2024 is just around the corner. But before we can look ahead, let’s take a look back.

It’s been an interesting 2023. The slideshow highlights a list of the top 10 stories, in no particular order, that ran in print this year. These stories were picked based on the following criteria:

A brief overview

Weather was one of the biggest stories this year. It was a dry early spring in much of the region. So dry that it had many producers concerned about this year’s growing season and whether the corn and soybean crops could be ruined. Thankfully, rains arrived. Yields, for the most part, were not affected, at least not on a wide scale.

But some Vermont producers were devastated by flooding in early July. Thousands of homes and businesses sustained damage because of the flooding. More than 10 inches of rain fell in several areas in the span of 24 to 48 hours. More than 200 farms reported some sort of damage.

It was a roller-coaster ride for dairy. After a great 2022, this year was a reminder of just how volatile the dairy business can be, with milk prices tumbling and input costs remaining high.

There was good news for New York’s dairy industry when, earlier this year, Fairlife announced it would build a new processing plant near Webster, beating out a bid by Pennsylvania to bring Fairlife to the Keystone State.

But Empire State producers now must deal with the prospects of not being able to use seeds coated with neonicotinoids. The proposed “Birds and Bees Protection Act” passed the state Legislature earlier this summer, but Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet to sign it into law.

National policy also was a big issue. Farm bill hearings were held in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and other areas across the country, but as of this writing, there is still no new farm bill going through Congress, even though the 2018 Farm Bill has expired.

Of course, this was also the year that “Waters of the U.S.” had its day in the court. The Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision on May 25 that significantly curtails the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate certain bodies of water. The court ruled in favor of an Idaho landowner in the long-running Sackett v. EPA case. The government has since come out with a new WOTUS rule.