Good news for the New York state agricultural industry: family farms are being helped, thanks in large part to FarmNet, a state-funded, Cornell University-based program. The number of financial distress calls to the program has markedly dropped, but the number of financial planning requests has increased, according to the annual statistics released by the program. There was also a substantial increase in the number of calls, overall.

"FarmNet is the only source that farmers have that they can refer to for unbiased help," said Metford Frost, Onondaga dairy farmer and board member of the Onondaga County Farm Bureau. "It's keyed to farm needs and sorting out the problems and then looking at the alternative solutions." Business management calls increased from 17 percent in 1994 to 32 percent of all the calls in 1995, which Martin believes is the good news: farmers are getting back on their feet. In 1995, about 20 percent, or 272 of the total 1,362 phone calls, were about a farm's financial problems, compared to 1994 when that rate was nearly 30 percent, or 368 of the 1,229 calls.

"This is great news for the agricultural industry," said Cathleen Martin, coordinator of the New York FarmNet program. "When they call early enough, these farm businesses have more options for help. What this means is that we're getting more calls before financial disaster strikes, where we used to get more calls after the farmers' financial problems became unsolvable. FarmNet counselors are reporting more and more farms can be helped."

Despite the success, FarmNet's future is once again a $64,000 question. Martin believes that funding for the program has been inadvertently left out of Gov. George E. Pataki's budget. Last year, the New York State Assembly and Senate fully reinstated the program after it had been left out of the preliminary budget, and the governor later signed the budget bill that kept FarmNet intact. The state is a partner in funding FarmNet, and nearly half of its funding comes from the private sector.

The total number of calls FarmNet has received since its inception in 1986 is approaching 10,000. In 1994, the network received a total of 1,229 calls. This past year, the total number of calls increased nearly 11 percent to 1,362 calls.

"Many of the Farm Bureau constituents are generational farmers and some of the young farmers today have many financial and social issue concerns," said Brad Wiley, director Rensselaer County Farm Bureau. "When there are those kind of issues that need to be addressed, they find that FarmNet is a great resource to address those kind of concerns."

Between 1994 and 1995, the types of farms contacting FarmNet have been consistent. Dairy farmers are the leading callers. In 1995, about 54.6 percent of the calls came from dairy farmers, a slight decrease from 55.3 percent of the callers in 1994.

The number of calls to FarmNet from grain or crop farmers increased from 4.5 percent, in 1994, to 7.9 percent of all calls last year. Vegetable farmers, who accounted for about 1.4 percent of all calls in 1994, accounted for about 4.2 percent of all calls this year.

"That kind of sharp increase likely had a lot to do with the drought," Martin said.

The average value of farms that have called upon FarmNet in the past year, Martin said, is about $314,446. Considering that there were about 170 on-farm visits last year, the gross value of all farms helped by FarmNet was $53.4 million. "We look at the cows, crops, family -- we look at the whole picture," said Martin. "Extension agents are needed to answer specific, technical questions, and we're the family and the finance people; we're able to respond quickly -- something prompted them to call. Our strength is that we're able to look at family issues and financial issues at the same time."

FarmNet's aim is to increase the farmer's capacity to be self sufficient.

"Obviously the farmers are contributing to the tax base of the state. In fact, in some parts of the state, the farmers are the tax base. That's why FarmNet is so helpful. We need those family farms," said Martin.