Diesel prices are hitting record highs at a bad time for many US farmers

By NICK INGRAM and SUDHIN THANAWALA

Forest City, Mo. (AP) — The price of diesel is hitting record highs just when many U.S. farmers need it to power combines, tractors and other equipment to harvest two of the nation’s largest commodities, soybeans and corn.

The spike adds to an already tough year for these farmers, who also faced higher costs for fertilizer, seeds and equipment.

Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Sept. 4, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupted the world’s flow of fuel. It has gone even higher since then, going for an average price of $6.05 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA.

“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, a corn and soybean farmer near Forest City, Missouri, said he was paying twice as much for diesel this year. His combine uses 200 gallons of fuel a day; he expected to run it for 30 days. He also needed diesel for a tractor and trucks.

“We have to harvest,” he said in an interview at his farm about 90 miles (145 kilometers) outside Kansas City on Tuesday. “We have to run the machines. We have to use the diesel, so it cuts into our bottom line.”

Kurtz, 49, said his finances were “already tight” this year after he also had to pay more for fertilizer and chemicals.

American diesel prices are now 60% more expensive than they were before the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, when the national average was about $3.76 per gallon, according to AAA. Prices quickly climbed as the cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in diesel, as well as gasoline — skyrocketed amid disruptions to tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz because of the war.

“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.”

Kurtz, who voted for President Donald Trump, said he planned to hold off on some farm work until later, when he was hopeful diesel prices would fall.

“That’s one good thing about farming,” he said. “Tomorrow will be different.”

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.