Good Looking Crops in the East

July 24, 2014 by

My family took a trip out to Bel Air in northern Maryland last week to visit family living in that part of the country.

As one may guess, we observed crop conditions on way as we traveled. Bel Air is in the southern part of a farming community, so we had a good look at crops in the area. Both corn and soybeans looked to be excellent. Most corn was head high and much of it was tasseling. Fields we saw were a deep green color and rains had been plentiful to keep them growing. Many of the fields had been planted in 15-inch rows with a dense population of plants.

Soybeans also looked good. Some were 18 to 20 inches and some knee high. They also had a deep green color. Given the right fall, yields of both corn and beans should be excellent.

Wheat had been combined and the straw baled. It appeared to have been baled before it got wet, so was a nice golden color. We saw one field baled with very large, square bales, ready to transport someplace.

Traveling on the Interstate, it is not easy to drive and see farming conditions. So we didn’t observe much in Pennsylvania, except down through the central part and south of York. That is beautiful country and crops we saw looked good.

When we got off the interstate and dropped down east of State College, we traveled through a very rural and quaint area. There are also some Amish communities down through Centre Hall and south.

While in Bel Air, we went to lunch at Broom’s Bloom Dairy, an interesting place. It is a working dairy farm that is near a fairly large concentration of people. The family has built a neat restaurant and store where they serve lunches.

Broom’s also make its own ice cream in many flavors as well as artisan cheeses of many kinds. It was a nice day when we were at the restaurant and a good crowd of people was enjoying the food and ice cream.

As we sat outside at a picnic table, we could look across the field at the dairy barn. We noticed two silos with several antennas sticking out the top and wondered what they were for. Also a fairly large tool shed had a solar panel across the full length to generate electricity.

The farm had a major fire several years ago that destroyed its barn. The family rebuilt with a forced air ventilation system for cow comfort.

On Saturday morning, we went to the farmer’s market in down town Bel Air. There were about 30 vendors at the market with a nice variety of vegetables, fruit flowers, dairy and specialty products.

Broom’s Bloom Dairy was there with a stand and I got to visit with a senior member of the family that owns it. He said the antennas on top of the silos were cell tower antenna and the family gets rental income from them. He also said the solar panels on the tool shed roof generated enough electricity to pay for the electricity used on the farm. He also said the restaurant, cheese and ice cream sales were doing well.

Right now, the farm is only milking about 65 cows, but usually milk about 100. Our visit was shorter than I liked, so I didn’t have a chance to ask him why.

While at the farmer’s market, I talked with another dairy producer and milk bottler from Cecil County, Md. He had been making ice cream and cheeses for many years and had recently gone into bottling, home delivering and selling his own milk. He bottles in glass, pasteurizes and homogenizes his milk.

All in all, it was good to visit with family and enjoy other experiences, as well as see some of the great farming country around.

Parker is an independent agricultural writer.