Dairy Day in Wayne shows farmers getting desperate

Stimulus package won’t help

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA - Attendance at the 2009 Dairy day/Ag Day this year was up, but hopes were down.

“We’ve about 500 people signed up for today; last year there were about 400,” said Dave Williams of the Wayne-Pike County Farm Bureau.

They came with their families to the gym, the halls and the cafeteria of Honesdale High School as they do every year. You couldn’t tell just by looking whether their spirits were down until you talked to them.

Even considering that the Obama stimulus package was going to help businesses, mortgage holders and middle-class taxpayers, no one knew for sure whether farmers would get anything.

“The state is ready to study the package to see how it can work with the new state budget,” said Pennsylvania Senator Lisa Baker, who was in attendance. Baker is the newest member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and will be meeting with farmers this coming week. “We’re going to see how much farmers can get from this effort, but it’s not clear if they can get anything.”

“We’re hoping to get something in there for farmers but it’s not clear what’s possible,” said Executive Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding. “Farmers have no shovel-ready projects waiting to be funded. We may have a way to get some funds for milk producers beyond the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, which is minimal help to farmers but it’s not clear how to do it.”

The MILC program kicks in when the price of milk goes below $16 per hundred weight. The price the farmer gets for his milk now stands at $11 per hundred weight.

“MILC is no help at all for most farmers because their costs of production are so high,” said Brian Smith, dairy farmer and Wayne County Commissioner. “A farm can only make it today if the farmer has a second job, like I do, and whose wife has a job off the farm, like my wife has. It’s wrong to have to rely on off-farm incomes but it’s the only way to make it. We farmers farm because we are proud and love farming.”

A third-generation farm is still in operation on a farm outside of Honesdale.

“I had to retire after our barn burned down and switch to raising beef, but my son is still dairy farming,” said Albert Mignerey. He attended the dairy day with his wife, two daughters and three grandchildren.

“My son makes it because he has another job and his wife works off the farm,” he said. “That’s the only way to do it now.”