July 2020

The University of Maryland Extension programs are open to all citizens and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental

disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression. The information given herein is supplied with the

understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by University of Maryland Extension is implied.

www.extension.umd.edu/baltimore-county Local Governments • U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperating

IN THIS ISSUE

1 Post– Emergent

Application to Dicamba

Tolerant Soybeans

2 Food Safety Fridays

2 Food Preservation

Classes

3 Cash Leasing Options

3 Baltimore County Weed

Control Program

4 Cover Crop Program

5 Cutting Height in Forages

5 Baltimore County Seeks

Local Produce

6 Dates to Remember

BALTIMORE COUNTY OFFICE • 1114 Shawan Road, Suite 2, Cockeysville, MD 21030 • 410-887-8090 FAX 410-785-5950

Educating People To Help Themselves

The Extension Offices will remain

CLOSED u ntil at least July 20th

due to COVID-19. Faculty and

Staff will be teleworking.

Treating Dicamba Soybeans with Post-Emergence Application

Mark VanGessel, Weed Specialist, University of Delaware

On June 3rd, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency terminated the labels on 3 of the 4 Dicamba products. Dicamba that was in the possession of commercial and private ap-plicators as of June 3, 2020 can be sprayed through July 31, 2020. All precautions and restrictions on sensitive crops, temperature, wind speed and direction, and application equipment are still in place. As temperatures begin to increase, the risk of off-target movement has increased as well. Most of these products recommend additional precau-tions when temperatures exceed 91°F to compensate for evaporation. If you had intended to use one of the formulations of dicamba impacted by this ruling, but did not have possession of the product, there are some available options. Palmer Amaranth: Fom esafen -products (i.e. Reflex, Flexstar GT), acifluorfen (i.e. Ultra Blazer), or lactofen (Cobra) will provide control of emerged plants. Fomesafen will also provide residual control whereas acifluorfen or lactofen will not. Be aware the use of a residual herbicide with acifluorfen and lactofen can increase the severity of leaf burn; however, without the residual herbicide there is a good chance of later emerging plants. Common Ragweed: It depends on which type of resistance you have in your field. From our testing, the most wide-spread resistance is glyphosate plus ALS-resistance, there are some fields resistant to glyphosate plus ALS-herbicides plus PPO-resistance. So if you were intending to use dicamba because of glyphosate-resistant common ragweed, then fomesafen, acifluorfen, or lactofen are the best options. Even if you know you have PPO-resistance, these products will burn off most of the common ragweed leaves and so you can set back the weeds and maybe the soybean canopy will help with outcompeting a number of these plants. Horseweed: Most of our horseweed-plants are also resistant to FirstRate so chances are this is not a good choice. None of the other herbicides will control horseweed either. A suggestion would be to use glyphosate as part of your postemergence spray; glyphosate will stunt the horseweed and if there are good growing conditions the soybean canopy will help suppress the horseweed. Regardless of the postemergence herbicide you intend to use, be sure to spray while weeds are small (3 inches or less) to achieve the highest level of control possible.

2

Food Safety Fridays

The Maryland Food Safety Network will host a monthly webinar series for farm operators on how to comply with key provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act -Produce Safety Rule (PSR). The webinars will be held one Friday each month from May to November and will include experts demonstrating how to perform risk assessments, implement practices, and keep records to comply with the PSR.

July 17: Water Quality Testing and Criteria - Learn how to properly test your water, communicate with the water testing lab, and how to interpret water test results.

August 21: Wildlife Monitoring - Learn how to conduct pre-harvest assessments for wildlife and how to create appropriate buffer zones to prevent harvesting of contaminated produce.

September 18: Post-Harvest Sanitation - Learn how to create and implement cleaning and sanitizing (C/S) schedules and how to deal with tough areas such as transportation and equipment.

October 16: Use of Biological Soil Amendments - Learn how to determine if your soil amendment is a treated or untreated compost, establish composting protocols, and safely apply untreated amendments.

November 20: Creating a Food Safety Plan - Learn how to turn what you have gained throughout the webinar series into a customized food safety plan for your farm.

Register for the webinars today at foodsafetyfridays.eventbrite.com. If you are unable to participate in the webinars live, all of the webinars will be recorded and will be available to watch on a rainy day, click here. Anyone with questions about the webinar se-ries can contact Sarah Everhart at severhart@law.umaryland.edu or 410-706-7377.

