Dairy farm owner Dave Weiss convened several fellow dairy farmers and Senator Chuck Schumer to his farm to find ways to stay in business.
"30 years ago -- I made more money back then than today," Weiss said as he showed a Spectrum News photographer around his farm on Tuesday morning.
Milk's popularity and sales are down significantly while those of milk substitutes are skyrocketing, according to research by multiple agencies including the World Economic Forum.
The WEF reported this month that U.S. milk sales dropped by more than $1 billion in 2018.
There is no profit in dairy farming anymore, especially for a small dairy farm with 250 cows, like Weiss Dairy Farm.
"The cost of equipment, the cost of labor, the taxes, the insurance, the fuel," Weiss said. "Everything costs a lot more than it used to, and we're getting the same prices."
Senator Schumer came here to meet with these farmers in Swan Lake to inform them about an improved Dairy Margin Protection plan. The plan would reimburse farmers for losses due to low milk prices and/or high feed prices.
Changes in the latest version of the Federal Farm Bill make it so more farmers are eligible for the insurance and can get reimbursed for losses retroactively back to January 1.
"And that's the goal here," Schumer said, "to keep our small farmers going."
Schumer told the group he expects the bipartisan bill to be signed by President Trump, and the program to start in June.
While Weiss praised Schumer for his overall effort to bring relief to struggling farms, he is not overflowing with optimism.
"I don't think that these programs are going to work," Weiss said when asked about the Dairy Margin Protection plan changes.
Weiss said he wants lawmakers to think more about how to attract a new processing plant to the area.
He said that would help farmers sell their milk, cut down on transportation costs, and even create some local jobs.
"We need some great entrepreneurs to work with," Weiss said. "That would be great."
The senator is listening.
"They have some very good and interesting ideas which I will look at," Schumer said.
Schumer told the farmers he is working on several fronts other than insurance against profit losses.
For one, he is involved in discussions to potentially nix recently imposed tariffs on raw materials coming from Canada and Mexico.
He believes that change could reduce the chances of a trade war which could lead to higher tariffs on American milk bound for those neighboring countries.