BEAUMONT, Texas — Diesel prices and overall inflation are making it tough for Southeast Texas farmers to keep up with certain demands.
Farmers heavily rely on diesel to plant and harvest. Farmers at the Jay Dishman Farm are paying $1,000 to just to fuel one tractor and keep it moving.
“I look at it and say, 'Man, I spent a lot more money than I thought I would spend already,'” Casey Dishman with Jay Dishman Farms said.
Farmers are shelling out more cash than they can keep in.
“You've gone over some of your stuff sustainably, and that's when it kind of really hits home, and you realize how much you're actually spending,” Dishman said.
Nine times out of 10, the rice purchased Beaumont stores comes from the Dishman farm. With 1,400 acres of land to farm, Dishman and his team are struggling to keep up.
“The main thing is the fuel prices and fertilizer prices,” Dishman said.
Tractors and the 250 gallons of gas that goes into them are essential to their work.
“It can cost you up to $1,000 just to fill it up,” Dishman said.
Farmers at Jay Dishman Farm are paying double what they paid for gas in 2021. Fertilizer prices are even worse.
“They've pretty much tripled from the previous couple of years,” Dishman said.
It's not in the farmer's control to pass the high prices onto consumers.
“The mills actually set the price," Dishman said. "The world market sets the price on us, and that's a whole different ballgame."
Dishman is looking forward to the day prices will decrease.
“I guess and just get put your head down and keep doing it until hopefully, it gets better,” Dishman said.
While inflation is affecting farmers, it is not impacting consumer's who buy rice at this time. Dishman will continue to re-evaluate what they can do to keep putting rice on shelves.
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