  Gas Costs Affect More Than You Think  By: Whitney Holmes By:
Whitney Holmes  May 2, 2005  Bob Burkholder, a Greene County
Farmer and president of the Greene County Farm Bureau, has been
a farmer for almost 30 years, but he has never seen gas prices
like this.  "It's the worst I seen. Yes, I hope it gets better,"
said Burkholder.  Farmers have been hit incredibly hard by
skyrocketing gas prices. For farmers, gas is used in all facets
of their job, including making hay, producing fertilizer and
running equipment.  "Most of us have pickup trucks and when you
hook livestock to a pickup truck, your mileage goes down to 10
miles to the gallon," said the cattle farmer.  There is not much
farmers can do to conserve gas since it is a key ingredient to
fertilizer and a necessity for running equipment, but they try
to cut corners where they can.  "Some farmers are looking at
places where they were making hay away from their farms and
thinking, 'is it economically feasible to make hay away when
diesel fuel cost is so h