Many Maine farmers this year are enjoying favorable conditions, which have been a boon for strawberry growers, popped corn out of the ground quickly and created a bumper crop of hay.

But as usual in a state the size of Maine, crop success depends on geography and weather, and frequent thunderstorms have prevented some farmers from harvesting that hay crop.

“It was a wonderful growing season,” Kenduskeag farmer Tom Davis said this week. “We have a wonderful grass crop. But it hasn’t been a good season for harvesting.”

Officials are also keeping a close eye on several isolated reports of army worms – voracious insects that devastated Maine’s hay crop in 2001.

Rick Kersbergen of Waldo County Cooperative Extension said this week that the worms have been spotted in fields in Knox, Somerset, Franklin and Oxford counties. “It is nothing consistent, but we are watching carefully,” Kersbergen said.

He also said too much rain or the lack of it has led to varied results across the state.

Kersbergen said there was a great streak of favorable weather in late May, and if farmers took advantage of it, they had perfect timing. But if that window was missed, rain resulted in a heavy yield but one of poor quality. Haylage is the exception.

Haylage is a grass crop made from the same crops as normal hay, but with a higher moisture content. With the proper equipment and storage techniques, this method significantly increases the food value and decreases losses for the crop.

“Haylage is great this year,” Kersbergen said. “And the second cutting is coming wonderfully. That’s if we get enough rain, of course.”

Davis agreed, saying his haylage crop was “as large a crop as we ever cut per acre.”

Nothing made the disparity clearer than the weekly weather summary provided to farmers by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The report for the week of June 30 to July 6 showed that the temperatures in Maine ranged from a low of 43 at Moosehead Lake to a high of 86 in Portland.

Rainfall was varied as well. The statistics showed that in the four weeks preceding July 6, precipitation ranged from 2.14 inches in the Bangor area to nearly 8 inches in the Moosehead region.

Crop specialists throughout New England recently reported to NASS that the condition, fruit set and size of berries is good regionwide, and warmer temperatures have begun to ripen Maine’s wild blueberry crop.

NASS, which accepts weekly crop reports from various farm agencies across New England, said growers were harvesting a wide variety of early-season vegetables, including greens, lettuce, radishes, summer squash, peas, asparagus, greenhouse tomatoes and early cabbage.

Maine potato growers were busy getting caught up on spraying, cultivating, hoeing and applying fungicides, NASS reported, and Maine’s oats and barley fields were in good condition.

Lauchlin Titus, a central Maine agronomist, said this week that the sweet corn crop is “looking very good this year. A midcoast grower – Beth’s Farm Market in Warren – reported to me on July 8 that they have sweet corn on their stand now. Other growers report they will have corn next week.”

Trudy Soucy of the Farm Service Agency in Knox and Lincoln counties reported to NASS that a lot of hay was harvested there this past week. The weather was dry enough that some farmers began irrigating crops, Soucy said.

In Penobscot County, the Farm Service Agency’s Laura Rand reported that “it was a glorious week for crops. Farmers are reporting great sets of strawberries and blueberries. Corn is growing strong and looks excellent. Potatoes are starting to blossom, and there is plenty of hay.” She said that although some Penobscot County farmers are finding it difficult to get hay dried, they are harvesting “a strong crop of haylage.”

David Yarborough, the University of Maine’s blueberry expert, said the fruit in Washington County is beginning to ripen. “Both fruit quantity and size look good,” he said.

Pam Hickey of Aroostook County Cooperative Extension reported excellent crop conditions.

Soucy reported that in the Knox and Lincoln County areas, the strawberry crop has been exceptional and the blueberry crop continues to look good.

“We are all looking forward to the sweet corn harvest, which could occur within the next week or two in some areas of these two counties,” she said. “Peas, greens, cucumbers and tomatoes are all available at local farm stands.”

But in Oxford County, rain, wind and hail have damaged crops, according to Marcia Hall of the Farm Service Agency.

“There was some drying weather over the weekend,” Hall said, “and hay producers have been hard at work trying to get what they can before another storm arrives.”

In Piscataquis County, according to Donna Coffin of Cooperative Extension, drier weather allowed many farmers to cut and bale hay, but in Somerset County some farmers’ hay is already going to seed because they are unable to get on their fields due to rain.

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