Farmers adjust after rainy fall, windy winter, wet spring

LACONIA — Farmers are used to having to adjust to constantly changing conditions, and that’s certainly been the case this year.

A particularly wet spring muddied farms throughout the Lakes Region.

There were 19 days of precipitation in April, the most ever recorded for the area, beating the old record of 17 days set in 1878, according to the National Weather Service. In May, there were 15 days of rain.

Meredith farmer John Moulton said excessive wetness makes it difficult to work the fields.

“It’s hard to manage with too much water,” he said. “A lack of water is something a farmer can control with irrigation, but excessive water, that’s out of control.”

He said his strawberries are doing well but may be a couple weeks late in maturing this year. Strawberries are usually ready for picking in New Hampshire by mid-June.

The rain has been good for the hay crop, but it is too wet for haying, said Becky Sideman, a specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension.

“As I drive around, I see low-lying fields with cover crops or hay crops that in some cases were damaged by flood waters and ice,” she said. “Hay producers are thinking about haying but the rains keep coming.”

Conditions in the fall and winter did some damage to blueberries and raspberries.

“It was wet in many parts of the state in the fall and plants may have been growing vigorously. Then a sudden, earlier-than-normal snowfall occurred and the plants may not have completely hardened off,” Sideman said. “And, it was also a windy winter and we tend to see more damage in windier weather on more exposed sites.”

Nature threw another curve when snow storms followed by freezing rain put additional stress on branches.

“When you have injury in blueberries, it can kill the tips of shoots, so they won’t leaf out or they leaf out very late and may not be able to keep growing,” Sideman said. “This isn't super dire. For a particular operation, it might look worse about now, but they tend to grow out of it. They will produce new canes.”

Sanbornton farmer Katie Surowiec took a walk through her blueberry patch on Tuesday and said things were looking good. Bumble bees were busy pollinating the bushes, which had the fine vase-type shape that she said is considered optimum.

She said windy winter conditions desiccated some of the branches, or dried them out, leaving them unable to produce this season. Her husband trimmed many such branches.

“We had to trim a little more than we normally do because of the die back,” she said.  

To cut down on disease and encourage more fruit production, it is necessary to take out at least a quarter of the older, woody branches every year.

“You want to open it up, so the wind goes right through. The more leafs in there, the more disease.”

Fungal disease is also limited by putting wood chips around the bushes.

Surowiec said every season brings its challenges.

“To be a farmer you’ve got to have some pretty serious rose-colored glasses,” she said. “We’re doing OK. You can see things are growing.”