Sunshine is an effective disinfectant, as we've pointed out in past disputes over public records, and that should certainly apply to the regulation of farm fertilizers and animal waste. Yet the Maryland Department of Agriculture is locked in a court fight with an environmental group over the agency's unwillingness to share the nutrient management plans Maryland farmers are required to file.

That's wrong, and it's particularly disappointing that Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has so far chalked up an otherwise impressive record on matters of water quality and land use, has not intervened. At least state agriculture officials should follow the state's public records law.

At issue are reports filed for 6,100 farms detailing how the owners plan to manage nitrogen and phosphorus, chemicals common in fertilizer and waste but potentially harmful as runoff to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The reports detail such matters as the crops the owners plant, fertilizer use and expenditure and animal waste disposal plans.

Farmers regard much of this as proprietary information. That's understandable. The decade-old state law governing such plans specifically requires summaries of these reports "in a manner that protects the identity of the individual."

But meeting that standard requires only the services of a magic marker to excise names and addresses before the records are released; that's something routinely done for other government documents.

Let's make one point clear: Farmers are not the enemies of clean water or the bay. Farming is a far more environmentally beneficial form of land use than development. Keeping farming profitable ought to be a high priority, especially when the number farms continues to decline.

It's also unfortunate that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman of the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance, has portrayed his group's lawsuit against the state as part of a battle with "Big Poultry" corporate interests. The records in question are filed not by corporations for the most part but by farmers, some of whom keep no chickens at all and perhaps fewer than 10 horses.

Still, farm runoff and the estimated 600 million pounds of poultry litter produced each year are serious matters. The public has a right to ensure government is doing its job and to inspect these reports. But at a time when fertilizer prices are up, this need not be an adversarial situation. Good stewardship of the land and water is in everyone's best interest.