It's no secret the cost of food is on the rise. But while some may think farmers and ranchers are reaping the benefit of higher retail food prices, that is not generally the case, according to Utah Farm Bureau Federation President Leland Hogan.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, egg prices this April were 30.5 percent above last year's level, and dairy prices were also up nearly 12 percent from last year's April prices.

Hogan, who lives in Stockton, said the single biggest reason for increasing food prices is energy costs, which are then passed on to consumers. But energy costs have also added to the expenses shouldered by farmers and ranchers.

"Energy costs have gone up and caused everyone to look at what it costs for the price of production," Hogan said.

These input costs, he said, are squeezing farmers and ranchers' profit margins.

"Even though we're getting a higher price for what we do," Hogan said, "the input side is so high that we're actually getting less than we were previously."

Flint Richards, owner of Richards Jersey Farm in Erda, said in his case, while milk prices have gone up -- according to the USDA, 13.5 percent more than last year's April prices -- his feed costs have been higher than ever.

"There's more money coming in, but more money going out than ever," he said. "I'm kind of caught in the middle."

Richards added it's not just grain and hay, but other input costs like a surcharge for fuel that he pays for his milk which is trucked out of his dairy every other day.

"Milk's good, but it has to be or I think dairy farmers would start going out of business," he said, adding it's important to not generalize farmers all in one category and that not all farmers benefit from rising prices and not all are hurt by them.

"I'm a dairy farmer that buys all my grain and hay, but a dairy farmer that raised his grain and hay wouldn't be in the same situation," he said. "A producer of grain and alfalfa in the West who has to pump water out of the ground is going to have a lot higher costs than someone in the Midwest who relies on rainfall."

Hogan said in addition to increased production costs, farmers and ranchers don't have the luxury of setting a price for their commodities to increase their profits.

"We have to take the price that's available at the time we're ready to sell," he said. "That's why we're price-takers, not price-makers."

Tony Fassio, vice president of operations at Fassio Egg Farms -- which has a facility in Erda and a feed plant in Tooele -- said even though the retail price of eggs has risen, the producer is not necessarily making that much more money. He attributes the increasing food prices to corn.

"Our biggest cost is always feed and it's been that way before ethanol came," he said, adding about 80 percent of chicken feed is corn.

"It all comes back to corn," he said. "You can trace any rise in food costs, whether agriculture or eggs or bread -- it goes back to corn."

He said when corn began to be used in ethanol instead of feed, the supply was reduced so the demand was greater.

"Like everybody else, energy and transportation costs have gone up, so you see a higher retail price."

While every agriculture item has its own unique pricing with retail stores, Fassio said, on the egg side of things there's been no increase in his share of the retail food dollar.

But he added, "In defense of retail stores, they're trying to make ends meet as well and trying to stay competitive, and they have got their own energy costs and what not."

Hogan said it's likely that the current conditions causing the increase in food prices will affect this summer's production as well.

"Early on, farmers began to look at what input costs were going to be and they've made some decisions as to whether or not they'd plant or what they were going to do as far as production was going to be for this year."

He said that will make a difference in what's going to be available in the fall.

"Some people decided they weren't going to go into the production cycle because it was going to be too expensive," he said.

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