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HISTORY

The Howard County Farm Bureau, in existence since the early 1920s, was initially established to help local farmers with the cooperative buying of seed and fertilizers. Many local family names from those founders are still around today - names like Warfield, Clark, Jones, Moxley, Fairbank, Nichols, Streaker and Mullinix.

 

The Farm Bureau gradually evolved into the areas of education, marketing and insurance (the company we now know as Nationwide was first started by the Ohio Farm Bureau, and followed shortly thereafter by the Maryland Farm Bureau). Technology became a major part of the Bureau's focus as did the work of extension agents from the University of Maryland.

 

The Farm Bureau's mission has changed very little over the years - even though the product is often very different. It is still considered a family organization, with one membership per family.
 

 

 

From the Jan 2005 Newsletter
My, how times have changed. Throughout the early years of the 20th century, whenever a Howard County farmer harvested surplus hay or straw that he could sell off-farm for extra income, he would often bale part of his crop to facilitate handling. His only option might have been a stationary wire-tie (manually hand-tied that is) baler (or press as some called them) such as this antique belt-driven stationary Frick machine owned by the Frank family. It is obvious from this photo taken during a threshing and baling demonstration at the 2004 Howard County Fair, that at least six hard-working people were required to get this dusty, dirty job done. In more recent times, using a more modern pickup baler with automatic knotters to tie the bales and a mechanical thrower to toss the bales into a wagon towed behind the baler, the entire job could be accomplished with just one person, the tractor operator. Still longing for the "good ol’ days?"