The effect of rising fuel costs on farmers

Axios -Diesel prices are soaring just as the energy-thirsty peak of harvest season looms for many of the country's largest crops. It's a double whammy for farmers, with the Iran war also causing much higher fertilizer costs that hit months ago.

…. The diesel market is tight and expensive for two main reasons: the throttled Strait of Hormuz, and the Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries that have prompted Moscow to reduce exports.

Fuel is a major input cost for farmers, who use diesel for combines, preparing fields, transporting crops to storage, irrigation and more. And farmers typically can't pass those costs along to crop buyers.

"[For] farmers, there's an old saying in agriculture: they buy retail and sell wholesale," said John Newton, VP of public policy and economic analysis at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Peak harvesting starts next month for corn and soybeans — the country's two largest farm commodities — and several other crops, though specifics vary by location and product.

"Harvest is the single operation that uses the most fuel and runs from now through November for most of the country," said Drew Kientzy, a University of Missouri agricultural analyst.

….Diesel is the bulk of farms' total fuel costs.

It's an important and now rising expense, though typically smaller than costs like labor and other services, seeds, and fertilizer, per Newton and Agriculture Department data.

[Jed] Bower, who holds the rotating presidency of the National Corn Growers Association, farms around 1,100 acres. He expects to pay an extra $20,000 to $25,000 in diesel costs this year compared to where prices were in January.

…."The way our input prices have been, there's no way I can make a profit this year, and all this is going to do is bury me further," he said.