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THE COST OF INFLATION
What’s more expensive in farming this year? ‘Everything’
Cost of diesel, in
particular, eating
away at growers’
potential gains
from a wet spring
By JAYSON JACOBY, JEFF
BUDLONG, ISABELLA
CROWLEY, STEVEN MITCHELL
AND JOHN TILLMAN
EO Media Group
F
rederick Phillips can tick
off the items he needs to
run his cattle ranch near
Baker City that cost much
more now than they did a year ago.
The list is a long one.
But Phillips can also explain the
situation much more succinctly,
with a single word.
“Everything.”
The rampant inflation that has
pushed prices higher in almost
every sector of the economy —
even dollar stores in some cases
have added two bits to their titu-
lar price — is having a significant
effect on ranchers and farmers.
The central problem, Phillips
said, is fuel.
Diesel in particular, which rose
to record levels, above $6 per gal-
lon, during June.
“Everything runs off diesel,”
said Phillips, whose ranch is in the
Keating Valley about 20 miles east
of Baker City.
And with hay to be cut, produc-
ers hardly have the option, as some
drivers do, to curb their mileage.
And of course you can’t bale
alfalfa with a bicycle.
“We burn a lot of fuel this time
of year,” Phillips said on June 29,
in the midst of the first cutting of
alfalfa, which was pushed back a
couple weeks due to the cool, damp
spring.
M.T. Anderson, who, with his
wife Cori, owns and operates the
High Desert Cattle Co. in Izee
Eric Mortenson, Capital Press, File
Operating wheat combines and other farm equipment is much more expensive in 2022 due to inflation pushing
fuel to record highs.
BY THE NUMBERS
“WE BURN A
LOT OF FUEL,
AND IT’S A
HUGE COST.”
According to the USDA’s
National Agricultural Statistics
Service, farmers in April 2022
compared to April 2021 paid:
• 29% more for livestock feed
• 71% more for fertilizer
• 16% more for chemicals
• 62% more for fuel
• 21% more for machinery
southwest of John Day, concurs
with Phillips’ assessment.
“We burn a lot of fuel,” Ander-
son said, “and it’s a huge cost.”
According to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration, the
average price for diesel climbed to
over $5.70 a gallon in June — a 74%
increase from two years earlier.
Darrin Walenta, an agrono-
mist with the Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Service in Union
County, said the record high fuel
prices are cutting into producers’
bottom lines.
“When we finally start seeing
— M.T. Anderson, Grant
County cattle rancher
modest prices for the crops, cost of
production increases and interrupts
the good year,” Walenta said.
Nathan Weishaar, owner of NW
Farms in La Grande, agreed that
diesel prices have become a major
consideration for farmers. He said
that farmers will need to consider
the pros and cons of using different
methods to save fuel. For example,
he said, some farmers might opt to
spray crops with herbicide rather
than using rod weeders pushed by
heavy diesel-using tractors. The
sprayers cover ground faster and
use less fuel, but are not as thor-
ough as the rod weeders.
“Fellow farmers are going
to have to weigh the options,”
Weishaar said.
When fuel prices crashed at
the beginning of the pandemic,
Weishaar said he bought bulk farm
diesel for 83 cents a gallon. In com-
parison, the price of bulk diesel this
spring was $3.24 per gallon, and
when Weishaar received a quote at
the end of June, the price had risen
to $5.10.
Anderson said the rising fuel
costs weigh heavily on how he and
his wife are running their ranch.
“It’s one of those things where
we are going to have to change
how we operate,” Anderson said,
“but the problem is the rest of the
world is not changing; (fuel) costs
just keep going up, but the price of
calves aren’t.”
The calves, he said, are not
worth more right now than when
diesel was $2.50 or $3 a gallon.
He said fuel costs crept up
steadily this past year and then
exploded.
Anderson said the high fuel
cost has made them more mind-
ful of what they do at their ranch.
“We don’t just jump in a diesel
pickup and go 200 miles on a whim
anymore.”
Anderson said the high fuel
cost was one of the reasons why
he decided to have a full-time
employee on one of his Forest Ser-
vice cattle grazing allotments this
year.
While there were other reasons
to have someone at the allotment
full-time, eliminating the number
of trips between their ranch in Izee
and the allotment was one of the
overriding factors.
Anderson said this is one of the
best grass crops he’s seen in nearly
two decades.
“(Grass) is absolutely incredible
this year,” Anderson said.
He said the ample forage should
boost weights for his cattle in the
fall, and he’s anticipating high
yields from his hay fields.
Yet even those positive aspects
can’t offset the negative effects
of the significant increase in fuel
costs, Anderson said.
“But there is still $6 (a gallon)
diesel,” he said.
Fuel prices not
the only challenge
The cost of refilling tanks in
everything from pickup trucks to
tractors to swathers is far from the
only financial blow that inflation is
See Inflation, Page 5