Donald Risser of Bainbridge borrowed millions to expand his 120-cow dairy so he could milk 750.

Carlton Groff of Kirkwood sold three-quarters of his produce farm and switched to garden plants.

Amish farmer Aaron M. King of Paradise started a grass-seed business that sells to customers from New England to Virginia.

Mount Joy dairy and chicken farmer Luke Brubaker is building a $1 million machine that will use livestock manure to make electricity.

They're a few of the many Garden Spot farmers taking bold steps to try to stay profitable.

"I don't think we could have paid the mortgage" without changing the family farm, Groff said. "I don't know if we would have survived or not."

Other farmers here have folded, joining the tens of thousands across the country forced out over the last few decades by sluggish profits.

Like seeds in spring, agriculture's Lancaster County future faces great promise and great threats.

Rising costs, stagnant prices

Farmers are paying more for land, taxes, health care, insurance, fuel, equipment, transportation, feed, seed, fertilizer and professional services.

But the prices they get for their milk, eggs and other products have become relatively stagnant over the last two decades, thanks in part to increasing competition from around the world.

The prices for eggs, beef and some other commodities are actually quite high this year — including record-high prices for milk — but history indicates they inevitably will drop.

"It is getting harder for small farmers to weather those dips," said Jeff Stoltzfus, a farmer and adult agriculture instructor for the Eastern Lancaster County School District.

Kathy Heil of the Farm Service Agency said some farmers are signing long-term deals with buyers to protect against volatile price swings, but most still function at the mercy of the market.

Stoltzfus worries that many small dairies here could fold, like hundreds of small hog farms did in the county when pork prices fell in the 1990s.

He says that for farmers to remain profitable, prices of their products will have to rise and stay higher.

Another strike against farmers: the fact that their portion of the money spent on their products has shrunk.

In 1950, farmers got 41 percent of the money Americans spent on food. Now, only one in five of those dollars ends up in farmers' pockets, according to the USDA Economic Research Service.

"Farmers wonder why they are getting the same prices when everyone else in the chain goes up," Stoltzfus said. "We are sending our children to college, too."

The uncertain paychecks are one reason children are leaving family farms for other professions. They also fret over farming's long work hours and scant vacation time.

The exodus of young people from the farm is pushing the average age of county farmers higher and higher. Over half of the farmers here are at least 45. One in five is older than 60.

Statewide, the story is the same. A quarter of Pennsylvania's farms are expected to change hands in the next decade.

Doing their part

Garden Spot farmers are not losing their heritage and livelihood without a fight.

They've worked to become more efficient, productive and responsive to changing consumer tastes.

As land prices have risen, farmers have altered their operations to increase the amount they can earn from the same amount of land.

Some crop farmers have built dairies or feedlots, as well as large swine, broiler or egg-laying houses.

Instead of selling their crops, some have decided to divert them to livestock and have been rewarded with significantly bigger paychecks.

Others have restructured their farms to grow tobacco, produce, flowers and garden plants.

Those moves have allowed local farmers to squeeze out more dollars of production per acre of non-irrigated land than any other farmers in the country.

Fifteen years ago, county farmers sold $601 million worth of products.

Today, this area's 5,000-plus farmers sell products worth $1 billion a year, twice as much as any other county in the state.

Lancaster County ranks No. 1 in the state in farms, milk, eggs, cattle, swine, broilers, corn, hay and barley.

Farmers here have adopted a variety of technologies to maximize production.

They harvest double the amount of corn per acre and pump out more than twice as much milk per cow compared to 1960.

Another plus for local farmers: The county is within 150 miles of about a quarter of the United States' population.

Broad impact

The benefits of farming do not stop down on the farm.

Agriculture represents about 11 percent of the county's economy, and last fall, it was added to the list of local industries most likely to grow.

"Agriculture is the backbone of Lancaster County," said Scott Sheely of the Workforce Investment Board. "It's our heritage and has led to other important industries."

