By Abigail Bottar
Conflicts in Iran and Russia are causing diesel prices to spike globally. That’s especially hurting U.S. farmers as they head into harvest season, the most fuel intensive period of the agricultural year.
Bart Bittner has been adapting to diesel prices all year. The central Illinois farmer relied on fuel he had stored on his farm to run his equipment for as long as he could this spring while diesel prices skyrocketed. When prices fell slightly this summer, he refilled his reserve.
But now he and farmers across the U.S. heading into harvest season are forced to contend with record-high fuel prices during an already economically tumultuous year.
“Of course it’s the worst timing ever, cause this is when we use the most diesel fuel with all the equipment in the field along with the trucks that we have on the road to haul the grain to market,” Bittner said.
A gallon of diesel topped $6 for the first time in mid-September, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And the price has only gone up since. Across most of the central U.S., diesel prices are averaging $6.68 per gallon. In Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast, the average is $6.17.
Diesel prices had already been on the rise the past few years due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. But prices jumped after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, blocking the Strait of Hormuz. A quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade goes through the strait, according to the International Energy Agency.
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