MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont’s record-breaking wet spring has left farmers in the lurch, delaying the planting of vegetables and feed crops for cows, making an already short season even shorter.

After a rainy April and May following a near-record snowfall, farm fields across the state are too soft and wet to cultivate. The moisture also could spell problems for certain crops.

“If it keeps on going any longer then we’re definitely going to end up with some problems with some dead roots,” Victor Chaput, manager of the Charlotte Berry Farm, a 56-acre pick-your-own farm that grows raspberries, blueberries and pumpkins, said Thursday.

Typically dairy farms would be planting corn right now, but the fields are too soft for the machinery. A growing concern is that corn planting might now coincide with the first cut of hay.

“That can be really, really hard. It can be hard for any size farm but for a small, single-family sized farm, you don’t have the tractors or manpower to try to do both at once,” said Clark Hinsdale, a Charlotte dairy farmer and president of the Vermont Farm Bureau.

Crossroad Farm in Post Mills has focused on its driest fields, getting in onions, leeks, peas, some corn and peppers. But the farmers are quickly running out of places to plant, and the planted rows need to be cultivated to keep out the weeds.

Another week of rain and they could be in serious trouble, owner Tim Taylor said.

“It will be a problem. We have a short window of opportunity to make our living in. And you can start to count those days,” he said.

The farm has 13 greenhouses, but the cloudy, wet weather can affect their conditions, too. Without the sun to dry things out, they have to be careful how much they water the plants or fungus will grow, Taylor said.

 

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