Composting ! Fall Farm Stewardship Meeting Report

          On October 13, 2014, the Maryland Horse Council Farm Stewardship Committee held its fall meeting with a focus on composting.  Rain threatened but about fifteen people came to lovely Brooke Grove Farm in Olney to learn more about composting.  Farm owner Dr. Charles Mess is an avid composter.  He has about fifteen stabled horses and twenty field-boarded horses on 203 acres of pastures and hay fields.  Brooke Grove is one of the now twenty Certified Agricultural Conservation Stewards horse farms under the Farm Stewardship Certification and Assessment Program (FSCAP). 

         The meeting was held at one end of the indoor arena.  Refreshments were sponsored by Piedmont Insurance, represented at the meeting by Matt Curran. Thanks again for this sponsorship!  Jane Thery, Farm Stewardship Committee Chair, opened the meeting with a review of the data on Maryland horse farms and the Chesapeake Bay watershed areas.  She noted that modern composting of horse manure not only makes good use of a local and natural source of soil nutrients but keeps these nutrients out of the water system.  This reduces the algae bloom that damages aquatic life. 

        Mollie Bogardus, Equine and Agricultural Specialist of Green Mountain Technologies, presented a new technology called "Earth Flow" to convert stall waste into reusable bedding.  Her sample of the final product looked something like dark mulch.  The system is being installed as a pilot project at Days End Farm. 

        Dr. Mess explained his composting operation. He has three piles which are about thirty feet long and three to four feet high.  The first pile has fresh stall waste.  The middle pile has actively composting manure and bedding.  This pile was aerated as it was moved.  The internal temperature reaches 140-170 degrees Fahrenheit which kills seeds and pathogens.  The third pile is compost ready to be used.  The composting piles are on a large cement pad separated from the stalls by the indoor arena but with easy access for stall cleaners.   Dr. Mess spreads the final compost on his hay fields using a finely-calibrated spreader.  He uses the hay he produces for the horses on the farm.

        Eddie Franceschi, Equine Resource Conservationist, Montgomery Soil Conservation District, explained the cost-sharing programs through his office, including support for the composting pad.  He noted that technical assistance is also available for soil testing and effective compost application.

        A special thanks to Dr. Mess for hosting this meeting on his impressive farm. 

      

Restoration Spotlight: Maryland horse farmers steward the land

Check out this great article in Chesapeake Bay News about Maryland Horse Council member Waredaca.  A link to the article can be found HERE.

Chesapeake Bay News

Oct

07

2014

Restoration Spotlight: Maryland horse farmers steward the land

Nestled next to Patuxent River State Park in Laytonsville, Maryland, are the 220 rolling, vegetation-rich acres of Waredaca horse farm. Husband and wife Robert and Gretchen Butts are the second generation to manage the family farm since Robert’s parents purchased the property in 1953. To them, Waredaca is more than just a business: it is their home.

The farm has evolved from a summer camp to a boarding stable for more than 80 horses, 30 of which are directly owned by Waredaca; recreational and competitive riders board the rest. The farm continues to host a youth summer camp, hold eventing competitions and offer year-round riding lessons. “To be able to make a living doing things you love—and to do it at home—is the best. This place is my life, and that’s pretty special,” Robert said.

The Butts’ connection to their land has sparked a deep sense of environmental stewardship within their family. “We’ve been here our whole lives, and plan on being here a long time. I think for a large portion of the agricultural community, that’s the case. Many have been motivated conservationists for years,” Robert explained.

A prominent part of Maryland’s environmental efforts to conserve farmland has included the equine community.  “In recent years, certainly the state and Montgomery County have clarified in legislation that horses are a part of agriculture and therefore the services and outreach pertain to them,” said Robert. “Outreach to the equine community has been particularly important to [increasing] participation [in restoration initiatives].”

The Maryland Horse Council has been a strong partner with the state’s Farm Stewardship Certification and Assessment Program (FSCAP), which certifies agricultural stewards throughout the state. Since its development in 2010, FSCAP, administered by the Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts (MASCD), has conducted 131 reviews on 108 farms and certified 91 agricultural conservation stewards protecting 27,000 acres in 16 counties. The Maryland Horse Council has helped FSCAP certify 20 horse farms.

