Skyrocketing costs force farmers to adapt

This season is shaping up to be an expensive year for farmers with price increases in virtually every aspect of doing business.

“Number one, diesel prices have gone up — doubled in price,” says Kevin MacLean, owner of Ripplebrook Farms in Napanee.

“Fertilizer costs have doubled in price for our crops. Our purchase feed costs have gone up. Soybeans have gone up about 17 per cent, and corn has gone up about 30 per cent.”

These challenges have forced farmers to get creative with their operations, and to adapt to the increasing costs of materials.

“On our tractors, we’ve installed GPS navigation, and auto-steer on some of our bigger tractors,” MacLean says.

“So that allows us to precisely apply the fertilizer. So we’re only putting fertilizer on the land that we need to.”

In the meantime, not only are costs still going up, but farmers are also having trouble finding people to do the work.

“Now we’re north of $20 an hour, just to get skilled labour,” MacLean says, adding, “And especially to get the people to work the hours.”

But what effect will these rising prices have on the consumer?

Annual studies are conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture to determine the price of products for the upcoming year, so it’s likely we won’t see the impact until much later.

“We had a price increase of eight per cent this year to help offset some of the costs from last year,” MacLean says.

“Next year, around this time, they’ll analyze that again to see whether there’ll be a price increase next year. There won’t be a price increase, I suspect, until at least February of next year.”

That means farmers will have to continue to adapt and innovate, at least until the costs of materials start to decrease.