Record diesel prices hurting Illinois farmers at height of harvest season

The Illinois farming community is sounding the alarm about the impact of sky-high diesel prices.

It's been tough at the pump for everyone for months, but with diesel prices still at record highs, farmers said they are spending twice as much this harvest season, and it hurts.

John Yeley said, at his 7th generation family farm in Marshall, in central Illinois near the Indiana state line, they might be 200 miles from Chicago, but there's no escaping high fuel prices.

"I'm up over $80,000 and not done yet for the year. So, that's about twice what it was last year."

Diesel prices are up 71% from one year ago, and it's making this harvest season tough.

The average price of diesel in Illinois was $6.70 a gallon as of Monday, and has been as high as $6.83 as the Iran war strains fuel supplies, especially diesel.

"They kind of started talking about some peace deals, and we were kind of getting excited, like alright, yes, maybe the prices will come down, and about the time I called down for some diesel fuel, that's when it really ramped up again," Yeley said.

Yeley said, while farmers saw a bit of a rally in crop prices this year that raised hopes of making a profit, rising fuel prices have negated that.

A new study published by the University of Illinois details the impact of diesel prices on agriculture. According to the study, higher diesel prices mean a projected added fuel and oil cost of $6 per acre for corn and $5 per acre for soybeans this year, compared to last.

With prices for corn and soybean crops set, Yeley said, "we have to eat that."

"It's not like we can say we want $2 more per bushel for whatever we're growing," he said.

Jorge Lemus, an economics professor with the University of Illinois, said farmers are seeing low profits due to high diesel prices, and that could impact consumers.

"It's not clear how much of that increase is going to pass to consumers," he said.

Illinois Department of Agriculture director Jerry Costello said diesel prices are not just impacting the cost of harvesting crops for farmers.

"It's getting [crops] to market," he said.

State officials noted the increased costs from high diesel prices add on to other rising costs, like fertilizer, plus transportation and distribution costs, with pressures on farmers mounting following a six-year high in farm bankruptcies.

"This has absolutely hammered agriculture at exactly the wrong time," Costello said.

Experts said one way to help Illinois farmers is to shop local produce, buying those items directly from farms whenever you can.