Any farmer will tell you there are multiple variables that can setback a growing season, and global events like the pandemic and even the crisis in Ukraine caused prices on items like fertilizer and grain to skyrocket and supplies for the season have been harder to come by.

"We saw those pressures and those supply chain issues more last year. This year we are still looking at historically high prices but it's starting to come down from where we were at in 2022," says Haley Shoemaker an educator with the OSU Extension. 

Shoemaker says fertilizer prices will be watched closely. While prices for the input are still up 43% from what they were from 2016 to 2020, prices are trending down from last year's growing season. That coupled with easier access to supplies is good news for farmers like Carl Angiuli.

"With the pandemic, you had to look 6 to 8 months ahead some of the things it was a year we were booking ahead. Now this year everything is going back to our normal timeline," says Angiuli. 

An improved supply chain paired with a drier start to the growing season has allowed Angiuli to start his planting 10 days ahead of schedule, but he adds the price for crops like corn and soybean, which have retreated since the start of the Ukraine crisis, will be something he will closely watch this growing season.

And from a positive outlook on the agricultural side of things locally to a positive outlook as far as the local dairy and cattle industry goes. Agland in Canfield says the price for grain to feed cows across the area is going down since the start of the Ukraine crisis.

"Today I would tell you that the dairy and beef industries are doing okay, I don't think we are losing money in those industries, I think we are making money. Again, I think with the cost of everything going up, the profit margins are tighter than they once were," says Ralph Wince, a grain merchandiser for Agland Co-op.