Will Vt. farmers face high feed prices this winter after our wet summer?

TUNBRIDGE, Vt. (WCAX) – There’s an old saying, “Make hay while the sun shines.” But with the soggy summer we’ve been having, the opportunities for farmers just haven’t been there. And that’s having an impact on quality and prices.

The wet summer has farmers worried about the winter with feed prices that are through the roof simply because farmers can’t get on their fields to mow the grass.

Grass is one of the most important crops a farmer grows. It feeds the animals in the barn.

But as Clifton Pease feeds his cows on his family’s third-generation farm in Tunbridge, dried hay is hard to come by.

“We’ve actually had to put duals on our tractor to get over the land. We are having to chop one way. There is feed that we have just left behind,” Pease said.

Scars in the soil from tractor treads are evidence of the frequent rainfall. Right now, the Pease Family Farm has only eight round hay bales in storage. During a regular year, they would have around 200. To make matters worse, they’re using more feed than normal because the cows can’t graze as often.

“Sometimes they can’t go out at all because of the moisture in the ground. Being so wet when they are grazing, they are taking the roots and all, and they are punching up the land,” Pease explained.

Sunny weather this week has farmers hitting the fields. The Pease family is on their second cut of the season with the fourth generation driving the tractor. On a typical year, it would be their third or fourth time mowing already.

“We may have to turn to New York and New Hampshire and Massachusetts and maybe the Midwest to supply some of our feed,” Vt. Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets is working on developing a website that will connect farmers who are buying and selling.

“We’ll be looking to other business, other farmers from across the region to maybe publicize, advertise their feed for our Vermont farmers,” Tebbetts said.

“Probably stuff will have to be trucked in from a long distance,” Pease said. “When you get trucked in feed, that gets very expensive.”

In some cases that means double the cost, an added strain on an industry that continues to lose family farms.

But this farmer is ready to weather the storm.

“This may be a hard year for us but when you look back at what my parents had to go through, you know they had tough times, too,” Pease said.

Vermont ag officials are working with the federal delegation and the USDA to see if any relief may be available to farmers who are feeling the pinch in their wallets this winter.

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