Scott Renfro cannot farm without diesel, and this year it is costing him enough to change what goes in the ground.
The Howe farmer told KXII in a report that aired Tuesday night that his fuel bill for 2025 came to a little over $88,000, and that he expects 2026 to land somewhere between $90,000 and $100,000. Planting, fertilizing and harvesting all run on diesel, he said, and the money has to be paid up front.
"When it took the hike that they're at now, it really put pressure on us to decide what to do as far as how much we're going to plant and what we're going to plant," Renfro told the station.
Renfro said he cannot pass the higher cost on to the people who buy his crops. Crop prices are set largely by the market, Renfro said, so higher fuel costs mostly come out of the grower's own pocket. He said he hopes fuel companies will ease prices, since low crop markets are already cutting into what farmers earn.
What the pump shows
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly survey put on-highway diesel in the Gulf Coast region at an average of $5.809 a gallon on Oct. 12, about a penny lower than a week earlier. The national average was $6.179. Prices in the survey include all taxes.
