Fickle winter weather jeopardizes farmers’ alfalfa crops

Mother Nature hasn’t been kind to farmers this winter.

Unusually mild and strange weather patterns have left farmers with alfalfa fields crossing their fingers, as cycles of freezing and thawing can cause winter kill by uprooting and damaging crops.

At stake is the alfalfa hay dairy farmers use as cattle feed, the loss of which can be major for small farms, said John E. Peck, 64, who operates a 347-acre dairy farm in the town of Champion with his son, John D., 28, who purchased the property from him in 2008.

“The one thing you get concerned with an open winter is it does leave the alfalfa crops vulnerable to frost damage,” Mr. Peck said, adding that the farm depends on the hay to feed a herd of 85 cows. “It can especially if we have zero and below-zero temperatures and the ground is bare, because the freezing action will heave the plants’ roots out of the ground.”

While a blanket of snow ordinarily covers the fields during the winter, serving as an insulator that guards the soil from freezing, that hasn’t been the case this winter, he said. Mild temperatures have kept snow off the ground, leaving the fields vulnerable.

“I’ve never seen a year like this, and I’ll be 65 in June,” Mr. Peck said with a laugh. “I didn’t plow snow in the farmyards until January 13, and it makes us nervous about the crops and what it could do.”

One advantage the farm has to ward off the weather, he said, is that its soil drains water well, lessening the amount of freezing caused by moisture buildup. Mr. Peck still is optimistic that his crops will be green when spring arrives. “I’m not looking for winter kill yet on our farm, but I’m more worried about what our water count in the soil come spring and summer will be if we don’t get enough rain,” he said.

Asked whether he’s concerned about his alfalfa crops, Douglas W. Shelmidine, owner of a dairy farm in the town of Ellisburg, said, “It’s too early to tell at this point, but it’s not the weather we want to have.”

But if the current cycle of freezing and thawing continues until late February, when alfalfa plants start to grow, that could jeopardize the crops, Mr. Shelmidine said.

“It becomes more critical as we get to that time when the plant starts to grow as the temperature warms up,” he said. “If the temperatures get cold enough and the ground starts to freeze and expand, that will pull the plants out of the soil.”

Farmers across the north country are concerned about how the strange weather patterns will affect their crops, particularly alfalfa plants, said Michael E. Hunter, field crops educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County.

“Anytime we get fluctuating temperatures with freezing and thawing action, it will literally lift the alfalfa crown out of the soil,” Mr. Hunter said.

He said the plant’s taproots are pulled from the ground more easily than those with layers of roots, like grass. “The freezing and thawing can also break smaller roots attached, so that in the springtime, the plant can’t get the water and nutrients it needs and dies,” he said.

The low temperatures in January, coupled with less snowfall, have produced a dangerous climate for alfalfa plants, Mr. Hunter said. He said that temperatures dropped to as low as minus 24 degrees in January and that fields didn’t have adequate snow for protection.

Ideally, “you want to have at least six inches of snow cover on alfalfa fields to provide insulation for below-zero temperatures, which can kill plant tissue and cause winter kill,” Mr. Hunter said.

But while farmers can’t do anything to change the fickle weather, there are several controllable precautions they can take to protect their alfalfa crops in the fall, Mr. Hunter said. For instance, farmers should ensure their alfalfa stands are planted in fertile soil with a pH level of 6.5 to 7, which is the best level of acidity for absorbing nutrients. Older alfalfa stands, in particular, need to get the proper nutrition because they are more likely to die.

Farmers also should make sure the plants have enough rest time in the fall — at least 45 days — to store carbohydrates for the winter before the last cutting of the season, Mr. Hunter said. To do so, the fields should be cut in early August and again in October following the waiting period. The alfalfa should be cut to have at least 6 inches of stubble, which will help the plants trap snow and provide insulation.

“If you harvest the plants early, they don’t get the opportunity to build up root reserves needed because you’re intercepting the process,” Mr. Hunter said.

While this winter’s erratic weather has certainly increased the risk of losing crops, farmers who took the right precautions may be able to weather the storm, so to speak.