Farmers being affected by rising diesel prices

MACON, MS – Harvesting season is a little trickier this year, as farmers are dealing with unprecedented highs for the price of diesel.

The Golden Triangle area is known for cotton, soybeans, and corn. Those raw ingredients become fiber, food, and fuel. Planting and harvesting them takes a lot of fuel, especially diesel. It fuels tractors, combines, pickers, and trucks.

According to Macrotrends, the national average in February sat around $3.72 per gallon, all the way up now where it’s currently at $6.26 including, a $1.30 rise in the last 2 months alone. Farmers like Noxubee County’s Jack Huerkamp did not see prices continuously rising like they are.

“They started to rise in February,” said Huerkamp. “Of course, when the Iran war started. And we had enough fuel to get us into summer, so I didn’t worry about it. I kept looking forward to ease back down, and it was going to end, and it didn’t end. And eased back up again so we’ve been buying just a little bit that I have to as I go along.”

Some local suppliers are sitting around the high $5 range, but that still is nowhere near desirable. To put these prices in perspective, Huerkamp broke down what a day on his picker could cost him.

“This is about 350 gallons,” said Huerkamp. “So, at 300 gallons at $5, that’s $1,500. And that’s not quite every day that we burn that much. But we’re looking at probably about $1,200 a day with this machine all by itself. That’s not talking about the other 2 tractors that run a shredder and that kind of stuff.”

Huerkamp is optimistic that prices might not go back down to where they were but will be going back down in the long run.