Ask any farmer, they’ll let you know—this is a profession that is high risk and not always the greatest pay. In efforts to ease some of the burdens, Pennsylvania state spends a robust amount of money on their department of agriculture. This year, there were many continued programs with a few new grants, for a total budget of $261 million dollars.

“We felt like the budget was good for agriculture,” said Tim Wood, the state director for region 5 in the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau organization. "Would we have liked more? Yeah. We always would like more.”

Wood, who owns a farm in north central Pennsylvania, shared cautious optimism about $10 million in new funding for innovation and developmental grants.

“Innovation isn't a bad thing. If carefully administered, I think it can be done,” said Wood.

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding says the funds will keep Pennsylvania in the front of the industry.

“We want to make it stuff that can be used by farmers, that can be implemented and is affordable,” said Redding.

Right now, a lot of agriculture innovation deals with workforce shortages and adding technology to existing equipment.

“It could be a gps locator on precision agriculture work, or mechanical milking for dairy farmers,” said Redding.

Past new spending, Wood applauded continued funding for programs, especially for small meat processing plants.

“A lot of people, especially since COVID, are switching to where they want to see their own cattle or their own pig,” said Wood. "They want to be able to look at it, see what it's eaten, see how it's been taken care of… and then have it for dinner.”

Responding to the consumer trend, some farmers are trading in dairy for beef—but there are not enough processing plants to meet custom demands. Pennsylvania grants and financing help establish new shops or refurbish existing ones.

“It's the mom and pop one that maybe could do five or ten a month… they can get up to where they can do 30 to 50 a month. And that's a big difference in the number of people that they can serve.”

Many of these agriculture programs got started 6 year’s ago when Pennsylvania passed its own farm bill. Wood cautioned that the federal farm bill needs to be passed quickly before federal program funding runs out.