Grow It at It Preserve It Zoom Sessions with Dr. Shauna Henley

Capture the Flavor: Herbs & Spices- Join us in this webinar as we ‘capture the flavor’ and discuss the health benefits,

culinary uses, history, safety and storage practices for herbs and spices.

July 3 @ 1p-2p

July 10 @ 1p-2p

Food Preservation-Canning-Growing your own 21st century Victory Garden or planning to take advantage of the fresh local

produce at farmer’s markets? Join us in this webinar, to learn science-based practices on how to preserve fruits and vegetables

so you can enjoy them all year.

July 7 @ 1p-2p

July 21 @ 1p-2p

Food Preservation-Freezing-Freezing is the easiest and quickest method to preserve fresh produce from your garden or

local farmer’s market so you ‘savor their flavors’ year round. Learn some quick tips to freeze fruits, vegetables, and proteins

without the (freezer) burn!

July 8 @ 1p-2p

Food Preservation Drying-Dried foods are easy to carry and can be tasty and nutritious snacks or healthy seasonings for

foods. Join us, as we demystify some key steps you need to know before drying herbs, produce, and jerky at home!

July 30 @ 1p-2p

July 31 @ 1p-2p

To register for any session, visit: https://foodsmartume_junjul2020.eventbrite.com

Questions: Contact Shauna Henley at shenley@umd.edu

Do you have noxious or invasive weeds on your property?

Baltimore County’s Weed Control Program can help you manage them!

Call Weed Control at 410-841-5920

3

Consider Using a Flex Cash Lease for 2021, or a Modified Fixed Cash Lease Paul Goeringer, Legal Specialist, University of Maryland Reposted from the Ag Risk Management Blog

As we move through 2020 and a potentially lower period of crop prices due to issues associated with the global pandemic, many of you might be looking at renewing existing agricultural leas-es. While you might be utilizing fixed cash rental rates or crop-share rents, with projected low crop prices, now might be the time to consider using a flex-cash lease. Flex-cash leases are a rental agreement which work like a hybrid of the cash lease and state that the tenant will pay in proportion to either or both the price and yield level. This form of a lease might be better suited for producers who are working to handle low crop prices in their operations. At the same time, if you do not want to consider a flex cash lease, you might want to consider adding language to your fixed cash lease which could reduce the rental rate if prices stay low.

What is a Flex Cash Lease?

A flex-cash lease is similar to a fixed cash lease in that the land-lord charges the tenant an amount per acre, but rent can fluctu-ate up or down depending on crop yield, market price, a combi-nation of both, or any other method agreed to by the landlord and tenant. A flex-cash lease allows the landlord to gain when market prices or crop yields increase during the crop year. But in return for the possible increase in rental payments, a landlord also loses when market prices or crop yields decrease. Under a flex-cash lease, the tenant benefits from the possibility of lower rent payments during low-yield or low-priced years. The tenant also has to share gains, however, during high-yield or high-price years through higher rental payments. This publication by the University of Nebraska does an excellent job of laying out using a flex lease and calculating the changes in rent; click here.

How to Use a Flex-Cash Lease

To get a sense of how a flex-cash lease operates, let us look at an example. Farmer Green rents 100 acres of irrigated cropland from Landlord Burns with a flex-cash lease. The terms of the flex-cash lease set a base rent at $150/acre and flexed based on corn's price. On the first day of the lease, the local elevator's cash grain price is $4.00/bu, and when the rental payment is made later in the year, the cash grain price at the local elevator is $4.25/bu. The rental rate would be $150 * (($4.25-$4.00)/$4.00)) or $150 * ($0.25/$4.00) or $150 * (0.0625) or $9.38/acre. The final rent payment would increase by $9.38/acre to be $159.38/acre or ($150 + $9.38) or $15,937.50 for the 100 acres. If the price when paying the rent is $3.38, the final rental pay-

ment would be $150/acre or $126.75/acre, depending on how the lease is structured. This is just one example of how a farm lease could be structured. You could also look at potentially uti-lizing gross revenues on the farmland, yield, or anything else the two parties could agree on.

