By Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval
Megan Horsager is not looking forward to buying more fuel for her farm.
She’s got a large, white, cylindrical fuel tank that sits in the middle of her family’s row-crop farm in Montevideo, a city in southwest Minnesota. She draws diesel from the tank whenever her farm’s machines need a refill. While she buys her fertilizer and other planting needs in the fall, ahead of planting season, she opts to buy fuel whenever her tank needs a top-up.
That next refill will happen in June or July, Horsager said.
“I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t price more ahead of time,” Horsager said. “Usually, June hasn’t been a bad time to buy fuel, but you don’t plan on the global events.”
The price of key agricultural necessities such as diesel and nitrogen fertilizer has soared since the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade passageway, has largely been choked off amid the war in Iran.
The price of urea, a major nitrogen-based fertilizer, shot up to nearly $700 per ton in late April from $455 per ton on Feb. 27, the day before the war in Iran broke out. On-highway diesel prices clocked around $5.35 a gallon in late April, a hike from the $3.81 a gallon reported the week the war began.
While Horsager didn’t book enough diesel in advance, she is set with fertilizer. However, not everyone is.
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