Addison County, Vermont farmers hauling water, providing feed for livestock
9/8/2025 5:07:11 PM
CATEGORIES:
Agriculture
Plants & Wildlife
Society & Public Health
Water Supply & Quality
AFFECTED AREAS:
Addison County, VT
Middlebury, VT
Start Date: 9/4/2025
-
A Middlebury farmer cut corn on a neighbor’s farm to supplement the feed for his 950 cattle after drought hurt his own crop. The 2,000 tons of additional feed cost about $100,000, the farmer said, not including the labor of harvesting the corn and trucking it to his dairy farm. The last time the 2,300-acre farm had to buy extra feed was 60 years ago.
Vermont dairy farmers were hauling water for their livestock and buying feed to keep the cows producing milk. The drought has been especially hard on livestock farmers who have not been able to get a third cutting of hay.
A dairy farmer in Orwell has been transporting up to 5,000 gallons of water daily from a creek to his farm since his three wells began going dry in June. The task was time consuming and mentally draining, he noted. The farmer was spending $50,000 to $100,000 on feed products like corn, hay and wet brew, a byproduct from making beer, to feed his 300 cows and supplement what he normally harvests from his 900 acres of cropland along Lake Champlain.
VT Digger (Montpelier, Vt.), Sep 4, 2025
Sources
