MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Near-record-high diesel prices are increasing shipping and construction costs. They're making it a lot more expensive to farm. As Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports, the diesel price spike comes at a bad time for farmers.
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Diesel is up almost 60% from last year, and that increase hits hard at harvest time.
JED BOWER: Probably going to cost me an extra 20,000 or 25,000 this year, which is tuition for one of my kids in college, basically.
MORRIS: Jed Bower is currently president of the National Corn Growers Association. He's getting ready to harvest about 1,100 acres of corn and soybeans. He's also contending with steep hikes in the price of fertilizer, farm equipment and pesticides.
BOWER: In my neck of the woods in southern Ohio right now, I think we've got a pretty good crop, but I'm still in the red. I can tell you, after I harvest this crop, I won't make a profit. And this is Year 4 of that.
MORRIS: Bower says he's hearing more about farm foreclosures and an increase in farmer suicides. He blames Congress for failing to pass more farm-friendly policies. But Vance Ehmke, who works in the arid plains of western Kansas along with his wife, Louise, lays the blame squarely on President Trump. Trump's attack on Iran closed oil shipping routes and continues to drive up the price of gas and diesel.
VANCE EHMKE: We stumbled into this thing, and I don't know how the heck we're going to get out of it. But in the meantime, Louise and I and the rest of the farmers down here are really paying the price for it.
MORRIS: The price will vary significantly from farm to farm. All big farming operations need lots of diesel. But Jennifer Ifft, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, says farmers with relatively low debt and lots of land can better afford to just eat high fuel prices.
JENNIFER IFFT: If you're a farm who's showing a profit, it's like a paper cut. But if you're somebody who's on the edge, it's like getting kicked when you're down.
MORRIS: There is some good news for farmers. Wheat and corn prices have jumped to their highest level in years. And Ifft says farmers can look forward to some $14 billion in government checks next month, mostly to compensate for last year's low commodity prices.
IFFT: A lot of crop farms are going to be getting $20, $30, $40 an acre in October, depending on what they're getting it for. So it's not all gloom right now.
MORRIS: Despite bank loans and government support, many farmers just don't have the money for more expensive diesel.
For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City.
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