High diesel prices impacting farmers
(NBC, KYMA) - Diesel prices affect nearly everything in our daily lives.
A dip or a spike can change the cost of the packages we ship or the price of food on our grocery store shelf.
People operating heavy equipment are feeling the squeeze. Farmers who spent a lot to plant are spending even more to harvest those crops.
The price of diesel has set a record so for farmers who couldn't' hedge, the price to fill up this diesel tank has doubled, it went from $5,000 in January to now $10,000.
Fred uhl has a bounty of corn and soybeans to harvest starting this week. But it feels like he's paying a bounty to do it.
Everything that is delivered here, we get a fuel surcharge. "We can't pass that on, when we take the, uh, crop to town, and I ask for a fuel surcharge, they're gonna run me off," said one farmer Fred Uhl.
His equipment is thirsty. The thirstiest, his combine guzzles through 175 gallons of diesel a day, harvesting between 60 and 100 acres. He has 2,200 acres to harvest, and expects to refill his 2000 gallon farm tank at least three more times.
Farmers paid $4.69 for it last week, this week, it is $5.29.
A congressional committee report found Indiana farmers paid 80 million more in fuel to plant their crops this year. Kentucky farmers paid more than 20 million extra, but farmers typically use more equipment to get the grain out of the fields.
The gas tax suspension Indiana Governor Mike Braun put in place doesn't help Uhl in the fields. Different tax structures, but Uhl says its not just farmers feeling the pinch.
"Everybody's talking about fuel. It's not just AG people, it's everyone's talking about it, it's hitting everybody's bottom line," said Uhl.
