KGMI News
SUMAS, Wash. – Bugs are eating up local dairies’ grass crop.
Exploding populations of Armyworms are showing up in dozens of fields, and Lance Honcoop with Elenbaas Agronomy is sounding the alarm.
“You can have a nice grass crop that’s looking really good, and then all of a sudden it will look like it’s drying out, and it just kind of looks like it’s withering away and there’s not a lot there,” said Honcoop.
He said he visited one field that he estimated had lost 50 to 70 percent of its grass to Armyworm damage.
Farmers are having their fields treated to kill the insects in hopes of saving at least part of their remaining crop, Honcoop said.
Dairies in Whatcom County grow tens of thousands of acres of grass as cow feed.
Dairy is the county’s largest agricultural industry, with local farms producing over $200 million worth of milk each year.
A smaller than expected grass crop could mean dairies have to spend significantly more money to buy other kinds of feed to maintain their milk production.
That could hurt the profitability of farms already struggling with low milk prices and high feed costs.