Category: agriculture

County growers edge toward close of wet season

Posted on October 6, 2011 |

• Addison County
• agriculture
• fall
• growing

By Andrea Suozzo

ADDISON COUNTY — As frost rolls in over the Champlain Valley, farmers and home gardeners in the county are beginning to take stock of what has been, for many, a disappointing growing season.

“It’s been very, very, very wet,” said Bill Scott, president of the Addison County Farm Bureau.

In fact, as of Sept. 30, preliminary precipitation totals from the National Weather Service this year add up to 44.2 inches in Burlington, making 2011 already the fifth wettest year on record.

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Dairy forum deals with infectious disease

Posted on September 22, 2011 |

• Vergennes
• agriculture
• biosecurity
• dairy

By Andrea Suozzo

VERGENNES — Nobody likes to think about the worst-case scenario, but at a forum at the Vergennes American Legion last week Julie Smith urged the 10 or so farmers in attendance to do just that.

Smith, a dairy specialist at the University of Vermont Extension,  is partway through a three-year USDA-funded project aiming to educate and combat potential hazards to Vermont’s food production systems, specifically dairy.

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Bad weather of all sorts drives apple count down

Posted on September 15, 2011 |

• Addison County
• agriculture
• apples
• weather

By Andrea Suozzo

ADDISON COUNTY — As fall rolls in, it’s looking like a mixed bag for area apple orchards. In a growing season that included a wet spring, extensive flooding, hailstorms and a tropical storm, orchards took a hit.

But those in the industry said it could have been worse.

“Despite some of the losses we’re looking at, it’s a relatively good crop,” said Steve Justis, executive director of the Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association.

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Chicken project imparts valuable lessons

Posted on September 3, 2011 |

• Middlebury
• agriculture
• education
• Hannaford Career Center

By Ian Trombulak

MIDDLEBURY — Mary Hogan Elementary School fifth-graders hatched them, Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center agribusiness students raised them and Middlebury College students will eat them.

Without leaving the town of Middlebury, the 203 chickens of the Chick-to-Plate project have been teachers to more than 200 students — by career center Director Lynn Coale’s count — and now, will be dinner to hundreds more.

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