By Michael Livingston
As farmer Andy Smith walks past his youngest cows, they cry out hoping to get fed. He passes by and continues out to the pastures. Smith notes how short and sparse the grass is.
The wide-open fields are green but far from lush. That’s not normal for this time of year.
“To the untrained eye, [they'll say], ‘Oh, look, there's all kinds of stuff out there,’" he says. "But this really needs to grow for at least three or four weeks before we can graze or harvest it.”
Smith owns Milkhouse Farms in Monmouth, a 250-acre dairy farm with around 100 cattle 40 of which are milking cows.
The cows need to graze in Smith’s fields to produce milk that he can then sell or turn into cheese, yogurt and other dairy products. But Smith said the grass hasn’t grown in weeks due to dry weather.
While some parts of Maine saw rain over the weekend, drought conditions are still in effect. They're affecting all types of crops from apples to potatoes to wild blueberries.
But the biggest challenge may be for farmers who grow hay to feed their livestock.
In typical summer, inland Maine sees between 6 and 12 inches of rain. The coastal areas see about 6-10 inches. This year, all regions, with exception to some of Aroostook County, saw less than half of normal rainfall.
Average temperatures were about two degrees higher too, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
These combined factors put Maine in what experts call a flash drought.
Smith says he couldn’t have predicted how drastically the climate shifted from late spring to early summer.
“May and June were very wet, so all of our harvest and planting was very delayed, and then the rain just shut off. We went from being too wet to just bone dry and literally dusty," he says.
In a typical year, Smith says the farm is completely self-sufficient for feeding the cows.
In a good year, he’ll even have extra hay to store for winter or sell to other farms.
But this year, he’s had to spend money on hay. He bought two tractor loads from New York for $15,000 last week. He says he might have to buy more before the season’s done if he can find any.
“I've been talking to several other organic dairy producers, and we can't find, you know, large quantities of feed anywhere. It seems like every time someone gets mentioned somewhere that might have feed available, it just disappears immediately,” Smith says.
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