In the second example, the rental rate could drop below the $150/acre if the price drops. This can be solved by setting a floor rental rate, such as $150/acre or another value. USDA requires that to be considered a "cash lease" and not a "crop share lease." A flex-cash lease without a floor could be considered a crop share lease. It would require splitting Farm Bill program pay-ments and other USDA support program payments (such as Market Facilitation Program and Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments) with the landlord. Looking at the example, the floor rental rate could be the $150/acre or another number that the landowner and the tenant agree on.

These are just some examples of how you can utilize a flex-cash lease. The University of Nebraska publication listed earlier is an excellent resource to start thinking about how to structure a flex-cash lease that works for you.

If you need help starting a flex-cash lease, the University of Maryland has a form flex-cash lease available here. Keep in mind, when we developed that form, we limited the flexing options, and as you are probably learning, the possibilities are broader than that. You can also add in your flex option, and you do not have to use the options listed.

In this time of considerable uncertainty, a flex-cash lease may provide an opportunity to manage risks that generally cannot be handled with a fixed cash lease or a crop-share lease. Work with your landlord to develop a flex-lease option that will work for both of you and account for this uncertainty. Make sure you are communicating with the landlord so they understand the current farm economy and why this form of leasing might be needed in 2020.

Photo by Edwin Remsburg

4

Department Announces Mail– In Applications for Cover Crop Program

Maryland Department of Agriculture

The Maryland Department of Agriculture announced that this year’s cover crop sign-up will be conducted entirely by mail from July 1 through July 17. The popular conservation program provides farmers with cost-share assistance to offset seed, la-bor, and equipment costs associated with planting cover crops on their fields in fall to build healthy soils and protect the Ches-apeake Bay.

“To help ensure the health and safety of our farmers and local soil conservation district staff, we have switched to a mail-in registration process for this year’s cover crop sign-up,” said Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. “As we continue to safely reopen the state, it is important for Maryland farmers to know they can continue to count on the department for assistance in pro-tecting valuable water and soil resources.”

Farmers who participated in last year’s cover crop program will receive registration packets in the mail later this month. The packet includes an application, program flyer, step-by-step in-structions, and return envelope that has been pre-addressed to a local soil conservation district. Beginning July 1, applications will also be available on the program’s website. To be consid-ered for cost-share, applications must be postmarked by July 17. Farm ers w ho have questions or need assis-tance with their applications should contact their local soil con-servation district.

Eligible farmers can receive up to $60/acre in cost-share grants to incorporate traditional cover crops into their fields this fall. The maximum payment for aerial seeding with incentives is $65/acre. Here are some additional highlights:

The base payment is $40/acre for incorporated seed and $45/acre for aerial seed or aerial ground seeding.

A $10/acre early planting incentive is offered for incorpo-rated seed.

Farmers who aerial seed or aerial ground seed cover crops into standing corn on or before September 10 qualify for a $10/acre incentive payment.

Incentives to terminate cover crops after May 1, 2021 may be available.

Farmers may plant cover crops after corn, soybeans, sorghum, tobacco, vegetables, and — new this year — hemp and millet.

Cover crops are important to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the productivity of Maryland’s farmland. In the fall, cold-hardy cereal grains are planted as cover crops in newly harvest-ed fields. As they grow, cover crops provide a living, protective cover against erosion and nutrient runoff while building the soil’s organic matter for the next year’s crop.

To help create diversity, eligible cover crop species may be mixed with radishes and legumes, including clover, Austrian winter peas, and hairy vetch using a variety of two and three-species mixes.

Farmers are required to include a completed current Nutrient Management Plan Certification with their cover crop applica-tions. This form may be downloaded from the website, and must be signed by both the farm operator and the person who prepared the farm’s Nutrient Management Plan.

Maryland’s Cover Crop Program is administered by the Mary-land Department of Agriculture and the state’s 24 soil conser-vation districts through the Maryland Agricultural Water Qual-ity Cost-Share (MACS) Program. Applicants must be in good standing with MACS and in compliance with Maryland’s nutri-ent management regulations. Other restrictions and conditions apply. Funding for the 2020-2021 Cover Crop program is pro-vided by the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and the Chesa-peake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund.

