Record diesel prices are adding thousands of dollars to harvest expenses for U.S. farmers already contending with higher fertilizer, seed, chemical and equipment costs.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
U.S. farmers are heading through the critical corn and soybean harvest with diesel prices above $6 a gallon, forcing producers to absorb sharply higher costs at the exact time combines, tractors and grain trucks are running for long hours across the nation’s farm belt.
The national average for diesel reached a record $5.85 a gallon on Sept. 4 and climbed further to about $6.05 by Friday, according to AAA. That was roughly 60% higher than the $3.76 average before the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in late February.
The increase has followed a steep rise in crude oil prices as the six-month conflict disrupted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passage for global energy supplies.
For farmers, however, the effect extends well beyond the fuel burned by combines in the field.
“Those prices hurt,” said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And it’s not just the harvesting. It’s the hauling of everything, moving the grain or the silage from the field to the farm and then from the farm to wherever they’re selling it.”
Jason Kurtz, who grows corn and soybeans near Forest City, Missouri, said he is paying roughly twice as much for diesel this year.
His combine alone consumes about 200 gallons a day, and he expected to operate it for approximately 30 days during harvest. At $6.05 a gallon, that amount of fuel would cost about $1,210 per day, or more than $36,000 over 30 days, before accounting for the diesel needed by his tractors and trucks.
“We have to harvest,” Kurtz, 49, said during an interview Tuesday at his farm about 90 miles outside Kansas City. “We have to run the machines. We have to use the diesel, so it cuts into our bottom line.”
The timing compounds financial pressure already facing many producers.
Kurtz said his finances were “already tight” after higher costs for fertilizer and agricultural chemicals. Farmers have also faced increased expenses for seeds and equipment, leaving fuel as another major input they have little ability to avoid during harvest.
Unlike some operating expenses that can be postponed or reduced, harvesting a mature crop cannot simply be suspended because fuel becomes expensive. Farmers must get corn and soybeans out of the fields, transport them to storage and eventually move them to elevators, processors or other buyers.
That dependence means higher diesel costs can affect nearly every stage of the operation.
“Farms that are cash strapped, they’re the ones that are most having to figure out what to cut to make this work,” Mitchell said. “There are a lot of farms facing that.”
The pressure can be especially severe for operations that must purchase large quantities of fuel at current prices rather than relying on supplies bought earlier at lower costs.
Kurtz said he plans to delay some nonessential farm work in hopes that diesel becomes cheaper later.
The Missouri farmer, who voted for President Donald Trump, said he remains hopeful that current fuel prices will not last.
“That’s one good thing about farming,” Kurtz said. “Tomorrow will be different.”
For now, however, farmers have little choice but to keep their equipment moving. With billions of bushels of corn and soybeans needing to come out of American fields, record diesel prices are turning an unavoidable part of harvest into yet another significant strain on already-tight farm budgets.
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