LANSING, MI — Michigan farmers are dealing with another painful expense as record diesel prices collide with a difficult growing season and the start of harvest work. While drivers have noticed higher prices at the pump for months, growers say the impact is especially hard on farms that rely on tractors, transport and other fuel-heavy equipment every day.
Russell Ketchum, who grows berries and apples and recently took over Big Rock Market, formerly Husted’s, in Kalamazoo, said the cost of running equipment has become a major strain. He said his farm operates three tractors regularly and uses about 7,500 gallons of diesel a year.
Ketchum says fuel bills are adding to freeze damage and short crops
Ketchum said the season has already been difficult because of cold weather and freeze damage that left his operation with short crops. Against that backdrop, he said higher diesel and gasoline prices have made normal farm work even more challenging.
He described the tractors as feeling like “gas guzzlers” right now, even if they are not as large as the row-crop machines used on bigger operations. For a farm of any size, he said, the added fuel cost is significant when the work has to keep moving day after day.
The pressure does not stop with diesel. Ketchum said he has also been seeing higher prices for plastics and fertilizer, which further tightens margins on a farm that is already dealing with lower output than usual.
AAA says Michigan diesel prices reached a record this week
According to AAA, diesel prices in Michigan hit a record this week and were even higher on Wednesday, averaging $6.34 a gallon statewide. Farmers often use a tax-free blend of diesel that is usually about a dollar cheaper, but even that lower price remains high by farm standards.
Theresa Sisung, the Michigan Farm Bureau’s manager of commodity and regulatory relations, said some farmers may still have fuel stored from earlier purchases, which can help soften the blow for now. But she said the real pressure will intensify as harvest season gets underway and farms begin burning through large amounts of fuel.
That timing matters because field work, hauling and storage all demand steady energy. For many growers, diesel is not an optional expense but a basic operating cost that rises or falls with the market.
Farm Bureau warns higher transport costs can cut into growers' pay
The Michigan Farm Bureau says farmers often receive less than 12 cents of every dollar spent by consumers at the store. Sisung said that share can be squeezed even further when transportation costs rise, because the market may respond by paying farmers less.
That creates a double hit: producers pay more to move crops and keep equipment running, while the money they receive for the harvest can weaken at the same time. Sisung said the broader agriculture economy is under pressure, and some farms are already operating on negative margins.
She said the stress has been building for several years, and the current fuel spike adds to the strain on farms that were already having a hard time staying ahead.
Higher costs are rippling beyond diesel to loans, repairs and supplies
The Farm Bureau said the wider farm economy is hurting, and Sisung pointed to a slight increase in farm bankruptcies nationwide as a sign of continued pressure. She said more stressed farms are appearing in communities across the countryside, where lower profit margins leave little room for unexpected cost spikes.
For Ketchum, the challenge is not only keeping the farm running, but also deciding how much of the added expense can be absorbed without passing it along. He said this is the first year his market has been under his ownership, and he does not want to raise prices on customers right away.
He added that if the situation continues into next season, he and other growers may have little choice. For now, he is trying to hold prices steady while costs keep climbing around him.
Local farms are trying to protect customers while cutting wherever they can
Ketchum said he hopes Michiganders will shop local and support farms like his, which employs 14 people. He framed that support as especially important when farmers are trying to manage expensive fuel, thinner crops and other rising input costs at the same time.
Sisung said farmers will likely need to get creative to save money. That could mean buying fuel when prices are lower and storing it for later use, or making cuts elsewhere in the operation to keep expenses under control.
Even with those strategies, the outlook remains tight as the harvest season approaches. For many Michigan growers, the price of diesel has become one more challenge in a year already marked by weather damage, rising supply costs and uncertainty about what comes next.