Here is the website for more information. https://mda.maryland.gov/resource_conservation/Pages/

cover_crop.aspx

Cutting Height in Forages: How Low Can

You Go? Dwane Miller, Extension Educator, Penn State University

Whether you're taking the crop as haylage or dry hay, it's important to pay attention to forage cutting height. One of our goals as farmers is to maximize our yield; however, cutting a crop too low can lead to several negative issues. The introduction of the disk-type mowers (discbines) al-lows for cutting very close to the ground. I've seen many fields that have been “scalped" right to ground level. This differs considerably from the older sickle bar mowers (haybines), whose technology required that some level of stubble height remain. Stand longevity can be compro-mised when the crop is cut too low. As a general rule, al-falfa can be cut closer to the ground than our grass crops. We need to think about where energy reserves are stored in the crop. For alfalfa, carbohydrates are stored below the ground in the taproot. Grasses store their energy above ground in the stem base or tillers. Frequent mow-ing at a close height will continue to deplete these energy reserves, resulting in stand longevity issues.

The second consequence for mowing too close to the ground is increased ash content of the forage. All forage has a natural ash content of approximately 6%. However, mowing too closely with disk mowers can add soil to the crop, and increase the ash content by as much as 10-12% (18% ash content in total analysis). If we all had table-top smooth fields, it would also be much easier to make a closer cut across all fields. However, things such as groundhog holes and the unevenness of fields can add to increased ash content of our harvested forage.

So, the million-dollar question is how low can you go? The best answer is…it depends! The first question I al-ways ask is — is it a solid stand or a mixed stand? If you have grasses involved, you must keep cutting height high-er than a pure stand of legume, if you want to keep the grass in the stand. Keep in mind these are minimum rec-ommendations; it's OK to mow higher than the numbers below.

Here are my Minimum cutting height recommenda-tions:

Alfalfa or Clover

2" minimum. Some literature shows a cutting height of 1" will not reduce stand longevity but re-member the increased ash content issue. Also, keep in mind that frequent cutting at early maturity will con-tinue to deplete carbohydrate reserves. One cutting of alfalfa should be allowed to reach the bloom stage each year.

Cool Season Grasses (Orchardgrass, Timothy)

4" during the establishment year

3" minimum during production years. Th is is where we see most of our stand longevity issues. Fre-quent cutting of cool season grasses at a low height will continue to deplete energy reserves.

Mixed stands

You must manage for the predominant spe-cies. Do yo u h a ve a gr a s s s ta n d w ith so m e a lfa l-fa, or an alfalfa stand with some grass?

Alfalfa with some grass: 2.5" minimum

Grass with some alfalfa: 3" minimum (if you want to keep the grass stand!)

5

Baltimore County Seeks to Buy Fresh, Local Produce to Address Food Insecurity

As part of the County’s coordinated response to help protect the well-being of our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, County Executive Johnny Olszewski is adding fresh locally grown produce to the grocery items being distributed to families in need at more than 30 distribution sites around the County. “Buying fresh, healthy produce from our own County farmers helps support this important industry, while adding another positive dimension to our commitment to ensuring that our families and seniors are able to keep putting food on their tables,” Olszewski said.

Purchasing fresh produce from local producers benefits participating farmers while providing delicious and nutritious farm-fresh food to families suffering from unprecedented unemployment and food insecurity due to the ongoing health crisis. Since March 1st Baltimore County has provided more than 3,100,000 meals through dozens of food distribution sites.

County farmers who are interested in marketing their produce to the County in support of this effort may contact Chris McCollum at cmccollum@baltimorecountymd.gov or 410-887-8023.

University of Maryland Extension

Baltimore County Office

1114 Shawan Rd., Suite 2

Cockeysville, MD 21030

DATES TO REMEMBER

July 3 &

10

Webinars: Capture the Flavor–

Herbs & Spices. 1-2pm. Free. Regis-

ter online

July 7 Webinars: Water Quality Testing

and Criteria. Free. Register online.

July 8 Webinars: Women in Ag: Designing

a Successful Pasture and Grazing

System. 12 p.m. Free. Register

online.

July 7 &

21

Webinars: Food Preservation:

Canning. 1-2pm. Free. Register

online

FACULTY & STAFF

Erika Crowl Dan Carroll

Extension Agent, Agriculture Nutrient Management

ecrowl@umd.edu jcarro10@umd.edu

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Check out these additional online resources

July 8 Webinars: Food Preservation:

Freezing. 1-2pm. Free. Register

online

July 30 &

31

Webinars: Food Preservation:

Drying. 1-2pm. Free. Register online