Partly driven by tariffs, the rising costs of fuel, fertilizer and equipment are putting a financial strain on New York farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe milk about 1,900 cows and farm over 3,000 acres of land to feed those cows,\u201d said Chris Noble, co-owner of Noblehurst Farms in Livingston County, New York.<\/p>\n
Noblehurst Farms is a seventh-generation dairy farm with roots dating back to the early 1800s.<\/p>\n
As Noble and his team work to preserve his family\u2019s agricultural legacy and provide quality products, he says the impact of tariffs is putting extra financial stress on daily operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the tariff impact that we\u2019ve seen comes in terms of the increase costs in parts, supplies, and ag machinery,\u201d said Noble. \u201cReally through indirect sources. So, dealers, suppliers of those products would have paid those tariffs to import from overseas. Then we pay the higher costs for those products.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a dairy farmer, Noble said he isn\u2019t able to pass those costs on to customers. He said he \u201ctakes what the market gives him,\u201d which can ultimately hurt his bottom line.<\/p>\n
The New York Farm Bureau tells Spectrum News 1 it isn\u2019t collectively hearing a lot about tariffs from its members, and shares its farmers are focused on high fuel and fertilizer prices.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as a recent survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation finds nearly 70% of northeast farmers can\u2019t afford enough fertilizer to get them through the year.<\/p>\n
In a statement, New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said in part: \u201cThe spike in fertilizer costs, and in associated diesel fuel costs, is a negative multiplier for farmers in what is already a very challenging season. We are already dealing with labor shortages, fluctuating tariffs and unpredictable weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help mitigate some of these changes, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed $30 million in direct \u201ctariff relief\u201d for New York farmers to offset increased costs for fertilizer, equipment and supplies.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as the governor said the state is experiencing an increase in the loss of family farms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get this passed in the budget as soon as we can – $30 million set aside in a tariff relief fund for our farmers,\u201d Hochul said at an April 21 press conference. \u201cLastly, the money we\u2019re putting in the refundable investment tax credit program to help farmers \u2013 another $15 million for our dairy farm modernizations. All of this is within the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat certainly would be a very helpful shot in the arm if that were to come through in the budget,\u201d said Noble.<\/p>\n
Spectrum News 1 did reach out to the Office of Budget to find out how farmers can apply and access the funds if they\u2019re approved and is still waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Partly driven by tariffs, the rising costs of fuel, fertilizer and equipment are putting a financial strain on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8254,8253,116,9,24,55,54,49,5304,56,112,108,87,6317,200],"class_list":["post-222598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-agriculture","tag-app-agriculture","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-nicole-neuman","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-politics","tag-swarm","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}