Dayton, Ohio: High Fuel Prices No Joke to Farmers

By James Hannah Associated Press Writer

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - Farmer Cecil Boes says the high cost of diesel fuel hit home the other day when he had to gas up his truck to haul hay.

"It about took a bank loan to fill my semi," he joked.

But the high cost of fuel is no joke to farmers, who are also facing low prices for corn and soybeans as they prepare for spring planting.

"It will cost us more per acre to put the crop out this spring, and we'll have to wait to see what happens this fall," said Pete Hazel, who farms 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans near the north-central Ohio community of Wakeman.

Last year, U.S. farmers spent about $6.5 billion for fuel and oil, said Terry Francl, senior economist with the Chicago-based American Farm Bureau.

If fuel prices remain at current levels, the cost will probably increase to $8 billion this year, he said. And it could jump by another $3 billion next year if prices of petroleum-based fertilizers and other chemicals increase.

"Unfortunately, farmers are not in a position where they can pass those costs along," Francl said Friday.

"It's become a very critical issue for agriculture."

Hazel estimates the higher cost of diesel fuel will increase his cost of production from about $140 per acre to as much as $150.

"That wouldn't be so bad if we had decent crop prices to go with it," he said.

Hazel said he usually hires three workers to help with spring planting, but may have to make do with two.

"It's very difficult to cut somewhere else or decrease your expenses somewhere else to make up for it," he said.

Boes, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 1,300 acres near Arcadia in northwest Ohio, said he is paying 50 percent more for diesel fuel than he did a year ago.

"It's going to be a significant increase for our spring-planting expense," Boes said. "It's not something we're looking forward to, especially with the price of grain going the other way."

Boes said he will try to cut fuel costs by tilling the soil less.

Allan Lines, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University, said reduced tilling can save fuel but requires greater use of chemicals and could reduce yield.

Lines said a typical corn farmer spent about $26 for fuel per acre last year. This year, the farmer may have to spend as much as $15 an acre more. That would cost a farmer with a 2,000-acre operation $30,000, he said.

Farmers who bought fuel after the fall harvest at the lower prices and either stored it or arranged for its delivery in the spring will be spared the financial pain for a while, Lines said.

"They may have gotten ahead of the storm," he said.

But farmers say the respite will be short-lived if fuel prices stay high.

Hazel said he filled up his 2,000-gallon storage tank before the prices jumped. But he said he uses more fuel in the spring than other times because there is more equipment in the field.

Hazel estimates his stored fuel will last him only one-third of the way through the planting season.

"We'll be able to save a little (money) at the onset, but as the spring goes on ...," he said, his voice trailing off.

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 09, 2000