Bryan Searle says while 2022 was a challenging year thanks to input costs, for Idaho producers the previous year was a good one.  The President of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation says potato, hay and other growers enjoyed really good yields, and strong prices.  But unfortunately, the cost of doing business over the past 12 months ate into many of those would be profits.

 

“Those are the things that we're facing in every single aspect of agriculture, from the fuel to the labor to the repairs to you name it every input cost and every repair is just crazy, it's gone rampant.”

 

Hopefully farmers and ranchers can do something to offset those increased costs, but that’s very difficult to do.

 

“We have no definite way we can pass it on to a consumer. We get to offered whatever they're willing to buy our crops for. And a lot of these crops are contracted, so you are locked on a price and you have no way to offset added cost to production.”

 

Searle added farmers are also hoping to see a wet and snowy winter.  He noted most reservoirs across the Gem State were tapped dry in 2022, and desperately need to be replenished.

 

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