Although milk prices paid to area farmers have been on the increase, they are still below the cost of production, industry officials said.
"Farmers are so far behind for the last 10 months that it will take them years to catch up," Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County educator Mariane Kiraly said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that it will be paying dairy farmers $17.24 for a hundred pounds of Boston Class I milk in December, she said. The average price paid to farmers is generally several dollars less.
In October, the Class I price was $15.60, and in March it was $12.88 a hundredweight. The cost of production can vary depending on a number of factors including debt load, but it can range between $15 and $20, officials said.
As a result of the discrepancy, farmers have lost about $1,000 per cow during the last 10 months, Kiraly said. They will get some relief when about $290 million is distributed nationwide to dairy farmers from emergency help that both of New York's U.S. senators helped secure, she said.
William Gibson, the Farm Service Agency's executive director of Delaware and Otsego counties, said the FSA could distribute the payments to farmers before the third week in December, but added he would not know the total until all the records are reviewed.
"It will be a help to area farmers, but it will not be large enough to make up for the difficult economy," he said.
Maryland dairy farmer Mark Dulkis said, "I don't see much daylight out there," in reference to the situation facing farmers.
Dulkis said he has been in dairy farming since 1982, and this is the first time he has had to take out a home equity loan to keep up with the bills.
"It doesn't look good," but a lot of farmers are trying "to grind it out," he said. He milks about 62 Holsteins on the third-generation farm.
With milk prices down so low earlier this year, Franklin diary farmer Dan Buel said "it just doesn't do it" for farmers.
He said he has been helped somewhat by saving during better times. Farmers will be using any price increases to help pay off bills they ran up during the recent cycle, he said.
"We need an upside as long as the downside" to catch up, but Buel said he doesn't think that will happen, adding that one needs to be an optimist to be in dairy farming. He milks about 50 Holsteins.
The money from the agricultural appropriations bill will help, but, "I don't think any farmer wants to take money for nothing," he said. "They would rather see it in the price."
The dairy crisis has been the main focus throughout the year, state Farm Bureau spokesman Peter Gregg said.
"A lot of farms have had to borrow" to meet expenses during this time. "It will take a long time to recover from that," Gregg said.
He said he was hopeful ongoing discussions on the state and federal level will help farmers receive a more-stable price that better reflects their costs.
