Farmers talk rising costs

Rising cost had local farmers talking on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Southwest Virginia Agricultural Association in Abingdon, the region's largest agriculture political action committee.

"I'm concerned about what we've been doing in the past, and whether that's going to work in the future," said Tim Sutphin, a Pulaski County beef producer who received a farm management award at the meeting. "It looks like in the future we're going to have to go back to a forage-based system."

He said because of the amount of corn going into ethanol fuel production in response to a government subsidy program, corn for use as feed is becoming cost-prohibitive – and the price will continue to rise as the price of oil goes up. He's planning to plant corn this spring for the first time since 1995.

"This ethanol thing, it's driving land prices, it's driving feed prices, it's driving fertilizer prices, it's driving equipment prices," he said. "Ethanol is the biggest hoax that's been put on this country in many years."