For Natasha Sutherland, one of the owners of LeRoy's Stein Farms, dairy is literally her life.

"Dairy is in my blood, dairy is in my kids' blood. Dairy is something generationally that I can’t imagine living without," said Sutherland.

Her family has owned the farm since 1956. But with the price of milk having dropped significantly since 2022, some farmers are worried about the future.

"At this point, kind of the mindset is survive," she said.

Because, although the price of a gallon of milk has gone down, the price of production has not.

"Our production costs have increased almost $5 per hundred weight," Sutherland explained. "We used to be able to make milk for like $14, $14.50, $15, depending on the time of year. At this point, we’re now $19, $20, $20.50 hundred weight to make milk."

Because milk prices paid to farmers are federally set, dairy farmers don’t set the value of the milk they produce.

"So literally I will ship milk on the first day of the month. I won’t get paid for it 'till the 20th of the following month," Sutherland said.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, in 2009, dairy farmers faced an unprecedented financial crisis during the global recession — something farmers are comparing to their current state.

"[In] 2009 we saw a lot of consolidation in the dairy industry, we saw a lot of small farms close. Unfortunately, right now, not everyone can tighten their belts. Costs are so high, it’s not an option for some," she said.

And although the future looks bright for some farmers in Western New York with Fairlife and Great Lakes Cheese coming to the area, right now, it's all about pushing through.

"We gotta figure out how to get to that next step, and we are gonna be absolutely vital to the future for Western New York," Sutherland said.

Because Sutherland believes that dairy is more than just her life.

"If we don’t have agriculture in America, if we’re still reliant on food imports that we can’t feed our own people, we don’t have a leg to stand on," she said.