This year has been extra hard for farmers who work on the Central Coast.
“I just took a heck of a loss this year,” Dan Linhares, a farmer in Morro Bay said.
Over in Morro Bay, Linhares worked on a 10-acre property on Sunday.
He’s been in the farming industry for over 30 years and says this year has been exceptionally hard.
The cost of farming supplies has doubled and tripled on the Central Coast, Linhares explains.
“We’re reaching a point where you can't afford to farm anymore,” Linhares said.
“You gotta feed your family. If you're dumping it all into the gas prices, seed prices, and fertilizer prices and then all of a sudden you come up snake eyes, and your family doesn’t eat,” said Linhares.
According to the U.S. The Department of Agriculture, net farm income will decrease by 27.1% in 2024 from 2023; the largest year-to-year drop in history.
Some reasons for this are lower commodity prices, lower direct government payments, and higher production expenses, according to the USDA.
Linhares also adds that part of the reason is because of unusual weather changes.
“If something does go wrong like a bad winter or two and you're already in debt from the high prices, and then all of a sudden along comes mother nature, and slaps you back down," said Linhares. "That’s hard to recover from."
Valentina Cottini owns property in Morro Bay and is experiencing this firsthand. The weather made it hard for her to harvest this year, and in turn, she lost money.
“It’s too wet, it's swampy and will bog down the tractor,” Cottini said.
Linhares normally helps Cottini harvest her five acres of hay. They normally both profit from harvesting the hay but this year didn't go as expected.
“He used to be able to plant and harvest 200 bales on these five acres and he can't do it," said Cottini. "Now, he barely got 50 this year."
With unpredictable weather and prices of products skyrocketing, farmers on the Central Coast are struggling.
“The economy is killing us is what it's doing and it's killing the farmer,” Linhares concludes.
Local farmers say this also affects those who buy their products as prices are also going up.
