Farm Bureau asks Trump to provide diesel cost relief
Hagstrom Report Follow
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall late Thursday urged President Trump to take several steps to lower prices at the gas pump, including temporarily suspending the federal highway diesel tax.
“Higher diesel expenses are hitting farmers at one of the most fuel-intensive times of the year — harvest,” Duvall wrote n a letter to Trump.
“Diesel is essential for the American economy and for farmers. Everything on the farm, from running tractors, combines and irrigation equipment to transporting crops, livestock and inputs requires diesel. Farmers and ranchers cannot postpone harvest or simply stop using diesel when prices rise.”
The national average on-highway diesel price has reached $6.38 per gallon, while farm diesel in the heart of the Corn Belt climbed to nearly $6 per gallon, Farm Bureau said.
The federal highway diesel tax is more than 24 cents per gallon. Farm Bureau also urged the administration to waive federal penalties for emergency use of dyed diesel on highways. At least 10 states have taken similar actions to combat fuel prices, Farm Bureau said.
Farm Bureau published an analysis of diesel costs, and the Soy Transportation Coalition published a comparison of the costs in 2025 and 2026.
Also the G7 Group of countries, the world’s wealthiest, announced Friday that they would release 100 million barrels of diesel, gasoline and crude oil from their emergency reserves over the next four months, in an effort to ease crushing prices around the world, The Washington Post reported.
FARM FAMILY DIESEL SCENARIO
(From the Soy Transportation Coalition)
A family farm has a 6,000-gallon tank for off road diesel (utilized for farm equipment) and a 1,000-gallon tank for on road diesel (utilized by the farm semis for delivering the soybeans and grain to market).
The farmer has three deliveries each year from the fuel supplier in February, June, and October to fill the 6,000 off road diesel tank and six deliveries a year in December, February, April, June, August and October to fill the 1,000-gallon on road diesel tank.
As a reminder, the diesel fuel for on farm purposes (i.e. “red dyed diesel”) is exempt from federal and state diesel fuel taxes. Diesel fuel taxes will therefore only apply to the on-road diesel purchased by the farmer.
The federal diesel tax per gallon is 24.4 cents. The average state diesel tax per gallon is 34.76 cents. The average total tax per gallon of diesel fuel is therefore 59.16 cents per gallon.
