Rising Diesel Prices Add to Farmers’ Harvest Costs

By Laura Lombardi

As Sumner County farmers harvest their corn and soybeans and plant their winter wheat, they are facing another unexpected expense: sharply rising diesel prices.

With the average retail price of diesel in Kansas at $5.89 per gallon this week as compared to $3.75 this time last year, producers are paying significantly more to fuel the tractors, combines and trucks needed to bring in this year’s crops.

The increase comes at a particularly difficult time, when most local farmers have already made their plans for this year and the next.

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The rising costs are adding pressure during one of the most diesel-intensive periods of the agricultural year. For farmers who have already committed to a season’s worth of expenses, there is little opportunity to adjust.

“Most producers made their planting, financing, and marketing decisions months ago, before this latest price spike, and they must now absorb substantial unplanned fuel costs during one of the most diesel-intensive periods of the year,” U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, wrote in a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Marshall is urging the USDA to work with the Trump administration and Congress to provide temporary, targeted relief for farmers and ranchers facing extraordinary diesel costs during the 2026 harvest and production year.

Fuel is only one of the expenses facing producers. Farmers must also contend with the rising costs of fertilizer, seed, machinery and other supplies, leaving many with limited room to absorb another unplanned increase in operating expenses.

In his letter, Marshall emphasized the importance of keeping agricultural operations financially viable, noting that a stable and secure food supply depends on farmers and ranchers being able to withstand sudden increases in production costs.

“A stable and secure food supply depends on financially viable farmers and ranchers,” Marshall wrote. “Helping producers withstand this sudden and largely unforeseen cost shock is therefore both an agricultural and national-security imperative.”

Marshall has also cited efforts to expand ethanol and biodiesel supplies, including changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard and incentives for domestic fuel production, as ways to increase transportation fuel availability.

For farmers across Sumner County, however, the immediate concern is much more practical: the cost of getting this year’s crops out of the field and getting next year’s crop planted.

With many of the season’s financial decisions already behind them, higher diesel prices are adding another challenge at a time when farmers are already working long hours to keep the harvest moving.