click to enlarge - Anne Wallace Allen ©️ Seven Days
- Margo Killoran, a horse breeder in Marshfield, standing in her flooded hayfield
With 10 horses to feed, Laura Spittle of Reading depends on neighboring farmers for thousands of pounds of hay every year. She also cuts hay on her own 10 acres.
But this year, near-constant rainfall and July flooding have brought haying to a halt in many parts of the region. Spittle’s preparing to buy a truckload of hay from western New York to get her horses through the winter. She expects the trucking to double her usual annual hay bill.
“I don’t know where I’m going to find $8,000,” Spittle said.
The July flooding and a steady stream of rainy days have put a huge damper on the production of animal feed including hay, one of the most widely grown crops in Vermont. Many farmers are turning their hay customers away because they have none, and prices have already risen.
In order to cut crops such as dry hay, farmers need at least two days for the grass to dry and the ground to harden. A few farmers managed to cut a first crop of hay early in the season, but by the start of June, days of steady rain made it impossible.
The result: People who own hoofed animals of all types are scrambling to prepare for the coming winter. Most people start feeding their pastured animals hay in September to supplement the grass.
“I’m freaking out,” said Susie Duckett, who keeps about 30 sheep in Danville. “There have not been two days back-to-back with no rain. It’s ironic, because we’ve had three years of drought at least.”
The July 10 flooding devastated some communities and left others unscathed, showing how widely rainfall amounts tend to vary in Vermont. But overall, there have been only a few sunny interludes since June 1, according to WCAX-TV meteorologist Jess Langlois. Montpelier has had only six stretches of two or more days without a trace of rain since June 1. Burlington has had seven and Brattleboro, nine.
“We have not had connected sunny days all summer,” said Spittle, who has been caring for horses in Reading for more than 40 years. “I’ve never seen a year when people couldn’t get on their fields like this.”
For Margo Killoran, who breeds horses in Marshfield, the rain is a secondary problem. She and her husband were able to cut hay just once, in mid-June, before their fields were flooded by the overflowing Winooski River on July 10, leaving behind puddles and a thick layer of silt where grasses once grew. Now they’re working to remove trash and tree limbs that were washed onto the field and are testing the silt for petroleum.
“We got the first cut by the skin of our teeth because it was raining so much,” said Killoran, who bought her farm in January. “In a good year, three cuts would be no problem.”
The fields will eventually recover and yield feed crops such as hay and corn again, but for this year at least, farmers and the animal owners who rely on them will feel a sharp impact.
“This is going to cost people a tremendous amount of money,” said Brian Kemp, an Addison County beef farmer who is president of the board for the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition. Most of the group’s members are dairy farmers.
“Whether it’s midwestern hay brought in or the feed that the farmers have to put in their silos, if never fails: If demand goes up, the price is going to go up,” Kemp said. Western feed producers are having their own problems with drought, he noted.
After the July flood, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets created the
Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program to help farmers recover financially. The $1 million program will cover hay and crop losses. The agency is also putting together a free registry of feed growers in and out of Vermont to help buyers find what they need.
“Folks are going to be able to go to our website and look for people who have feed for sale, because people are trying to do it by word of mouth,” Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said.
Spittle owns the Vermont Horse Country Store in South Woodstock, which was hit with a double whammy when flooding led the local Green Mountain Horse Association to cancel three large events that provide much of her summer business. The store’s office was also damaged by flooding.
Spittle, 64, has started a GoFundMe campaign and, with sunny skies forecast for next week, is waiting until Wednesday to decide whether she'll buy hay in New York. She's worried that the disastrous summer will permanently change buying patterns and put some of the local farmers she knows out of business for good.
“I know several farmers who are right on the edge,” she said. While those farmers might receive state money for their crop losses this year, she said, “recovering hay and crop losses doesn’t cover the customers who go out and buy hay in New York State and decide that’s more dependable.”