Drought This Summer Caused $18 Million in Damages to Vermont Farms

By Howard Weiss-Tisman

Vermont farmers estimate that they suffered $18 million in losses due to this summer’s drought, according to a new Agency of Agriculture report released last week.

The agency sent out a survey in September asking farmers about the impacts of dry weather that stretched from June through September.

And according to the data from 208 farms across the state, the drought damaged a total of 81,748 acres.

Scott Waterman, spokesperson for the Agency of Agriculture, said the 2025 drought followed two years of devastating floods and damaging frost that affected farms across Vermont.

“It’s one more challenge in a long list but it’s really bad,” Waterman said. “The drought did things to farmers that they’re not used to, unlike flooding which often happens around the state. We just don’t deal with drought in the northeast part of the United States.”

More from Vermont Public: Upper Valley farmers cope with extreme drought

Addison County saw the most acres affected by far, according to the survey. Thirty farmers there reported a little more than $1.4 million in damages across about 25,000 acres.

Rutland County had the next highest total number of acres at 14,728.