MAINE PUBLIC • August 13, 2023
The Maine Farm Service Agency is allowing emergency haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve Program acres for livestock producers whose fields have been impacted by this summer's excessive rain. FSA State Executive Director Sherry Hamel says 3,200 acres in Aroostook, Franklin, Oxford and Penobscot counties are available for farmers and ranchers enrolled in the CRP program in those counties. "People who produce hay have been able to maybe get 1 cutting this season, when they usually get 2 or 3 per season," she said. "So this is creating a hardship for livestock producers, the lack of feed is going to drive prices up.”