The organization is asking for multiple measures during this harvest season
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is urging President Trump to provide farmers with temporary relief from high diesel prices during this harvest season.
“We ask the Administration to temporarily suspend the federal highway diesel tax for agricultural transportation and quickly waive federal penalties for emergency use of dyed diesel on highways,” an Oct. 1 letter from AFBF President Zippy Duvall to President Trump says.
The U.S. federal highway diesel tax is 24.4 cents per gallon, and under Section 6715 of the Internal Revenue Code the penalty for using dyed diesel on highways is the higher of $1,000 or $10 per gallon of the dyed fuel.
Fuel is a non-negotiable part of the harvest season.
“Everything on the farm, from running tractors, combines and irrigation equipment to transporting crops, livestock and inputs requires diesel,” Duvall wrote. “Farmers and ranchers cannot postpone harvest or simply stop using diesel when prices rise.”
Multiple states have acted within their own jurisdictions to provide producers with some relief.
Officials in states like Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri, for example, are allowing farmers to use dyed diesel on highways without state penalties.
While appreciated, farmers need federal support too.
“These states are acting quickly to ease the burden of high diesel prices, but remaining federal penalties can limit the relief they can provide on their own,” Duvall wrote.
The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows the national average price for diesel at $6.382 per gallon on Sept. 28.
In the middle of September, Farms.com compared the costs of filling multiple combines in 2026 with the diesel prices of 2021, 2016, and 2011.
At the time diesel was $5.967 per gallon.