Maryland Horse Council Farm Stewardship
Committee
Summer Meeting Summary
August 22, 2013
Sagamore Farm
Glyndon, Maryland
It was a truly beautiful afternoon at Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, Maryland
for our Summer Farm Stewardship meeting.
Our group of twenty-five gathered under an old shade tree in front of
Native Dancer’s Barn. Jane Thery, the
committee chair, welcomed the participants to the Farm Stewardship meeting with
a reminder of the mission of this Maryland Horse Council committee to promote
high-quality horse farm land management for healthy horses and a healthy
natural environment. She reviewed the
agenda and introduced Randy Lewis, our host at Sagamore Farm. Randy gave a brief history of this 530-acre
racing and breeding operation. The farm
was successful under the ownership of Alfred Vanderbilt from 1933 to 1986 and
was the home of Hall of Fame horses Native Dancer, Bed of Roses and
Discovery. In 2007, Under Armour CEO
Kevin Plank purchased the farm and began a major renovation of the barns, track
and pastures and established his own Sagamore breeding and training operation. His top trainers, Ignacio Correa and Graham
Motion, are doing well with Sagamore stakes horses.
Randy gave the group a tour of the
impressive oval barn, the new high-tech surface on the training track and the
modern training barn designed by John Blackburn. John presented his new book, “Healthy Stables
by Design” which includes photos and information on the natural light and
ventilation of the Sagamore stables.
Jon Passero, the Land Stewardship
and Facilities Manager, described how the farm was renovated with new pasture
plantings of orchard grass and blue grass.
He noted that the orchard grass was doing very well. The new farm design fenced off all the
streams and manages water run-off to avoid erosion. Pastures are rotated and fertilized based on
careful soil testing and analysis. All
manure from the stables is shipped off to the mushroom growers. Jon began his career in the plant nursery
business and noted that, with available technical assistance and professional
guidance, it is possible to successfully take on a large operation such as
Sagamore and have very positive land stewardship results. He found the Farm Stewardship Certification
and Assessment Program (FSCAP) promoted by the Maryland Horse Council to be an
easy win for Sagamore as the farm is managed to the highest standards. Jon was pleased that Sagamore was one of the
eleven horse farms recognized by Maryland Governor O’Malley for FSCAP
certification. Gerald Talbert, Project
Leader of the FSCAP program, congratulated Sagamore on their land management
practices.
Ciara McMurtrie, Baltimore County
Soil Conservation District Equine Specialist, told the group of her own
background with horses and opportunity to work with horse farms to improve
pastures and farm management. She
underlined that her office is providing help with advice and access to
cost-sharing programs and is not in the business of enforcing regulations. Ciara said that work with the right grass
seeding mixtures continues with analysis of orchard grass, fescue, blue grass
and Bermuda grass. She said that each
farm and indeed each pasture of each farm is most successful with targeted
planting according to the soil, slope, location, etc. Ciara reminded the group that newly seeded
pastures require at least six months without horses to become established. She is ready to provide assistance with
pastures, manure management and storage, rainwater run-off, stream crossings
and any other aspect of quality farm management.
Doug Myers, Maryland Scientist at
the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, presented an update on the Maryland Agricultural
Certainty Program regulations. Doug was
instrumental in the design of this new legislation which has the dual purpose
of bringing Maryland up to speed in protecting the Chesapeake Bay and helping
the agricultural sector through science-based regulations and predictable time-frames. The concept of agricultural certainty is that
farms that meet all present regulations for nutrient management – basically
minimizing run-off of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment – will have a ten-year
grace period before having to meet any new regulations. Doug stated that the baseline will most
likely be a combination of the FSCAP requirements plus a farm measurement of
actual run-off using sophisticated software.
The regulations will be based on the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water
Blueprint that sets goals and includes modern methods of measuring farm
run-off. Issues yet to be addressed are
whether standards will be uniform across Maryland, how to best collect the data
and how to protect the privacy of individual farms while analyzing watershed
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Chesapeake Bay. Doug hopes to work with our FSCAP certified
horse farms to help develop regulations which are user-friendly for our horse
community. He noted that there are plans
to establish a nutrient trading system and, as well-managed horse farms are
positive contributors to the environment, they would benefit from being able to
sell nutrient credits on the exchange.
Doug said that he would be glad to hear from any horse-farm owners with
questions as the regulatory discussions continue. He said that our own MHC Executive Committee
member Steuart Pittman ably represents horse farm owners and managers on the
advisory committee. Doug said that the
draft regulations should be circulated for public comment in the next couple of
months.
Carolyn Krome, owner of Persimmon
Tree Farm which was the first FSCAP certified horse farm,
spoke on naturalizing your horse farm.
She recommends finding buffer areas and areas that are not suitable for
pasture and planting native grasses to both hold the soil and provide wildlife
habitat. She showed the group a
beautiful stand of grasses from her farm, including wild flowers that attract
butterflies. Carolyn strongly recommends
checking out the weekly publication “Lancaster Farming – Southern Edition” for
naturalizing tips and sources of financing for technical assistance. She has worked successfully with the USDA
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and organizations such as Pheasant,
Quail and Trout Unlimited on natural habitat restoration. Unfortunately, the quail she tried to
introduce to their new habitat served as a meal for other wildlife in the
area! Carolyn would be glad to provide
guidance to anyone interested in these FSCAP-plus measures to improve your farm
for your horses, natural flora and fauna and to contribute to a beautiful
landscape.
Finally, Jennifer Reynolds,
representing the University of Maryland Equine program, invited everyone to
visit the Maryland State Fair and to attend two upcoming Pasture Management
Seminars: September 7 at Sagamore Farm in Baltimore County and September 21 at
Hassler Dressage at Riveredge in Cecil County. Jane Thery closed the program thanking our
sponsors, Randy Lewis of Sagamore Farm for hosting the meeting and Andy Bennett
of the Piedmont Insurance Group for the fine refreshments and corporate gifts
for the group.
Information on the
autumn Maryland Horse Council Farm Stewardship meeting will be available
soon.
