Got Sustainability? UVM Researchers Test Ways to Green-Up Dairy Farming

University of Vermont Press

Joshua Faulkner squats in a corn field, scooping out the insides of a hole. He holds a handful of dark grey soil and squeezes it like a sponge. Beside him, a row of yellowed winter rye shakes in the wind.

“It’s a little dry,” Faulkner says. “… But not bad. Everyone is crossing their fingers that we don’t have a repeat of 2023. It really didn’t start raining last year until mid-July.”

He was referring to the statewide flooding in July 10-11, 2023, that devastated feed and vegetable crops and caused about $69,000,000 in agricultural damages. (Despite crossed fingers, flooding occurred on the one-year anniversary.) A 2023 survey conducted by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets found that nearly 34 percent of respondents said their most significant losses were to feed crops, with the average suffering $61,000 in losses.

Read the full article: https://www.uvm.edu/news/story/got-sustainability-uvm-researchers-test-ways-green-dairy-farming