According to the state, any farm with more than eight “animal units”—normally defined as one mature cow weighing about 1,000 pounds and her suckling calf—is required to follow a nutrient management plan to ensure that excess manure is properly disposed of. Assessors from FSCAP are trained by theMaryland Department of Agriculture to review nutrient management plans with the same attention to detail provided by official inspectors. Assessors also inspect other “best management practices” (BMPs), which reduce pollution and improve habitat on farmland. When certified, each steward gets his or her own webpage on the FSCAP website and the landowner receives a large sign to place on their property, advertising their environmental stewardship.

“The program was created in order to provide some positive recognition for farmers that are doing a great job [caring for the land], in light of what seems like fairly constant criticism about agriculture’s role in polluting the Chesapeake Bay,” said FSCAP Project Leader Gerald Talbert. “We carefully gathered core partners for this program because we wanted both the agricultural and the environmental communities to be involved.”

"Many stewards feel that certification means more than just personal recognition; it’s also good for business,especially with farms that deal directly with the public” Talbert said. “ So far, we’ve provided 91 signs, but there are 133 signs displayed.

By working together, Robert and Gerald were able to identify and address a streamside fencing issue that thwarted Waredaca’s certification efforts. The problem has since been fixed and the farm has been certified.

The Butts follow a nutrient management plan, composting their manure and spreading it on their fields to encourage rich soil and healthy pastures. They have also put a number of BMPs in place: a manure storage facility, a spring-fed water tank and stream-side buffers with fencing to keep horses out of streams, thereby keeping the surrounding creeks and streams clean.

The Butts also practice rotational grazing. Strategically moving livestock to fresh pastures can allow previously grazed fields to regenerate, and is a preferred practice for fighting overgrazing. But many farmers do not have the space to rotate their grazing pastures, leading to field erosion and thesedimentation of rivers, streams and the Bay.

“We are very blessed to have a lot of room where the horses can roam,” Robert said. “Lack of space can be a limiting factor for many [horse-owners]. Overgrazing is a very common thing in the horse business, and will be hard to eliminate completely because of the way horses eat. Cows don’t eat the grass all the way down to the ground, but horses do,” he explained.

Through the efforts of programs like FSCAP and the willingness of farmers like the Butts to sign on to voluntary conservation programs, stewardship certification programs are gaining traction among the agricultural community.  “Part of the effort here is not just to recognize those folks that have already done a great job, but to also provide incentive for someone to step up and put those one or two BMPs in place that they may have been missing to meet the standard,” said Talbert.

To view more photos, visit the Chesapeake Bay Program's Flickr page.

About Jenna Valente - Jenna is the Communications Office Staffer for the Chesapeake Bay Program. She developed a passion for conservation through her outdoorsy nature and being raised in Hawaii, Washington State and Maine. A graduate of the University of Maine's Communication program, she loves any opportunity to educate the public about the importance of conserving the environment.

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Horse Manure Management Survey Preliminary Results

Maryland Horse Council

Horse Manure Management Surveys Project

Preliminary Results

August 2014

The Maryland Horse Council received a grant from the Maryland Horse Industry Board to conduct a series of surveys on horse manure management throughout the state.  This issue was identified as a priority concern at the 2009 Maryland Horse Forum.   Under this grant, the first survey was sent out electronically to horse farms.  The survey is voluntary and all results are anonymous.  To date, we have received over 200 responses from horse farms located throughout the state.  Here are the preliminary findings of the survey.

