Typically dairy farms would be planting corn right now, but the fields are too soft for the machinery. An increasing concern is that corn planting might coincide with the first cut of hay.
“That can be really, really hard,’’ said Clark Hinsdale, a Charlotte dairy farmer and president of the Vermont Farm Bureau. “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.’’
Crossroads Farm in Post Mills has been waiting for the usual break in the wet weather, but it has not come yet. Farmers there have focused on their driest fields, getting in onions, leeks, peas, some corn, and peppers. But they’re quickly running out of places to plant, and the planted rows need to be cultivated.
Another week of rain, and they could be in serious trouble, said the owner, Tim Taylor.
“It will be a problem,’’ he said. “We have a short window of opportunity to make our living in. And you can start to count those days.’’
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.
For now, farmers are watching the skies and their fields.
If the rain is followed by a warmer and drier June, they could catch up.
Hinsdale hopes to have his 300 acres of corn planted by June 1.
“Nobody’s skunked yet,’’ he said.
