After more than three decades in the dairy business, a New Yorker offered a blunt assessment to congressional lawmakers about the state of the industry.

“It's tough to stay in business as a dairy farmer,” Jim Davenport said during an appearance before a U.S. Senate panel. Davenport runs a farm in Columbia County, where he has 64 milking cows.

Milk is New York’s top agricultural product, but the number of farmers in the state has been steadily declining. On Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers heard from farmers from across the country about their financial struggles.

Milk prices already were volatile. Then the COVID-19 pandemic greatly reduced demand, forcing some farmers to dump their milk.

“I don't feel that we're out of the woods yet on the COVID thing in supply chain disruptions,” Davenport told lawmakers.

On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers are sounding the alarm about the state of the dairy industry, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The New York Democrat chaired Wednesday’s hearing.

“Too many farmers across the country have been driven to bankruptcy, and in very tragic cases, in my own state of New York, suicide,” she said during her opening remarks.

Amid the pandemic, Gillibrand has pushed for additional relief for dairy farmers.

In the long run, she argues broad changes are needed to modernize how milk pricing works. The status quo, she says, is not keeping up with today’s market.

The 2018 Farm Bill included a modification to how milk is priced, one that has cost dairy farmers more than $725 million in lost income, according to the National Milk Producers Federation.

“We must put the power back in the farmers’ hands, help them recoup their losses, and build a system that ensures they get better prices moving forward,” Gillibrand said.

In the interim, many farmers are left watching their bottom lines.