The unprecedented cost of fuel is putting real pressure on New York's farmers.

Petroleum products are often a significant portion of a farmer's costs in producing crops, and it's hard for them to pass that on to consumers when they buy milk.

"If you look over this way, we are recycling in its greatest form. You see trucks coming down the road, and this is where some of the fuel goes," said George Allen, a dairy farmer in Rensselaer County. "They’re taking slurry liquid manure from holding areas to the fields, and that becomes the basis for our fertility program for all our crops."

Everywhere you look on a farm, there is budgeting at its finest. Everything from manure used for fertilizer to cookie meal and whey ends up in feed.

"We can change this diet in certain ways to take advantage of whatever bargains are out there, but still, you need to feed your cows right because if you don’t, they won’t milk, and if they don’t milk, you can’t afford to have them," Allen said.

On the farm, the sixth-generation dairy farmer worries about this every day for his 2,700 cows. Unfortunately, this year, there’s one more concern added to his list.

"This is the cash flow for May. Sixteen days, we’re at $78,000," Allen said. "May for the same days, we did about $10,000, so seven times what we were last year."

Fuel prices, more specifically, diesel prices, are crushing farms. The cost today hovers around $6 a gallon, well beyond what any farm was prepared for.

"I don’t know if I’ve seen it at even $4, and certainly not for any length of time. Those kind of times you like to forget," Allen said.

Everywhere you look on farms, you see machines that run on diesel.

"We have 35 internal combustion engines. Almost all of them are diesel," Allen said. "He’s busy from three in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. We pay for trucking coming in for all the feed products coming in, and we pay for all the milk that’s going out. If we had people doing that to save, say, diesel fuel, we’d need to hire 20 more people to shovel all that because it takes about 12 loads to get that done."

The price of milk is up nearly 40% in a year. It’s related to the rising fuel costs and supply chain issues.

"It’s going to be a challenge this year," Allen said. "We love it, but some days are better than others."