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On his 500-acre farm in Blyth, Ont., Lieven Verschaeve is serving up something new.

The Ontario dairy farmer and his son, Ward, used to feed their Holstein cows dry corn grown on their farm, where they also harvest hay, soybean and winter wheat.

But seeing rising prices, Lieven, who started the farm 20 years ago after he and his family arrived from Belgium, began feeding his cows potatoes. Spuds have the same amount of starch, a feed consultant told them, and could save the family big time.

Corn costs about $400 per metric tonne - while potato cost less than $50. Though Lieven needed five kilograms of potatoes to replace every kilogram of corn, he said it still came out to about half the cost.

And the cows didn't seem to mind.

They love it," Lieven said.

They eat them like apples," Ward chimes in. And the dogs on the farm, located about 85 kilometres north of London, play fetch with the potatoes, as a bonus.

With rising inflation, farmers, like many Canadians, are seeing their costs rise. Input costs (expenses for chemicals, equipment, feed, seed and energy used in farm production) grew 11.3 per cent from the last quarter of 2020 to the last quarter of 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Canadian farmers have been left trying to find ways to cope.

Lieven also depended on nitrogen fertilizer, which is imported from Russia, but Canada slapped a 35 per cent tariff on it in March in response to the war in Ukraine.

Unlike the feed, Lieven doesn't see a way of getting around it.

I'm going to feel it on the books at the end of the year," he said.

He did cut back on hay, which became more expensive with higher fuel prices, since it needs to be cut several times per season. (He generally uses about 35,000 litres of diesel, which he got last year for $0.68 per litre. Four weeks ago, he paid $1.90 per litre.)

Max Hansgen, Ontario co-ordinator for the National Farmers Union, said farmers are being hit by rising costs in three major areas: production (which includes fertilizer, pesticide, etc.); transportation (including fuel costs); and labour, which he says is facing intense competition as Canada sees record low unemployment.

The situation as a whole is affecting the types of crops farmers are growing, he said, noting more of them are planting wheat in light of the war in Ukraine, expecting the price of the crop to rise with inflation, which would help offset some of their costs.

I have heard concerns that this year could be a neutral or loss year," said Hansgen, who's also president of the National Farmers Union - Ontario. But he says he doesn't expect a dramatic number of farmers to go out of business from one bad season.

It's part of the game," he said.

Marie-Claude Comeau, an organic seed farmer in Quebec, had already negotiated her contracts in February, before she really started to feel the effects of inflation. Her organic operation has helped her avoid some costs (such as for synthetic chemicals).

Because her farm is only 12 acres, Comeau manages to do her work with horses instead of tractors - a choice she made out of passion, but is now glad she did in light of fuel costs.

Though she's not as significantly affected as other farmers and can still pay her expenses, Comeau said she is not looking forward to accounting in the fall.

Labour is her biggest expense. Of course, I'm going to pay my employees, but . . . at the end, it's always the farmer that is going to absorb that."

In Saskatchewan, farmers are capitalizing on a drought last year, which means the soil has nutrients in reserve. That means they don't need to use as much fertilizer this year, said Ian Boxall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.

I'm trying to do the minimal amount of field work possible just to save on diesel fuel," he added, noting fuel costs are the biggest complaint he's heard from farmers.

Farmers are facing not only the inflation at the farm gate and the effect that it has on our farm, but we are also facing the same inflation that everyone else is at the gas pump, at the grocery store," Boxall continued. We face those exact same things that even the people in downtown Toronto are facing ... we feel the pain the same as everybody does."

Maria Iqbal is a 905 Region-based staff reporter for the Star. Reach Maria via email: miqbal@torstar.ca