Years of low prices have left dairy farmers struggling to make ends meet, they say, and are driving young farmers -- the future of the industry -- into other careers.

"Just because milk prices have gone up, it hasn't made our bottom line any better," said Sally Tanis, who with her husband, Jake, own Ideal Holsteins, a 200-acre, 86-cow dairy farm in Potter Township.

The man who oversees agriculture in the state is worried too.

"The dairy industry in Pennsylvania, I think, is in critical condition right now," said state Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff.

He said 2006 was a very tough year, with record low milk prices that put farms behind in cash flow.

"I know that we have farms trying to put crops out who weren't able to pay their lines of credit," Wolff said.

Tanis said it's typical for farms to operate on borrowed money to pay for crops and then repay those loans with milk money if prices are high enough. But dairy farmers faced 18 months of below-cost prices and only have seen prices start to rise in recent months.

"Most farms have gone backward for two years," she said.

Tanis said it's enough to make even longtime farmers reconsider their careers.

"We're at a point in our lives where we say we can't afford to keep doing it like this," she said. "The return doesn't make any sense."

Gov. Ed Rendell recently made 11 recommendations for federal dairy reforms, hoping some -- including a recommendation to create a "basement" price that dairy farmers would be paid for their product -- will be included in the 2007 farm bill, which is pending in Congress.

Source: Centre Daily Times