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7.13.2010

Rhodes, television crew chronicle farming in Queen Anne’s County

By SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Managing Editor

CENTREVILLE, Md. — In the list of things Extension agents do for farmers and community, television show host is usually absent.
But that’s not the case for Jenny Rhodes, Queen Anne’s County ag agent, who’s been working with the county’s public access station filming farm-related segments for broadcast.
“I’ve enjoyed it. I didn’t really think I’d like being in front of the camera but I like to educate and it’s a great way to educate people,” she said.
For more that a year, Rhodes and George Harvey, QACTV station manager have teamed up for 27 segments covering specific topics in production agriculture.
Segments they have taped covered regional ag events and meetings like the Delmarva Chicken Festival to specific production issues like using GPS technology and explaining how a corn planter works.
Rhodes said the project started when she went to Harvey hoping he could help develop some ag-related video footage to show at the Queen Anne’s County Harvest Breakfast last fall. Harvey agreed on the condition that he get enough footage to create eight- to 12-minute segments to use in the Homegrown part of the station’s “Snapshots of Queen Anne’s County” show.
Harvey said he’s also planning to expand the Homegrown portion to its own 30-minute show and repackage the segments for that.
“It was kind of a two-way street,” Rhodes said of getting things started. “Our goal is to really educate people about agriculture and what’s going on in the county.”
Harvey said the short segments allow him to quickly get into a specific area and focus on and explain some of the technical aspects of the topic.
“I did have compliments about the segment on ‘How to Calibrate your Manure Spreader’ and ‘How to Pick 150 Acres of Tomatoes,’” Harvey said. “The viewers were fascinated to learn ‘how it’s done’.”
Rhodes said the filming helps her with broad outreach to help non-farmers understand some of the finer points of the county’s farm industry.
“For me, I feel that that’s the way I can get the story out. I did a lot of basic agriculture (in the early segments) and now I’m trying to branch out to show what other people do on their farms,” Rhodes said. “I’m always looking for farmers to come out and interview.”
Bob Baer, who raises vegetables and beef cattle on his White Pines Farm in Centreville, Md., was the subject of a recent segment taping.
The focus was on what it takes to grow vegetables for farmers’ markets and selling at a retail market.
Baer said he hopes the segment will help to promote his operation, but also will show the public what is necessary to grow food and the challenges it often brings.
“They need to be aware of what real life is about,” he said. “It doesn’t just come off the grocery shelf, there’s a lot involved in it.”
Baer added that more people need to realize the hight capital and labor costs needed to farm turns a lot of prospective farmers away and that could have major consequences in the future.
Harvey said though only a few of the segments have aired, but the content has “good shelf life” and all will eventually air.
Segments can be found on the station’s website, www.qactv.com, under the “Snapshots of Queen Anne’s County” section, and Harvey said he expects to have more segments posted this week.
“As production continues and we have more titles available, I hope to share the series with other county channels or MPT since the ag educational content is regional and has good shelf life,” Harvey said.