Southwest Ohio farmers are not immune to the high diesel prices seen nationwide right now — and the pinch in their pocketbooks might feel even worse than others in the country.
Though the average cost of diesel in the United States is currently $6.52, according to AAA, it’s about 30 cents higher in Ohio, at $6.82.
This time last year, diesel prices in the state were closer to $3.69.
Farmer Nathan Gillespie grows row crops and sells freezer beef from his 1000 acres of land in Butler County. He said most of his equipment runs on diesel these days, including his tractors, trucks, skidloaders and combine.
When he filled his combine up last week, Gillespie said it cost $740. It might have been $450 before prices started spiking, he said.
“It was really scary, to be quite honest,” Gillespie said, adding he usually fills the combine every day during harvest. “And that's just the combine. That's not the semis that we haul with. That's not the tractor that runs the grain cart, [or] the tractor that runs the auger.”
He’s tried to contain costs by buying from an American fuel company, but those prices are up, too. All together, Gillespie estimates high diesel prices will raise costs on his farm by $15,000-$20,000 this year. But he said there’s no other option.
“We have to get the crops out. We have to get the hay baled, and we have to feed the cows,” Gillespie said. “There's really no option other than try to shop around for to save a few cents. But most places are pretty close to the same price.”
Tim Hesselbrock, a grain farmer in Butler County, said farmers do get a discount on gas in the form of tax credits from both Ohio and the federal government, which helps a little. But combined with other economic issues, farmers are facing dangerously tight profit margins.
“It's gonna be hard to handle the extra expenses with the depressed grain prices we have right now,” Hesselbrock said, adding an abundance of crops over the past few years have driven prices for corn and soybeans down.
The result of the strain likely means putting off much-needed repairs to his farm equipment, Hesselbrock said.
“Any farmer is going to realize that. You get done at the end of the year, you have to have so much money to live on and so much money to spend to either keep up or replace equipment,” he said. “You just hope eventually that we'll start seeing some of the prices come down.”
For Gillespie, despite feeling “stuck,” he’s not interested in giving up the profession.
“I think I'd be smart to walk away from it. I've got a lot of friends my age who are retiring right now,” Gillespie, who is 53, said. “But I love what I do. I enjoy it. I look forward to it. I lay in bed at night thinking what we can do to make it better tomorrow.”
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