A judge threw out a dairy farmer's lawsuit challenging a Maryland ban on "cow-sharing" agreements aimed at skirting a prohibition on retail sales of raw milk.Kevin Oyarzo of Buckeystown had sought to let people buy into his herd and receive unpasteurized milk in return. Some states, including neighboring Virginia, allow such arrangements to help meet a growing demand for raw milk. Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Julie Stevenson Solt rejected Oyarzo's argument that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene acted improperly by issuing emergency regulations prohibiting cow-sharing after Oyarzo told the agency of his plans last summer.

Public health regulators say raw milk can contain harmful pathogens that are killed during pasteurization. Raw-milk proponents say the heat of pasteurization also kills healthful components in milk and degrades the flavor.



Oyarzo's lawyer, Paul Walter, declined to comment on the ruling, saying he needed to first read it and then consult with his client.

At a hearing in July, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Barkin said cow-sharing deals are "sham agreements" designed to get around the 35-year-old sales ban.

Walter acknowledged during the hearing that Oyarzo's plan was "possibly an avoidance" of the state law, but he said the new regulation amounts to an illegal ban on not just sales, but consumption, of raw milk.

Barkin said the state can't stop people from drinking raw milk but that cow-sharing is something the General Assembly didn't consider when it approved the statutory sales ban in 1971.

Raw milk was implicated in 18 cases of the bacterial infection campylobacter, which causes diarrhea and fever, in Utah in March. Regulators also blamed raw milk for two cases of salmonella in Pennsylvania in February.

Twenty-eight states allow sales of raw milk for human consumption, according to the Washington-based Weston A. Price Foundation, a natural-foods advocacy group.

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On the Net:

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: http://www.dhmh.state.md.us

Weston A. Price Foundation: http://www.westonaprice.org

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Crop conditions remain favorable as Kansas farmers prepare for anticipated bountiful harvests of corn and sorghum, Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday.

In its weekly crop update, the agency rated corn condition in Kansas as 57 percent good to excellent, with 31 percent reported as fair. About 12 percent of the crop was rated in poor to very poor condition.

The latest crop weather report comes on the heels of last Friday's crop forecast that pegged Kansas corn production at 448.8 million bushels, up 30 percent from a year ago.

Kansas growers planted 3.7 million acres of corn this season, up 350,000 acres more than a year ago. That is the highest planted acres of corn in this state since 1943, reflecting high corn prices amid growing demand for corn for the ethanol industry and livestock feeding.

The other major fall-harvested crops are also faring relatively well:

— Sorghum was rated as 12 percent excellent, 54 percent good, 28 percent fair, 6 percent poor.

— Soybeans were rated as 8 percent excellent, 49 percent good, 36 percent fair, 6 percent poor and 2 percent very poor.

— Sunflowers were rated as 9 percent excellent, 42 percent good, 41 percent fair, 6 percent poor and 2 percent very poor.

That bodes well after the battering that came with a disappointing winter wheat crop that was devastated by a late spring freeze, insects and disease.

In another reminder of just how bad the winter wheat crop fared, KASS revised its winter wheat crop forecast downward again last Friday to an estimated 288 million bushels. That makes this year's wheat crop even poorer than the drought-plagued crop of last year by at least 1 percent.

The acreage harvested was estimated at 9 million acres, far fewer wheat acres than the 10.3 million acres growers initially planted.