In 2005, agriculture-support, food- processing and food-distribution businesses here employed 14,825 people.

Add the 4,000 farmers who derive most of their income from farming, and you get nearly 19,000 people earning a living from agriculture. That's more than 8 percent of the 227,534 workers in the county.

And with the inclusion of all of the businesses having agriculture connections, Sheely says, it's clear that county agriculture actually is behind one of every five jobs here.

Then there are the many quality-of-life benefits everyone gleans from farming.

Farming provides a fresh supply of safe, healthy food, scenic views along local roads, and a way of life for a unique culture, the Plain Sect. Plus a boost for the local tourist industry.

More regulation

Despite its benefits, however, farming is scrutinized and regulated like never before.

New-home buyers near farms are not used to manure odor, flies, slow-moving tractors on roads and other farm "nuisances."

So they complain to township government leaders, who in turn try to limit farm expansion projects.

The scenario has not been as pronounced here as in the rest of Pennsylvania, but farmers fear conflicts will increase as the population grows.

Complying with regulations can cost farmers a few thousand dollars or, in the case of a major expansion such as the one on the Risser farm, $70,000 or more.

Large farms must develop a specific nutrient management plan detailing their disposal of manure.

Small farmers increasingly also are changing their farms and practices to protect the environment.

Farmers use special ventilation systems and feed products to help control manure odor.

They plant buffers and build fences along stream banks. They refrain from adding nutrients to fields that don't really need them in order to lessen nutrient runoff into local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.

Some farmers are also using special ear tags to track livestock, enabling investigators to find the source of contaminated animal products quickly.

Of course, all the steps cost money.

Brubaker said more funding needs to be found to help small farmers afford environmental and other important efforts on their farms.

Government help

Hundreds of local rural residents at meetings of the Blue Ribbon Commission for Agriculture the last few years have pleaded for help for farmers.

Many have called for changes in the property-tax structure. Since farmers have a lot of land, they pay much higher property taxes than other residents, considering the amount of government services they actually use.

So far, despite much debate among politicians, no state property tax relief ideas have borne fruit.

The Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board helped create a Center of Excellence for Production Agriculture to tackle important farm issues.

And among other measures taken as a result of the Blue Ribbon Commission, the county committed $50,000 over two years to the Lancaster County Conservation District to hire a Plain Sect outreach coordinator to help Plain farmers access a variety of programs. The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service will match the county's allocation.

Pennsylvania in August created a beef task force to explore ways to enhance profitability for the state's 28,000 beef producers, including about 3,000 in the county.

Similar task forces were created for dairy and fruit producers in 2003 and 2005.

Small-farm survival

Agriculture and government leaders give a mixed report on how the Garden Spot is doing in the fight to keep its farms.

Most are optimistic that Lancaster's unique, diverse farm economy will continue to yield a bountiful harvest.

"We can be on the leading edge," state Rep. Bryan Cutler said at a recent farm-issues forum, citing opportunities such as alternate fuels and manure digesters.

"Many states are looking at us," said Brubaker. "We can be an example for across the country."

Brubaker, co-chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission, said the county's small farms will survive, but he said many are changing or will have to change to make that happen.

He noted some non-farmers are buying small farms for a place to live.

Anti-sprawl measures often prohibit them from building a house on a five-acre lot, so some are buying 10-acre farms and renting out the crop acreage.

If it's rented to production farmers, great, Brubaker said. But putting pleasure horses on the acreage, for instance, he said, would hurt the county's agriculture industry.

Brubaker said many farmers are trying to get local governments to allow them to operate small businesses on their farms so they can remain profitable.

"We cannot put restrictions on farms," he said. "If they want to rent it out or have a small business on the farm, it will help save farms in Lancaster County."

The county has been a pioneer and leader in farmland preservation. Brubaker said it now needs to become a leader in preserving farmers and agriculture.

"We have a good start," he said, "but I believe there are more ways we haven't touched yet."

CONTACT US: rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032