Matt Morris, Agriculture Extension Agent
University of Maryland Extension, Frederick County
As of right now it is one month after the first ever Maryland “Breakfast on the Farm” event that took place at Teabow farms in Walkersville, MD on June 30th. In case you missed it, this was a free, educational event that invited the public onto a working dairy farm where they had a breakfast followed by a self-guided walking tour of the farm. It was a program designed to get people on a farm and see how their food is actually being produced. With all the misinformation force-fed to people through social media and outspoken activists, we wanted to show them what was really happening. Nothing was hidden (except some new paint on a few buildings plus some sweeping and mowing here and there) so what the public saw was what truly occurs day-to-day.
Our intention was to give away 1200 free tickets, which we did easily, but we ended up having just shy of 700 visitors. The heat probably didn’t help attendance, but for a brutally humid 96 degree day I think we did pretty well! What surprised me the most was that I didn’t hear one person complain about the heat. Another thing the heat did for us was showcase why a freestall barn is the ultimate in cow comfort. When walking into the barn the temperature dropped substantially. Between the fans, the shade, and the misters it was definitely a great reprieve from the summer sun. The cows were obviously enjoying it too. I told several visitors that if someone were to open a gate, not one animal would have walked outside! Even as a diehard grazer I would have loved to put my beef cattle in that barn on a day like that.
We also had all the different types of agriculture in Maryland represented from pork to produce to soybeans. The Frederick and Catoctin Soil Conservation district had a display explaining the conservation practices farmers have been doing to preserve water quality and MDA was there to explain what the big blue pit of manure was for. The Extension office in Carroll County brought an excellent display on GMO’s which surprisingly resulted in no heated arguments! There were a lot more displays there as well and they all made a difference in educating the visitors.
The other thing that made this day such a success was all the hard work put in by everyone involved. We couldn’t have done this without them. Our volunteers did an excellent job that day and I heard many people compliment how knowledgeable and organized the volunteers were. There were so many moving parts to this program that there isn’t enough space to mention everyone who deserves thanks. However, I do want to thank the Stup family for agreeing to put this on. This required an incredible amount of work on their part and they went above and beyond to make this day a success. Opening up your farm to the public can be a challenging proposition, but they had no hesitation. Everyone knew it was something we needed to do to show that farmers are doing their best to produce a safe product.
What was probably the most satisfying part of this was the visitor who came up and thanked a group of us for putting this on. She said before her visit she had worried about the safety of the food she was feeding her children, but after having taken the tour and meeting the family she felt good about the food she was buying. That one compliment made it all worth it. During these unprecedented times the dairy industry is facing, it was good to see some positive headlines about Breakfast on the Farm.
Look for Breakfast on the Farm to become an annual event. The plan is to eventually move it around the state and showcase all different types of agriculture that we have here in Maryland. I just hope we can keep it at a dairy farm in Frederick County a few more times before we go elsewhere.
