Agriculture

Senate and Assembly Agriculture Chairs secure historic agriculture budget

Historic funding levels for New York agriculture are included in the final enacted State Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. The two Legislative Agriculture Chairs, Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Donna Lupardo secured over $10 million above the Executive’s original proposal for a total appropriation of more than $52 million — the largest state budget appropriation for agriculture in recent history. This funding will support important programs and initiatives that provide New York farmers with tax relief, research, marketing, financial, and other assistance.

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Steuben County’s investment of $101K in CCE’s dairy, livestock, field crops, vegetable and grape teams, leverage $1.46M in extension and applied agriculture research programs critical to the success of progressive farms in Steuben County. In partnership with Cornell and other counties, we are able to deploy 16 highly skilled specialists in the areas of dairy, livestock, field crops, vegetable, grape and ag business management.

The CCE agriculture teams provide cutting edge research and education to Steuben County’s 1,373 farms, operating on 362,171 acres and generates annually over $250 million/year for the local economy according to the USDA 2022 Ag Census. The county’s investment in supporting agriculture through CCE represents only 0.05% of the value of the county’s ag industry per year…a small investment to ensure the growth and profitability of the food industry that is vital to put food on resident’s tables but is also an important economic engine in the county!

The county’s investment to ensure a strong agriculture and food system represents a 14x ROI, not including the value of fringe and overhead by the University. Including this, the value of the program is $2.6M or a ROI of 26x.

By participating in regional agriculture teams, Steuben County is able to access the expertise and resources of all 11 regional teams in the Extension System and more effectively access the rich faculty and program resources of Cornell University and the entire National Land Grant System to benefit Monroe County growers and ultimately, all residents of the county.

Last updated June 18, 2024