20070417 Woodbine farmer caters to horse farms

Woodbine farmer caters to horse farms

Carrie Ann Knauer, the Dean of the Carroll County Times’ newsroom is pictured above on March 14th, 2007, at her desk at the Carroll County Times. She has been writing for the newspaper since February 2002. She received her BA in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, in December 2001. She has made her home in Westminster and may very well be the longest serving Times reporter at this point. (c) Picture by Kevin Dayhoff 03/14/2007 www.kevindayhoff.net

Woodbine farmer caters to horse farm by Carroll County Times writer Carrie Knauer.

Posted April 21, 2007

I was tickled to be roaming through the Examiner and coming across a piece by Carrie Knauer, who writes for the Carroll County Times; that had been picked up by the Associated Press and published by the Examiner.

Woodbine farmer caters to horse farms

Apr 17, 2007 2:27 PM By CARRIE ANN KNAUER, AP

WOODBINE, Md.

When John Paul Harrison's grandfather, John Stanley Harrison, ran the family farm, he was managing 3,000 acres and had eight to 10 employees.

But John Paul, 32, is a one-man farming operation, renting 100 acres from his grandmother now that his grandfather is deceased, and renting another 300 acres between Md. 27 and Md. 97 in South Carroll.

Specializing in hay and custom farming for about a dozen horse farms, John Paul carries on the family tradition of farming, but in a new way.

John Paul grew up on the family farm and started with farm chores while still in elementary school. He grew up in 4-H and showed pigs and cattle at the fair, as well as hay and grain.

[…]

And all the while he's hauling truckloads of hay to his customers in Carroll, Frederick and Howard counties as they need it. While residential development may make large scale farming operations more difficult, many of the homes built in South Carroll are on lots big enough for families to have a few horses, sheep, goats or alpacas, making his hay, straw and wood shaving delivery business even more in demand, John Paul said.

"Around here you don't have a hard time selling hay," he said. "I could raise more if I wanted to, probably. This is the emptiest my "hay building has been in years."

The price of hay is controlled by supply and demand, John Paul said, and right now he's averaging $5 a bale. The lowest he'll go is $2.50 for rough hay, and there have been times when he's sold his best stuff for $8 a bale.

Most of his customers have found him through the county department of economic development's agricultural Web site, http://www.carrollag.org, John Paul said. The Web page has particularly helped him find people looking for someone to do custom farming for them - usually people with several acres of land and a few horses that don't have the equipment to make hay themselves.

Read the entire article here: Woodbine farmer caters to horse farm

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