QCA farmers react to record high diesel prices

Prices for diesel fuel climbed to a record high this week. The national average is $6.23 a gallon as of Monday, according to AAA. Local farmers rely on diesel to make it through the harvest season.

"I'll probably only get enough fuel to make it through the spring and we'll see," said Joe Dierickx, a farmer outside of DeWitt, Iowa.

It's the beginning of harvest for farmers in the Quad Cities, but conflicts overseas in Ukraine and Iran are making it more expensive to run their equipment. Dierickx says he's seen fluctuating prices before so he's prepared, but others might not be.

"I'm in pretty good shape. Some of my neighbors aren't quite as lucky or they've just had other needs so they haven't bought a bunch of fuel barrels. So they could be hand-to-mouth right now, thinking it was going to go down this summer but it didn't."

Dierickx says he tries to buy the diesel needed for the spring in December, which is when he expects it to hit farmers the hardest. AAA reports diesel is going for about $6.19 in the Illinois Quad Cities and $6.09 a gallon on the Iowa side as on Monday. That means farmers have to find a way to make up the difference.

"We can't control the price of diesel, and we need to run the machine," said John Maxwell, a farmer outside of Donahue, Iowa. "So you have to figure out another place to do it. Maybe you sell your crop for a little bit more, maybe you end up not tilling like before. We'll still have food in the grocery store. It might be a little more expensive, but we'll get through it."

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.