ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
The heat wave blanketing Europe this summer is dangerous. It's dangerous for the environment. Hundreds of thousands of acres have burned in wildfires this season. It's dangerous for people. Thousands have died of heat-related causes. And it's dangerous for farms. European farmers are struggling under the weight of scorching temperatures, and a lack of rainfall means drought now plagues their fields. That means the emergency slaughter of some animals, less milk production and lower crop yields. Martin Haab is a dairy farmer and a conservative member of Switzerland's Parliament, and he joins us from the annual meeting of the Swiss Farmers' Association. Welcome, Mr. Haab.
MARTIN HAAB: Welcome.
SCHMITZ: So, Mr. Haab, how hot is it today where you are?
HAAB: You know, we are up in the mountains right now, and it's around 32 degrees Celsius.
SCHMITZ: OK.
HAAB: But back home, it's probably 36, I guess.
SCHMITZ: So that's around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, for those of us in the United States. That's pretty hot. I mean, that's pretty hot for...
HAAB: Yeah, no, it's...
SCHMITZ: ...A mountain country like Switzerland.
HAAB: ...Over 90. That's over 90. That's about 95.
SCHMITZ: Wow. Mr. Haab, what does that mean for your cows?
HAAB: We have that hot weather since about two months.
SCHMITZ: OK.
HAAB: And everything is dry. Normally, our cows are out on pasture, but there is nothing to eat anymore. There is just - it looks like a desert. So we have to keep all of them in our barn and feed them with silage and hay.
SCHMITZ: And what does that do for the cost of farming? Like, I would imagine that that's pretty expensive.
HAAB: Most of farmers, they have some extra feed left from the last two years because last year and the year before, we had pretty good crops. But the problem - the main problem is actually our corn. And some of the farmers, they already start to chop their corn...
SCHMITZ: OK.
HAAB: ...Because it's dry. But the yield is maybe 50% from what we used to have. So all these feeds that we lost now with this drought will be a pretty big problem next spring.
SCHMITZ: What do you do in that situation, when you run out of that?
HAAB: You can buy some feed.
SCHMITZ: OK.
HAAB: But that's expensive at the moment. I would say the price for hay doubled in the last four, five weeks.
SCHMITZ: Wait, it's doubled...
HAAB: And...
SCHMITZ: ...In the last month, the price of hay?
HAAB: In about a month - but the main problem is actually, it's not available at all because from where we live, Central Switzerland, there is just nothing left because it's dry all over France. It's dry in Italy. The southern part of Germany - completely dry, even in Austria.
SCHMITZ: So Mr. Haab, this is really interesting. I mean, obviously, if you're in a mountainous country like Switzerland, you can send your cows up to graze in higher altitude where they can find grass to feed on. I'm thinking of countries that you just mentioned - Italy, Spain, France. Have you spoken to farmers in these regions, and what are they seeing?
HAAB: I spoke to people in Southern Germany. They really don't know what to do, and some of them - they start to bring cows to the butcher because they want less numbers to feed. But that means also you have less milk in your bulk tank, you have less income. And if you have to buy feed, you have a lot of extra costs.
SCHMITZ: You know, you just mentioned how farmers in Southern Germany that you spoke to are having to slaughter their herds to deal with this heat wave. What else are you hearing about how farmers are having to adapt to this new normal?
HAAB: I just heard from a younger guy - close to France, actually - he just started about two or three years ago with the dairy, and he doesn't do any feed at all. He already used his hay that he made in early spring. And he decided to sell all his cows, all his young stock, and start maybe in a year or whenever it works out again.
SCHMITZ: Mr. Haab, what does this mean for consumers?
HAAB: Yeah, I would say the price will raise, I'm pretty sure - price for milk, probably for meat and especially for vegetable. That's actually what we expect, that our retailers are able to pay a better price for us. And maybe for a consumer, it's getting more expensive.
SCHMITZ: That is farmer and member of the Swiss Parliament Martin Haab, joining us from Switzerland. Mr. Haab, thank you.
HAAB: OK, thank you.
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