Diesel prices are reaching record highs at the very moment when many U.S. farmers need the fuel to run combines, tractors and other equipment to harvest two of the nation’s largest crops, soybeans and corn.

The spike compounds an already gruelling year for these farmers, who additionally contended with elevated costs for fertilizer, seeds and equipment.

Diesel attained a record price in the U.S. on Sept. 4, surging to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time, as the six-month war with Iran disrupted the global flow of fuel.

It has climbed even higher since, averaging $6.05 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA.

“Those prices are painful,” remarked Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“And it isn’t merely the harvesting.

It’s the hauling of everything, transporting the grain or the silage from the field to the farm and subsequently from the farm to wherever they happen to be selling it.”

Jason Kurtz, a cultivator of corn and soybeans in the vicinity of Forest City, Missouri, remarked that he was incurring double the expense for diesel this year.

His combine harvester consumes 200 gallons (750 liters) of fuel daily, and he anticipated operating it for a span of 30 days.

Additionally, he required diesel for a tractor and trucks.

"We must harvest," he remarked during an interview conducted at his farm, situated roughly 90 miles (145 kilometers) beyond Kansas City, on Tuesday.

"We must operate the machinery.

We must consume the diesel, and consequently, it erodes our bottom line."

Kurtz, 49, remarked that his finances were “already tight” this year, having also been compelled to pay more for fertilizer and chemicals.

American diesel prices are now 60% higher than they were before the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, when the national average was about $3.76 per gallon, according to AAA.

Prices rose quickly as the cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in diesel, as well as gasoline — soared amid disruptions to tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz caused by the war.

“Farms that are financially constrained are precisely those most compelled to determine what they must forgo in order to make this work,” Mitchell said.

“A great many farms find themselves in that predicament.”

Kurtz, who had cast his ballot for President Donald Trump, remarked that he intended to postpone a portion of his farm work until a later date, at which point he was optimistic that diesel prices would decline.

"That constitutes one of the virtues inherent in farming," he remarked.

"Tomorrow will be different."