Ø      Most have 1-5 horses (43%), 6-9 horses (16%), 10-19 horses (20%). 20-49 horses (14%), 50-100 horses (6%), over 100 horses (1%)

Ø      Most keep horses in stalls for some period (80%)

Ø      Most keep horses in stalls for 7-10 hours in the summer (41%) and 11-14 hours in the winter (44%)

Ø      Most use sawdust for bedding (59%) followed by wood shavings (22%)

Ø      42% compost and then spread horse manure and bedding

Ø      30% compost and give away composted material

Ø      21% pile horse manure and have it hauled away

Ø      17% spread un-composted horse manure and bedding

Ø      13% put horse manure and bedding in dumpsters to be hauled off

Ø      3% compost and sell composted manure

Ø      59% use horse manure as a fertilizer on their own farm, 41% do not

Ø      The most common equipment/infrastructure for manure management are a compost pile, spreader and bucket loader

Ø      Most farms dedicate 1-5 person hours per week to manure management (in addition to regular stall cleaning)

Ø      If the manure is hauled off the farm, 65% reported a monthly pick up, 19% weekly, 16% bi-weekly

Ø      Hauling fees range from $90 to $1000 depending on amount and frequency

Ø      15 hauling companies for horse manure were identified

Ø      Most horse farms (50%) do not know where their haulers take the manure, 32% goes to a composing facility, 10% to mushroom farms, 6% to a landfill and 2% to a nursery

Ø      Most horse farms (67%) would not haul their own horse manure to a regional composting facility

Ø      Over half (59%) were satisfied with their system of manure management, 34% somewhat satisfied, 7% not satisfied

Ø      Most of those unsatisfied with their present manure management system cited cost as their primary concern (46%), followed by lack of information on alternatives (22%), lack of space on the farm (20%) and time limitations (12%)

Ø      Statements on the ideal manure management system include on-farm composting for on-farm use, on-farm composting for sale/gifts and hauling off at no or low cost

Ø      Most farms (79%) have never used available technical assistance or cost sharing programs from state or county agencies. Of the 21% who did use these programs, a third found them helpful, a third found them not helpful and a third found them somewhat helpful. Of this 21% who used the programs, most (70%) would like to have more funding available.

Ø      Final comments from respondents to the question, “Are there any other issues related to horse manure management that you recommend be added to the agenda of the Maryland Horse Council?”  (shortened versions)

“Need more access to information”

“Find a way for horse people to sell their manure”

“Assure that haulers are disposing of the manure properly”

“Need cost effective systems”

“Connect manure users with providers”

“Reduce paperwork”

“Help small farm operators”

“Pest control”

“Study persistent herbicides”

“More information on state, county and municipal laws and regulations”

“More training on composting and manure management”

Preliminary conclusions:

Ø      Many small horse farms are interested in on-farm composting

Ø      The manure hauling business is very locally-driven and segmented

Ø      There are concerns about cost and regulations for manure management

Ø      There is un-met demand for technical and financial assistance for manure management

Maryland Horse Council Farm Stewardship Committee

Fall Meeting

Composting!

Monday, October 13

Columbus Day

2:00 – 4:00 pm

Brooke Grove Farm

A Certified Agricultural Conservation Steward

                                                             18420 Brooke Grove Road                         

Olney, Maryland

Agenda

Welcome: Jane Thery, Chair, Maryland Horse Council Farm Stewardship Committee

Tour of the Brooke Grove Farm Composting Operation:

 Dr. Charlie Mess, Owner, Brooke Grove Farm

Composting Options for Small, Medium and Large Farms: 

Mollie Bogardus, Equine and Agriculture Specialist, Green Mountain Technologies

Technical and Financial Assistance for Composting:  

Eddie Franceschi, Equine Resource Conservationist, Montgomery Soil Conservation District

Refreshments Provided

Click HERE to reserve your space!

Pasture Walk Scheduled for TONIGHT!

Composting ! October 13: Next Farm Stewardship Meeting

Hold the Date

 

Monday, October 13

Columbus Day

2:00 – 4:00 pm

 

Brooke Grove Farm

18420 Brooke Grove Road

Olney, Maryland

 

Composing:  Modern Management of

Our Organic Horse Manure

 

Tour of the Brooke Grove Farm Composting Operation by Charlie Mess

 

Details on Other Speakers Coming Soon

 

Refreshments Provided