language of Ag Leadership!

{Mr. Jim Perdue and Mr. Bob Gray)

It was a busy day for us and it was great visiting fellow farmers and learning about their challenges and successes, which are not unlike our own.

Presiding Fellows: Jensen Devaurs, B VanBeek and Susan Josue