By JUDY LITTRELL, jlittrell@nyfb.org

The perfect storm was heading straight for New York farm country.

In the summer of 2006, farmgate prices received by New York’s dairy farmers were headed for record lows. In many parts of the state, farmland and crops were under ten feet of floodwaters. Meanwhile, fuel, fertilizer, and feed costs were soaring: a perfect economic storm.

At its December meeting, the N.Y. Farm Bureau Board of Directors made it clear that strong measures were needed in response. As one NYFB director put it: “If we wait for this to get better by itself, we may lose hundreds of dairy farmers before it does. We need to do something now.”

The decision was made to direct Farm Bureau lobbying efforts toward some type of direct investment by the State in dairy farms—one of the state’s most important industries.

One Farm Bureau member who became involved in this lobbying was Debbie Windecker, who operates a 100-cow dairy with her husband, Dale, and his family in Frankfort (Herkimer County), N.Y.

Debbie Windecker, who describes herself as “not usually a political person,” got interested in the lobbying efforts because she decided it was time to take a stand and at least make an attempt at getting the state legislature and Governor Spitzer to recognize the importance of the dairy community.

“If we were going to go down, we at least had to go down with a fight,” she said, explaining why she and several other Farm Bureau members from Herkimer and Oneida counties traveled to Albany to meet with lawmakers in March.

As Farm Bureau people often say, “Policy is made by those who show up.”

Their efforts, and those of scores of other farmers, farm leaders, and Farm Bureau lobbyists, paid off on April 1 when the state Senate, Assembly, and Governor Spitzer agreed, as part of their annual budget negotiations, to supply $30 million to fund the Dairy Investment Act. The Senate Ag Committee Chair, Senator Young, along with her Senate Majority colleagues, spent countless hours fighting for this signifcant investment into Upstate New York’s economy. Senator Young and Assembly Ag Chair, Bill Magee, held joint hearings together in January to highlight the crisis in the dairy industry.

Assemblyman Magee, along with his colleagues from the primarily New York City based Black, Puerto Rican, and Hispanic Causus, led the charge in the Assembly side as it was discussed during the public budget conference committee process.

Throughout their grassroots lobbying efforts, farmers and agribusiness people told legislators and the governor that money invested in New York’s farms would be spent locally, in communities throughout upstate New York, to pay off old expenses and make new expenditures for needed equipment, seed, fertilizer, and for hiring employees. Some farmers paid off lingering bills, making sure the state’s investment circulated into the local economy. The Windeckers’ need was to replace a worn-out roller mill for their farm’s feeding system. They had needed to replace it a year earlier, but tight finances had made it impossible.

“The Dairy Investment money came right at the time when the roller mill was more than ready to be replaced,” says Debbie, “so we earmarked the money for the mill. We were lucky to get the money so quickly from the State.”

The Windeckers’ share of the $30 million did exactly what farmers had told legislators it would do: got spent locally at locally-owned businesses.

At the receiving end of the transaction were Gene and Anne Merriman, owners and operators of Center State Ag, in Morrisville, N.Y. They serve hundreds of dairy farms in central New York, supplying feeding and milking equipment. They also have their own herd of dairy cows.

“Last year was the worst year I have ever seen for our industry in my thirty years of being in the business,” says Gene. “Every little bit is helping farms get out of the hole from last year. I am grateful for the program. Anything that helps dairy farmers in New York helps my business, which enables me to keep people employed.”

Prices paid to dairy farmers have rebounded in recent months, but there is still a long way to go to get out of that hole Merriman mentioned. And production costs have continued to rise, as well.

Reflecting on the process Farm Bureau members went through to get the Dairy Investment agreement, Debbie says, “I’m glad the State of New York recognized the needs of the dairy industry. After that ‘perfect storm’ of 2006, it gave us a leg up on trying to recover and gave us hope for the future of dairying here in New York.”