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Pretty product arises when Roses plant sunflowers Mary Paramore
Clear Meadow Farm’s 600 acres of big, bold, beautiful sunflowers scattered in patches across northern Harford County have garnered more than a few compliments from city folk drawn to new home developments built in the county’s rural areas, Rose said. When asked about the challenges facing 21st century farmers, Rose, who sits on the county’s Agricultural Advisory and Agricultural Land Preservation boards, said, “A big challenge is that people moving out here don’t respect us. We get complaints about the noise and dust and about the equipment moving up and down the roads.” C. John Sullivan, III, Harford County’s deputy chief of staff for agricultural affairs, agreed that sunflowers are a good public relations product for farmers. “They do a good job of educating the public that agriculture is more than corn and beans and cows," Sullivan said. “They get the conversation started in the car when a child asks ‘What do they do with sunflowers?’ It gets kids thinking.” Make no mistake: that pretty yellow flower that pleases the neighbors is big business for agriculture in its native United States, with the national 2008 crop totaling 3.4 billion pounds at an estimated value of $669 million (www.agmr.org). Although the stake is much smaller at Clear Meadow Farms, sunflowers play an increasingly important role in its annual crop production. “I got in it as a whim, as an alternative second crop to wheat. Before, we’d plant soybeans. Now, half of the second crop is sunflowers. I don’t make any more money on it, but they’re nicer to look at,” Rose said. Clear Meadow Farm grows sunflowers exclusively for birdseed production, which is the closest market he’s found for the grain. Other sunflower farmers may sell their harvest for use in food products or for oil. Rose plants sunflowers in mid-July, after the wheat harvest. They are in full bloom by September. Rather than harvest them at bloom, Rose allows them to die down and harvests the dried plant heads, which contain the seeds, from the ground. “They go from beautiful to ugly, the opposite of a swan. We harvest around the first of December unless the birds are getting bad,” he said. Clear Meadow Farm uses two special combine attachments to gently gather the heads without dislodging the seeds. Rose said there are two reasons for delaying the harvest and allowing the crop to dry naturally. October and November are already busy months at the farm, with the crew harvesting corn and soybeans and planting wheat and barley. The second reason is safety. He said, “Sunflowers are full of oil and susceptible to fire, and with the heat from the equipment, it’s a hazard to harvest them earlier.” Rose said he has added about 250 acres of grain sorghum to the farm’s annual crop production, also for birdseed. He said, “I put grain sorghum in fields with a lot of deer. They don’t seem to bother it as much.” In addition to encroaching development, Rose said Mother Nature herself is among the biggest challenges for farmers. “I recommend that farmers diversify as much as they can. There is a lot of risk in farming, because it depends on the weather so much,” he said. Sullivan again agreed with Rose. "For young farmers like Zach and his brother Greg to do this, it shows other young farmers that they don’t have to be the traditional farmer their granddaddy was. They can diversify and do other things," he said. Rose pointed out that agriculture is the foundation of our country, and that “it’s what got everybody here. As the older generation dies off, kids get the land and all they worry about is getting as much money as they can for it. Harford County has a very successful land preservation program. It’s important to preserve land so there is land to farm in the future.” William "Bill" Amoss, program administrator for the county's agricultural land preservation program, said farmers, to be profitable, need more land than they can afford to own, and the preservation program ensures high quality land is available to lease. Noting that Harford County has more than 47,000 acres with agricultural easements, he said, "It's a great tool for landowners because they get equity out of the land and for farmers because they can use the land." Under the county's agricultural land preservation program, landowners are paid for the development rights of their properties, while maintaining ownership. Amoss said, "They can get cash up front or we can spread it out over 10, 20, 30 years. They can still sell the land the next day, with the easement in place. Buyers get good land to farm, often at a reduced price."
Clear Meadow Farm is a Rose family affair that involves parents Nancy and David, brother Greg and sister Stacy. Rose said he and his siblings each returned to the family farm after earning four-year degrees. The family owns about 1,000 of the 8,000 acres they farm with the help of ten full-time employees. Clear Meadow Farms produces about 500 head of beef cattle annually, in addition to soybeans, wheat, corn, barley, sunflowers, grain sorghum and hay.
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Zach Rose of White Hall had no idea when he planted sunflowers as a rotational crop he would be improving the sometimes fractious relationship between Harford County’s farmers and their new-to-the-country neighbors.