Gary and I, along with our friends Gary and Marie, recently took a trip to northwestern New York to bike some of the Erie Canal Trail.
As we were driving along Interstate 90, Pennsylvania and New York seemed a lot like the areas you might see in Ohio along Lake Erie. There were a lot of grapes, corn, soybeans and the occasional farmstead. But once we got further into New York and especially once we got northeast of Buffalo, we saw more and more apple orchards.
Agriculture is a big part of the economy in New York, contributing more than $8 billion in revenue annually. According to the USDA 2022 Ag Census, there were 30,650 farms in New York and 6,502,286 acres in production employing 56,678 people. When you consider all sectors of agriculture, including processing, agriculture employs nearly 200,000 residents.
New York ranks in the top 10 in production of 30 commodities. It is the number one state for cream cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream. It is ranked second in the country in yogurt, apples, snap peas, maple syrup and cabbage; third in the production of wine, grapes and total Italian cheese; fourth in corn silage and total cheese; and it ranks fifth in the production of milk, tart cherries, green peas and squash.
I knew that New York was a big dairy state, but this list shows that New York has the processors to produce these value-added dairy products. These dairy products and milk consist of half of all agricultural sales, according to the 2022 Ag Census.
Some additional New York statistics from the Ag Census are similar to what we are seeing in the rest of the country. The vast majority of farms, 98%, are family owned. There is a decrease in the number of farms — a loss of 2,788 farms since the previous census in 2017, along with a loss of nearly 364,000 acres of ag production during the same period. The average net farm income per farm is slightly below the national average, and the average age of a farmer is up to 56.7 years old.
One evening as we were exploring the historic canal town of Medina, we met Daryl. He had on a jacket that had his farm name on it and that was all I needed to strike up a conversation with him. He is operating a fifth-generation family apple orchard that began in 1919. The operation has grown to 350 acres over the years and has diversified by adding grapes, a winery and a cider mill. From the outside, it seems that they have done everything right to continue the family tradition.
Daryl shared with us that this might not be the case in the not-so-distant future. Production / input costs are ever rising and the competition in the market place is making it harder to stay in the industry.
Daryl mentioned that it is hard to compete with the apple growers in Washington who grow 50% to 60% of the apples grown in the U.S. and are getting many of the contract sales with the food chains, even in their local stores. It is the art of business, if you are willing to provide the goods at a cheaper price, you get the contract and the consumer gets the sale price in the store. This unfortunate reality affects all small businesses, farms included, whether it is in Medina, New York or Trumbull County.
I have only scratched the surface of the agricultural industry in New York. It was great to see this beautiful part of our country. We are already planning to revisit this area, which is rich in agriculture and history. I hope Daryl’s family is still in business and we can visit again.
Smallsreed is a member of the Trumbull County Farm Bureau and grew up on a family dairy farm in northeast Ohio.
