Along with a little less rain, farmers in Pennsylvania are hoping for the elimination of federal trade tariffs and access to more foreign markets in 2019.

“The weather, we can't do much about that. It has been a big struggle this year. The whole state has suffered severely from the wet weather,” said Joel Rotz, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau government affairs and communications manager.

However, there are many state and federal legislative initiatives that the state farm bureau and its parent organization, the American Farm Bureau Federation, are pursuing to help farmers strive.

“Trade tariffs are disrupting world markets. It's certainly having a negative impact currently,” Rotz said.

Tariffs have led to reduced sales of many agricultural commodities, especially soybeans, pork and dairy products in markets outside the country, he said.

“The tariffs have to go. We need access to a free world market. That's the only way our farmers can survive nationwide. We produce 25 percent more (agriculture products) than we can consume. Tariffs and opening up markets are our biggest concerns at the federal level,” Rotz said.

Competitive pressures from world markets and states with lower production costs make it challenging to be a successful farmer in Pennsylvania.

“Our dairy industry is still really struggling from national and international forces,” Rotz said.

The farm bureau is encouraging President Donald Trump's administration to negotiate new free trade agreements with crucial countries, such as Japan, and to resolve existing trade disputes with China, Canada and Mexico.

Trump negotiated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but Canada ad Mexico are still imposing retaliatory tariffs on American products. The USMCA isn't expected to go into effect until early to mid-2019 because it needs approval from Congress and legislative bodies in Canada and Mexico.

Removing tariffs is important now because the dollar's high value in other countries results in higher consumer prices.

“Tariffs are on top of that,” Rotz said.

In a statement, Rick Ebert, state farm bureau president, said that the retaliatory tariffs have resulted in huge losses for farmers.

“Retaliatory tariffs from China on soybeans and pork have resulted in billions of dollars in losses for American farmers, while Mexico's tariffs on cheese and Canada's tariffs on meat products have directly resulted in significant losses for dairy and cattle farmers,” Ebert said. “The export market plays a major factor in determining whether many Pennsylvania farmers are profitable or not, regardless of whether any of the food they produce ever leaves America.”

Rotz said the USMCA would not remove the tariffs imposed by Trump, but it would give American agriculture access to markets in Mexico and Canada.

Farm labor is connected to the national immigration issue with which the bureau has been struggling.

“The agriculture community is heavily reliant upon migrant workers in a legal manner. To date, we haven't had a lot of success finding a legislative solution,” Rotz said.

Farmers have always relied on migrant workers and finding American workers is harder than ever due to low unemployment.

“Certainly, we're depending more and more every day on that type of labor, There's less and less domestic workers (who) want to do the work demanded on farms,” Rotz said.

Farmers in the state need financial assistance to meet environmental and permitting requirements, he said.

“All farms — no matter of size — are being required to meet water quality levels established. Any farm with nutrient runoff can be required to obtain permits,” Rotz said.

He said the cost of a concentrated animal feeding operation permit from the Department of Environmental Protection will triple to $500 in the new year.

A CAFO is a farm with more than 300,000 pounds of livestock or poultry. Rotz said there are 350 CAFOs in the state, and some are located in Western Pennsylvania.