Wet fields plague Maine farmers

PITTSFIELD – Dairy farmers Walter and Edna Fletcher are worried.

With weeks of rain behind them and at least six more days of rain predicted for this week, the Fletchers are concerned about the viability of their corn and hay crops – crops that must be planted and harvested to feed their herd throughout next winter.

Weeks of cold, rainy weather have pushed rainfall tallies nearly 5 inches above average and prevented hundreds of farmers from planting their fields. The hayfields are growing rapidly, pushed by the rain, but the soil is so saturated that farmers may not be able to get their harvesting equipment onto those fields by early June.

“We are so far behind,” Edna Fletcher said Monday. “We have only been able to plant 6 acres [of corn]. We normally have planted 100 by now.”

Maine’s corn crop traditionally is completely planted by June 1, but Fletcher said it would take five to six days for some of her fields to dry out enough to be planted.

Richard Norton, a hydrometeorological technician with the National Weather Service at Caribou, said Monday that rainfall for May is nearly on target.

“As of midnight, we had received 2.2 inches. Normal for May is 2.29,” he said.

“March and April were the true culprits,” he said, adding that 13.29 inches fell in March, when 7.5 inches is normal, and 17.64 fell in April, when 12.53 inches is normal.

“We aren’t getting a lot of big storms,” Norton said. Rather, the problem has been in consistent little storms that continue day after day.

“Everything is saturated,” he said.

Dale Cole, president of the Maine Dairy Improvement Association, hasn’t been able to plant any of his corn. “Zero. Zero. That’s how much we’ve been able to get in,” he said. “We can’t even walk on our fields.”

Maine Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear said Monday, “It is nearing a critical time, and it’s very discouraging.” Spear explained that hay will begin to lose its quality after June 15, and corn planted late also will be of lesser quality because of a lack of sufficient degree days.

“If you have less quality feed, you will get less milk, and there will be less profit for farmers,” he said.

Dairy farmers aren’t the only farmers affected by the nonstop rain and chilly weather. Farmers who grow seedlings for Maine’s successful horticulture industry also are watching their plants sit on the shelves.

“No one is buying. No one is planting,” Jon Olson of the Maine Farm Bureau said Monday.

Maine’s vegetable farmers are struggling as well, Olson said. “They are watching their seeds rotting in the wet ground.”

Even farmers who, because of unique geography, were able to plant early may have to replant. Karen Piper of Embden has put in 300 acres of corn, but “it is so wet, it may not germinate,” she said.

To accomplish planting, Piper said, it had to be done very inefficiently – hopping from one dry field to another dry field, rather than planting adjacent fields.

“We used more fuel and more labor, costs we can’t recoup,” she said.

Edna Fletcher said that late springs and early falls have tended to be the pattern over the past few years.

“The Farmers’ Almanac also predicts a chilly summer, with temperatures expected in the 68-degree range in June and July,” she said. “We can’t seem to catch a break.”

The weather forecast for the coming week predicts rain, with the storm that now is dumping rain on the state expected to move south and hook up with a second low front from the west. It then is expected to return to the Gulf of Maine as an even stronger storm with greater precipitation.

All of these conditions affect both the yield and quality of animal feed raised in Maine.

Spear said there are existing programs to help when forage quality is affected, but they don’t kick in until a disaster is declared.

“It’s too early to tell,” Spear said regarding seeking emergency assistance for farmers affected by the rain. “We can only sit here and hope things turn around.”