Temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s over the last three days have led to heat advisories, prompted electric utilities to urge Vermonters to watch their energy consumption and likely contributed to algae blooms that have closed Burlington beaches.
But across the state, the heat and sun are giving farmers — particularly those who grow hay to feed animals — a much-needed second wind.
“It’s been one of the most challenging years for harvesting crops, particularly hay,” said Anson Tebbetts, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. While this summer’s historic flooding damaged corn and standing hay, consistently wet weather more generally presented some farmers with a challenging season.
“The stretch of decent hot weather — I’ve noticed a lot of farmers with better moods, and also just a tremendous amount of catch-up work that’s being done over the last week,” Tebbetts said.
Asked how the season has been going so far, Eric Clifford, a dairy farmer in Starksboro, gave a solemn chuckle.
“In many ways, for both the crops and the people, it’s very stressful. Very stressful,” he said. “It didn’t used to be stressful.”
Clifford relies on corn and hay for his 200 dairy cows. He said he wasn’t directly impacted by flooding this summer — but was nevertheless dogged by persistent, heavy rain, with July and the beginning of August “brutal” for his corn.
He’s optimistic that he’ll have enough feed to get his herd through the winter because he had reserves from last year from which he can draw. But for this year’s crop, he expects a diminished yield and fewer nutrients in the corn he can harvest.
“Overall, you can say the quality of the corn silage will be very much below our normal standard,” he said.
The same is largely true for hay, according to Vijay Nazareth, executive director of the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, an organization founded to support area farmers in implementing best practices for soil health and local water quality.
If hay grows for too long, it may not retain the ideal nutrients for the animals it’s feeding, he said.
A new report from the Agency of Agriculture illustrates the impacts of this summer’s flooding and wet weather. With survey responses from 265 people, state officials estimate that farmers suffered losses totalling more than $16 million, with more than 27,300 acres impacted. The average respondent had 103 acres impacted and endured $61,000 in damages.
Addison County, a stronghold for agriculture in Vermont, appears to have seen the most damage, with more than $3.1 million in losses. Bennington County ranked second, with a little more than $2 million in losses.
“The most common damages, the ones reported most often, were damages to soil or land, loss of crops meant for feed, and loss of crops meant for wholesale or retail markets,” the report found, with a third of respondents ranking loss of feed crops as the most significant type of damage.
About 61% of respondents said they expect a feed shortage or problems with the quality of their feed as a result of the wet weather. Most farmers — about 70% — said they do not have crop or livestock insurance.
The Agency of Agriculture has created an online marketplace for hay and other types of feed to connect farmers with a long list of sellers. It’s already been well used, according to Tebbetts.
Farmers can also apply for loans from the federal government, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced on Tuesday. The program approved a Secretarial Disaster Designation for all 14 counties in the state.
From the roads of Addison County on Wednesday, farmers could be seen carving mazes into nearly every hayfield along Route 7 and Route 30. Trucks full of fresh hay paced the road shoulders, and farmers rode back to their farms on their harvest equipment as the sun approached the horizon.
But with “just about every farmer” impacted, Nazareth said, “you really can’t make up for lost time for things that are beyond your control.
“Unfortunately, they’re going to have to settle for a pretty rough season no matter what the weather’s like in the next couple of months.”
