While their relationships with the farm are diverse, agricultural businesses say they’ve also felt the grip of the low milk prices and high energy costs that are currently squeezing local dairy farmers.
Dave Husted, of Husted Trucking in Mt. Upton, said that hardships dairy farmers are currently facing don’t really impact the company in terms of the accounts they still have – just the accounts they don’t have anymore.
“The total number of customers is dropping,” said Husted. “It only affects us to the point where we just lose business. It’s a trend that we would rather not see.”
Husted said more farm closures means that routes and customers are constantly changing, creating a logistical challenge to stay efficient and keep the tankers filled.
“We need to stay as efficient as we can be,” he said, explaining that decreased efficiency translates into higher hauling prices, which doesn’t help the family farms that are trying to keep up.
“The family farms, they are the ones who need to get more money for their milk,” Husted said. “They just can’t make it.”
Glenn Waffle, the head of the sales for Richer Feeds, said that his company knows all too well the current plight of local dairy farmers.
“We’re on the farm everyday,” Waffle said. “We get to see a lot of this firsthand.”
Waffle said the economic plunge currently affecting farmers has directly impacted Richer’s sales and accounts receivable, and probably many others.
“It has had a profound effect on not only ours, but a lot of other businesses,” he said. “Farmer do a lot of business in the areas they’re living in. They buy a lot of different things for that farm.”
Richer Feeds, which was founded in New Berlin in 1881 by Irving L. Richer, previously had operations there and in Norwich. The feed company headquarters are now located in Sangerfield.
Waffle said to imagine if the entire workforce took a 40 percent pay cut. “That’s right where the farmer is,” he said.
Weathering the tough economic climate is a matter of cooperation and innovation, Waffle said. Looking at ways to cut costs on both sides, developing more efficient products, searching out ways to generate more milk production, and general advocacy is the course that will hopefully help both Richer and dairy farmers, Waffle said.
“We partner closely with our customers and do what we can do to help them everyday,” he said. “We want to give them a product that’s of value to them.”
Norwich Implement co-owner Tony Viola said his business has felt the sting of recent dairy declines, to a degree.
“There’s been less money for farmers to spend,” said Viola. “It affects all the farm services.”
However, he acknowledged that his business has remained diversified, and seen increased sales in excavating equipment to smaller type farms that are being started in the area by newcomers and retirees.
“We’ve seen a lot more of that,” Viola said. “There are people moving into the area and buying up parts of dairy farms, those are the kinds of people we’ve been working with lately – hobby farms.”
He explained that many of the new operations are dealing in beef and organic products, adding that there has been a rise in Alpaca farms, of which Viola owns two.
“It’s on the increase,” he said. “People are starting to realize the value.”
Small to medium sized excavating equipment, such as John Deere and Kubota farm machines, irrigation systems, filtration equipment, and Alpaca start-up implements have been popular products, Viola pointed out.
“It’s helped us a lot,” he said.