Moving a dairy cow with a full bag of milk is not an easy operation, said farmer Jason Vander Kooy, near Mount Vernon, Wash.
“They’re used to the facility they are in,” he said. “They’re used to a certain schedule. If their schedule is off by two hours, they can’t handle that.”
Vander Kooy has about 1,300 milking dairy cattle. He is hoping he will not have to move them, but widespread flooding from an atmospheric river has sent dairy farmers and blueberry farmers scrambling across northwest Washington state. Around 100,000 people were told to evacuate in the state, including those living in the floodplain of the Skagit River where Vander Kooy’s dairy farm is.
Dairy cattle and livestock on the move
Vander Kooy said if he moved his whole herd in many trucks, the cattle would get stressed out.
The animals know a certain barn and system. And they don’t like being shifted to another barn.
“They will adapt, but those first few days are real tough on them,” he said. The dairy business is hard enough and then to put that monkey wrench in there [flooding] is very tough.”
Luckily so far, Vander Kooy said he hasn’t had to move his cattle. Their barn has stayed dry.
But he knows of two neighboring farms in his area that have had to move cattle.
Setting up a remote milking barn is also tough, he said. Cows have to be milked every eight hours if they are lactating. But moving all the equipment, feed and other infrastructure needed is no small deal.
“You just don’t start up a milking barn in eight hours,” he said. “It’s not like moving horses and beef cows to a different pasture, there's a lot more to it with a dairy cow.”
Neighbors helping neighbors
Jodi McKay of Fern Bluff Holsteins, just east of Monroe, Wash., said the last couple of days have been trying.
She brought seven dairy goats and two pot-bellied pigs from a friend’s farm to her family compound.
“Nobody really went to work at their regular job,” she said. “We just were all hands on deck moving hay, moving animals, running water in case our well got contaminated. We were trying to be on top of everything and be prepared.”
They had to move those animals again, when that corral area got flooded.
So far, her 20 Holsteins and beef cattle are safe and dry. The goats and the pigs even cooperated, when they had to be shifted to a new pen.
“We just shook grain or gave them bread, and they followed us to their new pens,” she said.
The work has been tough and is done mostly by hand, McKay said.
“The amount of rain we’ve had in such a short amount of time, the ground is just so saturated here you can’t drive anything onto the grass,” she said.
McKay’s property directly borders the Skykomish River. She said she lost about three acres of land from the river eating away her cow pasture in 2015. She figured she lost maybe as much as five more acres in this week’s flooding. There are also rocks, trees down and sand piled up across her land.
“I feel like the whole state is affected by water at this time,” she said. “It just keeps getting worse and worse, and you can’t do anything about it.”
Feed mill inundated
Dairy farmers farther north are also facing challenges. The only feed mill in Whatcom County for dairies, EPL Feed in Sumas, is flooded out. The plant also supplies milled feed for animals in Skagit and Snohomish counties, as well as more plants across the state.
“We have a plant in Eastern Washington that is helping out right now,” said Deb Wilks, a nutritionist with EPL.
They’re shipping feed from plants in Othello, Granger. And a plant in McMinnville, Ore., and one in Canada might ship soon to northwest Washington farms.
Still, the roads and logistics are complicated right now to get that done, she said.
Each farm usually has its own custom feed mix, but now the company is just doing one mix to get people by, she said.
This plant usually feeds thousands of cattle across the state.
“If we’re not up and running [in Sumas, Wash.] by next week, it’s gonna be worse,” said Rod Bierlink, a salesperson with EPL. “Some of the rail line is out too, so the inventories might be in jeopardy for ingredient flow.”
Bierlink said he’s trying to drive to farms in his truck to help clients plan their rations to make them last until they can ship more feed.
“[When] you just can’t get feed to the farmers, you feel helpless,” he said.
Blueberries underwater
Skagit County and Whatcom County are also known for their blueberry and raspberry farms. Industry experts estimate more than 1,000 acres of blueberries and raspberries are in standing water there, said Alan Schreiber, the executive director of the Washington Blueberry Commission.
“Blueberries are shallow rooted, and the water is washing away plants,” he said. “Raspberries don’t like wet feet, if they are subject to being in water for a long time they will get root rot.”
It’s unclear what the extent of the damage will be until the waters recede, said Gavin Willis, executive director for the Washington Red Raspberry Commission. Some plants might die, others might be uprooted by running waters, he said.
Willis said most blueberries are irrigated with drip tape or tube. When it’s submerged with flood waters that are loaded with sediments, it can become clogged or ruined. That could cost thousands of dollars per acre to replace or fix.
