Farmers are 'graying out' according to Farm Service Agency representatives. That graying out is causing the average age of area farmers to rise to 55 and not many of those family farmers are being passed down through the generations as they have been in the past, Larry Meyer, director of Orleans County's Farm Service Agency said.

Diane Krenning, president of the Orleans County Farm Bureau explained that the prices farmers are receiving today for apples is the same as it was 10 years ago. "Farmers are a unique bunch," she said. "I think we have a grain of sand in our DNA ... we are so different in that we love our land and love the lifestyle."

Diane and her husband, Bruce, farmed for a time in the Hudson Valley area. They have been in Orleans County for the past 27 years.

The Krennings are part of the increasing trend of farm families who will not be passing the family farm along to their sons and daughters. Their youngest son, Andrew, will be attending college in Boston to pursue an engineering degree, while their other son, Adam, is a teacher in the Albion school district.

"When Adam got offered a teaching position we had a family meeting and came to the conclusion that it was best for him to pursue that avenue as a career," she said. "Farming just can't support extended families like it used to."

Diane said she and Bruce will 'keep fighting' as long as they can but they are getting tired of living under the stress inherent with farm life - falling prices, weather, increasing fuel, machinery and equipment prices. "You will rarely make a profit in this business but you at least try to break even," she said.

Krenning said the prices for taxes, fuel, fertilizer and every other item associated with running a business keep rising but the increases are not passed along to the farmers in the form of higher dollars paid for their product.

A recently introduced payback for the farmers came in the form of the Apple Market Loss Assistance payment. The payment paid farmers $.07 (seven cents) on a dollar for their crop losses. "Every little bit helps, "Krenning said. "But when you are losing dollars and you receive cents, it makes a very small dent in your bills."

The maximum payment received by Orleans County farmers was approximately $28,000. The Krennings were looking at losses totaling between $200,000 and $300,000 she said. "The payment certainly won't solve all our problems but it is giving us some time to play catch up," she said.

The money received by the apple growers was for losses incurred in 1998-99. They had to apply for the funds and show proof of their production in those years. "This is something that should have been done years ago," Theodore McKay, executive director of the Monroe County Farm Service Agency said. "I would like to think that this money will help keep the farmers going ... but you have to look at each farmer individually."

According to Krenning, in the past if states like Michigan or Washington had a freeze, frost or a storm it would positively affect prices in New York state. That is no longer the case, she said. "The global economy is wonderful for banking and technology but for agriculture it makes our lives more challenging," she said.

Farmers across Genesee, Monroe and Orleans counties are being asked to cut back further and further on necessities in order to realize a profit. There are some items that are beyond the farmer's control that cannot be streamlined. These include: payroll taxes, property taxes, unemployment and worker's compensation taxes.

More than $38 billion worth of fruits and vegetables crossed into the United States from the Canadian border in 1999, Krenning said, adding that this is a major concern to all agriculture producers.

There is no cure she said, unless fruit and vegetables become a subsidy crop like corn, wheat and soybean producers as well as the dairy industry. "These producers have a safety net for their prices ... fruit and vegetable growers have never had that safety net offered to them."

For many farmers the devastating Labor Day storm of 1998 was what began the downhill turn in their fight for survival.

"Everything was ready to be picked. All of the employees had arrived over the weekend and the harvest was set for Tuesday," Krenning said. "The storm hit Sunday night and wiped everybody out."

The Krennings lost $525,000 worth of crops in that storm.

The number of farmers and the number of acres being farmed has been declining for several years, Meyer said. "Almost every commodity group is in a situation where there hasn't been much of a profit margin in the last seven years or so," Meyer said. "Farmers have been dipping into equity and savings accounts to keep themselves afloat."

Meyer said that even though there has been no real profit margin in the last seven years that is not to say that no one is making any money. "If you look at the average farm, they have $1 million in equipment, land and buildings and if that money was invested in the stock market these people would have made a lot of money," he said. "Farmers presently make a two to three percent payback on their investment - the stock market pays 25 percent."

The scariest part about farming right now, Meyer said, is that even though we are not seeing a lot of farmers going out of business like they did in the farm crisis in the 1980s, today's farmers are not encouraging their children to come back to the farm. "Eventually there will be no one left to take over the farming operation," he said. "Twenty years ago more than 80 percent of the younger generation came back to the family farm after graduation ... now it is less than five percent."

McKay said in addition to low prices, city and urban sprawl impact on farmers and their crops. "It just doesn't seem to be getting better," he said. "The prices of machinery, seed, fertilizer and gas are all going up and the amount of money farmers get for their product hasn't changed at all." McKay said in some instances the prices farmers are receiving have been going down. "There are very few younger farmers starting out and we are seeing a lot of farms going out of business," he said. "It is especially hard following a year like last year with the bad weather, bad crops and the crops they did harvest didn't sell for much."

The Krennings, who also raise sows, said that for livestock farmers the outlook is not as grim.

"Those farmers that have diversified have a better chance of survival," Bruce Krenning said. "The hogs help us pay our other bills - but none of it can keep up with inflation."

While prices for cash crops have remained stagnant, Krenning said, beef, dairy and hog prices have been relatively good for the past few years.

The Krennings raise 250 sows from farrow to finish. They breed the sows and raise the young until they are ready for slaughter or for sale to children for 4-H programs.

McKay said various groups are coming together to put together some ideas and plans on what can be done. "We need to come to some consensus on what can help everyone," McKay said.