Harford County (Map, News) - The robotic milker at Broom’s Bloom Dairy farm outside Bel Air, which allows cows to milk themselves, may be the only in the state, but Harford County officials want more similar technology.

The county recently gave $15,000 to the Harford County Agricultural Marketing Cooperative to help local farmers improve technology and is slated to give the group $100,000 for other grants this fiscal year, $20,000 more than it gave last year, County Agriculture Director John Sullivan said.

“It is my hope that this new grant will encourage this type of forward thinking throughout Harford County’s agricultural community,” County Executive David Craig said in a statement.

The farm’s owner, Kate Dallam, is also president of the cooperative, an independent, nonprofit organization with nine members who represent different aspects of farms, such as beef, dairy and forestry.

“The dairy industry is lagging a little behind,” Dallam said of Maryland’s farms, of which about 30 are dairy. “All fields of agriculture have emerging technologies.”

The group looks first to give grants to farmers who want to increase marketing of their current operations, then to those initiating new products and lastly to farmers trying to expand what they are already doing, secretary Charles Day said.

Last year, there were 17 applicants, and 13 grants were awarded, treasurer Peggy Jagelski said.

The additional $15,000 will probably be used to help all Harford farmers, Day said, rather than just one. He said some options are increasing marketing for the county’s agriculture or buying a larger scale to weigh crops from long-bed trucks.

Selling American cow embryos is one increasingly popular technological area.

“Harvesting beef and dairy isn’t all that’s out there,” Sullivan said. “You can sell the cow embryo, and it just diversifies [farmers’ businesses].”

“There are a lot of farms that really appreciate what we’re doing,” Day said. “They are either new or young farms or are working through a transition.”

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com

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