Recent heavy rain a ‘quiet sucker punch’ for farms
As some counties continue to assess the extent of possible damage from recent floods, the focus for one Federalsburg farm has turned to the condition of their fall pasture where their dairy cows are supposed to graze.
Bob Miller, owner of the Nice Farms Creamery, has never missed a Tuesday at the Camden Avenue Farmers Market until Tuesday.
“All my daughters were born on Tuesday market days, and we’ve always managed to have someone or I’d be down there myself,” says Miller. “Unfortunately, this is the first time we’ve actually kind of had to pull a punch.”
Miller says the creamery has been a vendor of the farmers market for the past eight years.
He says heavy rain over the weekend has added more problems to what’s already been a challenging few months for this 200-acre farm, describing it as a “quiet sucker punch” for his farm.
A dry August and September plus recent flooding means less grass for their dairy cows, Miller explains.
“The grass is becoming oxygen deprived, it’s not growing, it’s being drowned out,” he says. “Then you know, our cows. A person can’t even walk on there but a cow walking on that muck, it’s just going to tear it up even more.”
Miller says as a result, the cows are being fed more hay rather than grass.
The cows are not starving by any means, he says, but a change in diet has cut the farm’s milk production by about half.
His farm is not the only vendor who missed out on Tuesday due to flooding. Terry Jordan, a board member of the Camden Avenue Farmers Market, says Miller was one of two.
Jordan sells flowers and decorated pumpkins at the market and says it’s rare for weather to stop a vendor; however, she does not anticipate the flood to have a major impact moving forward.
“We’ve lost a little bit of product but that’s okay, because it happens. It’s part of our life. It’s part of going to the market. You take the good with the bad,” explains Jordan.
Miller admits bouncing back from the bad is going to take some time, but they’re taking it day by day. Their focus right now is to keep an eye on their milk supply until their production level is up to par.
To do so, Miller says they are in the process of simplifying their products for the time being. For example, they have not produced their line of chocolate milk for roughly two weeks in order to protect their supply of whole milk, skim milk, and yogurt.
“It’s not just Nice Farms Creamery, there’s a lot of dairies out there…and a lot of operating farms that have trouble right now so if you’re local foodie and you want to help us out, just keep coming to that market every week because right now this is really when we need people to support us,” he explains.
According to Miller, it’s hard to tell exactly when their supply will be up and running to full capacity; however, he expects to happen within the next few weeks.
