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Vermont Farmers Struggle To Make Hay When The Sun Won't Shine

A hay bale sits in an open field near a tree, before a wall of green trees and low mist in the background.
Ambar Culhane
/
Unsplash
Wet conditions have made it difficult for many farmers to get a good first cutting of hay this spring.

A wet, cold spring has made it difficult for farmers to get out in their fields and repair damage from this past winter. It's also meant that getting a good first cutting for hay has been delayed — or simply impossible — for many who rely on the forage to feed their herd through the winter. 

Heather Darby, an agronomist and professor at UVM Extension’s Northwest Crops and Soils program, joins Vermont Edition to discuss the challenges delaying Vermont's hay harvest, how last year's hot and dry spring exacerbates the problems from poor hay yields and what it will mean for farmers and dairy consumers through the winter.

Broadcast live on Thursday, June 13, 2019 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
Matt Smith worked for Vermont Public from 2017 to 2023 as managing editor and senior producer of Vermont Edition.
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