EAST BERLIN, Pa. — Following an unseasonably warm winter, springs buds are already starting to sprout around South Central Pennsylvania. While some appreciate the early spring, farmers worry their crops could suffer.
RCB Hay in East Berlin Township raises sheep and grows alfalfa and grass to be turned into hay.
In a normal year, the grass would start to sprout in March. As owner Rick Jones, accompanied by his 4-year-old son Beau, surveyed his fields on a wet Friday morning, they were already verdant with leaves.
With a cold weekend expected, Jones is concerned the thawing field could freeze again.
“Say there’s going to be another window of 20-degree weather. Well it’s going to kick that grass back into dormancy, and any carbohydrates that it had down in its roots, it already used them up,” Jones said. “What it does a lot is delay spring green up and deplete a lot of nutrients out of the plant.”
Jones expects that repeated thaws and freezes will not affect the quality of the harvest but could make the plants not grow as tall. Agricultural research suggests frost damage can reduce the tonnage of harvested crops, resulting in less profit at the end of the year.
An early spring is already hurting Jones’ business in another way: reduced demand for hay. RCB sells most of its hay to other farmers to feed their horses, sheep and other grazing animals.
Because grass is already starting to grow outside, farm animals can graze on it instead of dried hay. Jones gestured to his hay barn, where stacks of baled hay were piled high to the ceiling.
“Ideally, I’d like this all to have been gone by the end of February,” he said.
Warm winters may become a reality Jones and other farmers have to deal with more often in the years to come. He said he tries not to worry too much:
“It’s only so much you can control. Weather is a cycle.”